God put this message on my heart a few weeks ago, and I'm glad to have the chance today to share this message with you. The title of my message is “What's Your Name?”
Let us pray.
Dear heavenly Father, we're just so thankful that we have the opportunity to come before you, Lord, in this building, in this house of yours, Lord. We don't have to worry about any people rushing in here and dragging us out, or different gangs or the police Lord. That we can, in this country, we can worship you in peace, Lord, and we praise you and thank you for that, Lord. Lord, we thank you that we can come forward with our tithes and offerings to bless you and bless others, Lord, in our church and in our community. Lord, please open the ears to hear and the eyes to see and the hearts and minds open to hear your word, Lord, and we just praise you and thank you for that in Jesus name we pray.
Amen
What's your name? What are the voices you hear telling you you're not worthy, you're not a good person, you'll never amount to anything, you're lazy? We all experience thoughts or voices telling us that we are not good, that we are not loved. These thoughts and words come from many sources: parents, teachers, friends, enemies, Satan, etc. Maybe you had a parent who told you you were not wanted or that you would not amount to anything. Maybe a teacher told you that you were not smart enough to pass their class, friends who have said things that hurt you and betray you, all these things that happen stay in our minds. The old saying sticks and stones may break your bones, but names will never hurt you, is not true. Words hurt and then cause lifelong damage to so many people, including Christians, who become identified with what other people think or call them. Some people see themselves through others' eyes, not through their heavenly Father's; they seem to forget that what really matters is how they are seen in God's eyes. I have heard these things many times in my life. I've been called lazy, shy, not wanted, dumb, and told I won't amount to anything, so I understand how you and others feel.
I have borrowed some of the lyrics from the song "Fear Is a Liar" by Zach Williams and changed the word "fear" to "Satan."
When he told you you're not good enough, when he told you you're not right, when he told you you were not strong enough to put up a good fight, when he told you you're not worthy, when he told you you're not loved, when he told you you're not beautiful, you'll never be enough. Satan, he is a liar. When he told you you were troubled, you'll forever be alone. When he told you you should run away, you'll never find a home. When he told you that you were dirty and you should be ashamed, when he told you you could be the one that Grace could never change, oh Satan, he is a liar.
We are told to live and die by the world.
We allow the world to define us; we let the world dictate how we should behave. The world tells us to live in darkness, the world tells us to live a life of sin because it's okay. We allow television, computers, and cell phones to rule our lives. Those who live in the world tell you they are happy and that everything is okay, yet behind closed doors, they are searching for something; they're not happy, and everything is not okay. They are struggling and hurting; there's a chief accuser of the world, and that is the devil. Are we allowing Satan's lies to enter our hearts and stay there? The devil is out to steal, kill and destroy… he can do that with words.
We are all called to an exclusive personal relationship with God. We are to let no other lover take God's place. The good news is that God will not tolerate other lovers, however loving and lovable they are, coming between God and us. For God knows that all the other lovers, however loving or lovable, cannot finally satisfy the longings of our hearts. All other lovers leave us unfulfilled. We are made in such a way that only the infinite God can satisfy our finite hearts. We are not only made by God, we are made for God. We are created in such a way that only the infinite, holy, all-powerful, all-wise, ever-present, merciful, personal God can fill and fulfill our finite hearts. Did Jesus only love the worthy ones? No, he loved Mary Magdalene, who had seven demons. In Mark 16:8-10 in the NIV, starting at verse 8: “trembling and bewildered, the women went out and fled from the tomb. They said nothing to anyone because they were afraid.” The earliest manuscripts and some other ancient witnesses do not have verses 9 to 20 “when Jesus rose on the first day of the week he appeared first to Mary Magdalene out of whom he had driven seven demons she went and told those who had been with him and who are mourning and weeping. 11 When they heard that Jesus was alive and that she had seen him, they did not believe it.
Jesus loved the Samaritan woman at the well even though she had five husbands and was living with a man. She was an outcast who had to get water on her own. And yet, Jesus still loved her.
Read John 4:1-30.
John 4:1-30 in the NIV is titled ‘talks with a Samaritan woman.”
Verse 7 When a Samaritan woman came to draw water, Jesus said to her, “Will you give me a drink?” (His disciples had gone into town to buy food). The Samaritan woman said to him, “You are a Jew, and I am a Samaritan woman. How can you ask me for a drink?” (for Jews do not associate with Samaritans). Jesus answered her, “If you knew the gift of God and who it is that asks you for a drink, you would have asked him, and he would have given you living water.”
