What is in a name?
- I remember a man named ‘odd’ that met a few years ago.
- what’s in name? - it all depends
- one physiatrist studied the names of 15000 juvenile delinquents and discovered that those with odd or embarrassing names were in trouble 4 times as much as others. So interested.
- You see I had to go through life with two first names - Jacob Benjamin
- Some of you had nicknames growing up. I remember growing where people would call me some embarrassing names - which I am not going repeat it here.
- With certain generation certain names were popular. Couple of generations ago names like Bob, Charles, were popular but now new names are popular.
- During the 60s lot of people rebelled against those names of their parents.
- So they did a survey on people that lived during the hippie era and here are some of the names that they actually gave their kids - Carrot, sunshine, fender, gravey, and here another name - Dubby
- can you imagin name you kid Dubby? “We don’t know why our child is having a drug problem?” ‘what’s his name? “Dubby” and there is his brother “Junkey “ right there
- Do you think naming them with such names had anything to do with it? Yeah maybe it did.
- now the trend today is that you want the coolest name for your child, sort of like designer name, a name that no one else have ever used before.
- People are now googling for names for their child. One parent commented that they don't want to name their child with same name as the serial killer Nebraska.
- So here are the top names for girls - 10. Abigail, followed by Emily, Maddison, clowey, lily, eva, olivia, isabella, ema, and the #1 names for girls Sofia.
- and the popular names for boys are Logan, Lucas, Jack, Maison, Jacob, Mason, Ethan, Jackson, Noah, and #name 1 is Aiden
- Now in biblical times name meant something. Often they were given a name related to the birth of the child or something related to the physical trait of the the child.
- For example we know the Easow means hairy and reason for it was that when he was born as hairy guy. His parents looked at him and said..yes he is hairy - let us name him hairy
- his brother Jacob was hanging on to his heels and they were twin/room mates, so his brother hanging onto his heels was called Jacob which means heel catcher
- There was one lady in the bible that was pregnant and the ark of the covenant had be stolen and she went into labor and when the child born they named him Ichabod - which means ‘glory has departed’
- would you play with a kid name ‘glory has departed’. This is my new friend ‘glory has departed’ - get him out of our house now.
- Josen has told me some of his friends he grew up with - attukanna, etc.
- but now I want to talk about the most important name of all
- the name that was given to our Lord when the angel Gabriel came to Mary and told her that she was going to bring forth a son and his name was to be Jesus and he would save his people from their sins.
- Jesus Christ is the name above all names
- It's a name that we divided human time by
- There is power in the name of Jesus Christ
- If you don’t belive me, say it sometimes
- Say it in a crowded noisy room and see how quickly people quiet down
- Is it interesting that even people who don’t believe in Jesus will use that name usually for profanity with sometimes even giving him name - unbelivable
- If they don’t believe in Jesus why do they use his name? Why don't they just say Buddha, or hara krishna.
- I will tell you what - by saying Jesus Christ they are acknowledging in a way that there is power in that name
- the bible says in front of the name of Jesus Christ every knee will bow, every tongue will confess that he is the Lord for the glory of god the father.
- Isa 9:6 says one of the famous christmas passages - let’s read it
For to us a child is born, to us a son is given; and the government shall be upon his shoulder, and his name shall be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.
in the following passage Isaiah tells us that each of these name that he uses gives us an insight of the character and purpose of God for you and his name is wonderful, counselor, the Mighty God, the Everlasting Father, the Prince of Peace.
1. His name is wonderful
- that takes care of the dullness of life. the word wonderful comes from the root word wonder.
- A man of God once said that more than half of sins of mankind comes from the fear of boredom.
- If you look around, most of us have something electronic in our hands, we have all this technology around us
- just yesterday Reenu and I was talking about how things have changed in the last 10 years
We facebook and we tweet, we text, and we instagram and we play angry birds all at the same time and saying I am really bored.
- But Jesus Christ is wonderful. The word wonder here could be translated to Amazement, Surprise, Astonished, bewildered, worship, awe,
- the best way to sum it up would ube as follows: God is awesome.
- that is the only way to properly use the word awesome.
- We used that word awesome for so many things - oh that is an awesome car, oh that is an awesome burger. but I hope you are not bewildered or awe of a sandwich but are of God.
- He takes care of the dullness of life.