“Sir,” the woman said, “you have nothing to draw with, and the well is deep. Where can you get this living water? Are you greater than our father Jacob who gives us the well and drank from it himself also did his son and his livestock?” Jesus answered “everyone who drinks this water will be thirsty again but whoever drinks the water I give them will never thirst, Indeed the water I give them will become in them a spring of water welling up to eternal life.” The woman said to him, “Sir, give me this water so that I won't get thirsty and have to keep coming here to draw water.”
Verse 16 He told her, “Go call your husband and come back.” “I have no husband”, she replied. Jesus said to her, “You are right when you say you have no husband. The fact is, you have had five husbands, and the man you now have is not your husband. What you have just said is quite true.” “Sir,” the woman said, “I can see you are a prophet our ancestors worshiped on this mountain, but you Jews claim the place where we must worship is in Jerusalem.” Verse 21: “Woman,” Jesus replied, “believe me a time is coming when you will worship the Father neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem. You Samaritans worship what you do not know; we worship what we do know, for salvation is from the Jews. Yet a time is coming and has now come when the true worshippers will worship the Father in spirit and in truth, for they are the kind of worshippers the Father seeks. God is spirit, and his worshippers must worship in the spirit and in the truth.” The woman said, “I know that Messiah (called Christ) is coming. When he comes, he will explain everything to us then.” Jesus declared, “I, the one speaking to you, I am he.”
Just then, the disciples returned and were surprised to find him talking with a woman, but no one asked, “What do you want?” or “Why are you talking with her?”
Verse 28 then, leaving her water jar, the woman went back to the town and said to the people, “Come see a man who told me everything I ever did. Could this be the Messiah?’ They came out of the town and made their way toward him.
In the believer's Bible commentary, it says this in John 4:4: Samaria was on the direct route from Judea to Galilee, but few Jews ever took this direct route. The region of Samaria was so despised by the Jewish people that they often took a roundabout route through Perea to get North into Galilee thus when it says that Jesus needed to go through Samaria, the thought is not so much that he was compelled to do so by geographical considerations but rather by the fact that there was a needy soul in Samaria he could help.
Jesus loved his disciples, rough men and some uneducated. Luke 5:1-11 and Matthew 14:15-20, Tax Collectors who are hated by their fellow Jews. Matthew 9:9-13, Luke 19:1-10 Lepers, outcasts, unclean, prostitutes, Sinners, etc. Luke 7:20-23 The Centurion, occupier and enemy, Jesus heals his servant and said he had never seen such great faith. Matthew 8:5-13.
The Gospel of Luke is unique among the other gospels in that it places a special emphasis on Jesus as a friend of the outcasts. Luke provides us with numerous examples of people who have been shunned and despised by others. These were the lepers, tax collectors, prostitutes and other sinners or had found themselves in their situation through no fault of their own. They also included the poor, the lame, the afflicted, and widows who had lost their social standing. All of these were seen as failures or rejects by society and were not worthy of inclusion or attention. There are some people out there in the world today who are struggling with trauma, hurt, abuse, betrayal, etc that are using alcohol, drugs, sex, porn, etc., to forget or cover up all their pain. They need to know that those things are not the answer. The answer is Jesus Christ.
I read the following in the YouVersion devotional “Called you are more than you've been told” by Hosanna Wong.
God spends a lot of time in the Bible telling us who we are. It's almost as if he knew we would doubt who that was from time to time. It's as if he saw it coming that we'd spend our whole lives searching for our identity, and what our real name was, and that there'd be many moments in our lives where we would let different kinds of names define us. When we've looked in the mirror, compared ourselves to pictures and heard the name ugly. When we've been left by loved ones, people we trusted once and heard the name unworthy. We heard the name forgotten when we've been drowning in discouragement, living in a seemingly never-ending crisis. We've had our hopes up and our hearts open only to be brought down by closed doors, and we've heard rejection. When we've looked for infinite, affirming love through lesser physical fleshly versions. When we gave it away or when it was stolen, and we heard impure, we heard garbage. When we go to other vices to ease our pain, we hear the word " addict. We hear forever broken when we feel like we're living in the shadow of someone else's calling. We hear second place when our pain cripples us to a point where we don't even know how to let others in. We hear lonely when our past becomes too gross for others to forgive, and we hear disgusting. It's overwhelming, these voices we're constantly hearing. It's suffocating this air of constant critique and comparison. It's sort of amazing the people whose voices I've allowed to name me. The power I've given to my past, to my mirror and to my surroundings enabled them to identify me. The number of years I've spent living up to whatever others say about me.