- Medical sciences can add years to your life, but only Jesus Christ can add life to the years and give you a life that is worth living - His name is wonderful!
2. His name is counselor.
that takes care of the decisions of life.
the psalmist say in 73:24 You guide me with your counsel,
and afterward you will receive me to glory.
- did you know that God wants to personally give you direction?
- he has plan custom design just for you.
- example GPS -
- think of all the places people look for answers today
- some go to the local bar and pour out all their troubles & worries to anyone who would listen
- some will go to psychics, or psychologist or psychiatrist
- Other will even go to google to find the answers in life- what is the purpose of life - help me google
- sometime they will mess around with siri -
- i wanted to see what siri would - so I asked her the same question - siri what is the meaning of life. and iphone resonded “ I don’t know, I think there is an app for that”
and then I asked it again and this time is said - all evidence to date suggest that is chocolates
- some asked siri - why am here? and siri responded “i wondered that myself”
- whoever is programing these things is pretty funny.
- Listen, you don’t need to go to siri or google or psycices or psychologist to for the answers of life. everything you need to know about life, about god, about life after death are all here in this this book - the bible and god will speak to you through it.
- the bible says that all scriptures are inspired by god and is usful to teach us what is true. to relaise what is wrong in our life. it straightens us out and teaches us to do what is right.
- its gods way to preparing us in every way for everything he wants us to do.
His name is wonderful, His name is counselor
3. His name is the mighty God
that takes care of the demands of life.
all the power that you need to live the christian life is avaliable for you
- some people will say that its really hard to live the christian life.
- I would disagree with you, -I think it is impossible to be a christian - absolutely impossible without the help of the Holy Spirit.
- With His help, God will help you to be the man or the woman that God has called you to be
- bible says with God all things are possible.
- I work at the IT department for the libraries and we get tons of call from uses with computer problem.
- invariably the first two questions that the techs ask them is 1. is it plugged in and 2. is it turned on.
- you will be amazed to hear the number of people whose devices are not either plugged in or turned on
- God might ask the same of us are you plugged in. God will give you the power to live the life he wants you to live
4. His name is everlasting father
that takes care of the future of life
the bible teaches us that you will live for ever
you say that’s a good thing - not necessarily
- it all depends where you live
- yes you will live for ever
- you are not a body that happens to have a soul but you are as CS Lewis said a soul wrapped in a body.
- the bible teaches us the the life here in earth will end and your soul and the resurrected body will go into the presence of God if you are a believer in Jesus Christ.
- but if you are not a believer you will be separated from God and will live in a place called hell.
- but if you know the everlasting father you don’t need to be afraid of that.
- do you know him this way?
- maybe some of you have lost your earthly father, or some of you have an estranged relationship with your father now and might think of God has father like that..
- understand that God is an everlasting father, he is a caring father, and an ever present father.
- my own father example - week and losing vision..
- but even as all these things happen God is there! He is your everlasting father.
5. and finally He is the Prince of Peace
that takes care of disturbances of life
- in the storms of life we long for peace.
- life is filled with friction and hardships and difficulty
- but he will be prince of peace
- you are not going to find peace in a bottle, in a pill, in a drug, in a possession,
- you will find peace in a relationship with Jesus through God.
- now Isaiah brings us to a close and he says that the Govt. will be upon his shoulder in vs. 7,
- there is a little bit of space between vs. 6 and vs. 7
- you see vs 6 has already happened but vs. 7 is yet to happen
- the Govt will be on his shoulders - that is yet to happen.
- Believe me when god is in charge of the government, it is going to run a whole lot better that it is run right now.
- Govt. efficiency is an oxymoron for sure.
- one day the govt will be upon his shoulder in rule and reign righteously
- there will be no scandal, there will be no economic meltdown, there will be no misuse of tax money
- day is still coming, before Jesus will take the govt. upon his shoulder, he had to take up cross on his shoulder
- he took up the cross on his shoulder and died on it
- if we miss why he care to this earth, we miss everything
- he came for the express reason for living a perfect life of 33 years and then voluntarily going to a cross and dying for the sins of the world.
- for dying for your sins and dying for my sins
- so what is in a name?
- it all depends whose name it is
- if it is the name of Jesus Christ, everything you need in this life and life hereafter is in that name.
- Bible says that whoever calls name of Jesus will be saved.
- so lets call on the name of Jesus - the name above all names.
may god help us all.