God says something else about me. It's like he knew there would be other voices, so he wrote his voice down in a Timeless book of truths that would remind us over and over again in the moments when lies would block his truth and somehow make us forget. So I'm going back to the source, not the people I've allowed to represent God to me, but the actual, literal, tangible words that He has written down for me, and there's some other names he's given me.
I don't know what ways the enemy has tried to lie to you. You may have been told that you're not enough, that you're unworthy, unwanted, or unloved. But you are more than you've been told. God has some other names for you. It is written: John 15:15— friend of God. You are not alone. Jesus is with you. He has your back. He's in your corner.
1 Thessalonians 1:4— Chosen. You are not here by accident. You are made for this moment, right where you are, the way you are, because the Creator of the universe said it was important for you to be here.
Ephesians 2:10— God's Masterpiece. You are the handiwork of the artist of the heavens and earth. Your details are important. You are a work of art meticulously made to accomplish the good works of God.
1 Corinthians 6:19— Temple. No matter who took advantage of you, and no matter what you feel you lost because of your choices, when you give your life to Christ, God's word calls your body a temple, the place where the Holy Spirit dwells. Your body is good.
Acts 1:8— Messenger. God calls us as “witnesses” of the love and power of Jesus, and “messengers” of the Gospel to those right next to us, and to the whole world. God wants to use your real story to reveal the real love of Jesus.
Galatians 3:26— Child of God. We don't have to live in fear of the future or live trying to prove our worth. When you give your life to Jesus, you can trust, rest, enjoy, and take steps of faith like children who are safe and loved.
Romans 5:8— Greatly loved. You are so loved that even while you were running away from God, he was running after you. He sent his son Jesus to die for you so you could be free, forgiven, and reconnected with God. He wants you to enjoy life with him now and for eternity.
John 8:36— Free, indeed. You may be living in chains you don't have to live in anymore. Give them to God. Surrender them to God. Live as a free child of God, you really are.
2 Corinthians 5:17— Brand new. Jesus is a brand new beginning. With him, you are a brand new creation with an entirely different life.
It's amazing how different these names are from the names I'm used to hearing or listening to. In my journey to discover who I really am, in my battle to uncover the truths of myself, I've learned something new about my name, and now this is what I am certain of: my name is not the name the world calls me. My name is not the name my past calls me. My name is not even the name my mirror calls me, but my name, my name is the note is the name I choose to answer to. I can choose today from this moment forward to answer to a new name. When I hear lonely, that's not me. When I hear disgusting, that's not me. When I hear unworthy, I don't even look over my shoulder. When I hear broken, they must have confused me. Please look elsewhere. When I hear ugly, abandoned, useless, forgotten, I figure someone just has to remind them, maybe those were my old names, but they're no longer the names that I respond to. My name is the name I have chosen to spend my days living up to, and if these other voices are not saying the same thing that the truth is, I look in my mirror, and I repeat this; they have no right to be speaking to you. When you stop answering to all your old names, they stop having power over you. The names that my father, eternity's author, the world's creator, has called me are the only names that I answer to, so when I hear “friend of God,” that's my name. “Chosen,” that's my name. “Loved wanted created with a purpose,” that's my name. “God's messenger,” that's my name. “God's Masterpiece,” that's my name. “Child of God,” you must be looking for me. “Greatly loved,” you must be calling for me. “Brand new” is my name. That is a name that I'll respond to because the enemy has no power here. Perfect love casts out all fear, and perfect love has named me and you. So what is your new name? What is stirring up inside of you when you hear these words, that his Word, that the word has proclaimed? What do you know is the name God is calling you?
Maybe it's not the name you grew up with. Maybe it's not the name your old friends associate you with. Maybe it's not the name that your whole life you were used to identifying with but it's the name you now answer to. So when the enemy tries to get to you, it's the name you introduced yourself with. As for me, my name is “Forgiven”, my name is “free”. My name is “brand new loved wanted child of God created with a purpose.”
I found a few words from the song “You Say” by L Lauren Daigle really apply to what we were talking about today:
“I keep fighting voices in my mind that say I'm not enough
The only thing that matters now is everything you think of me.
In you I find my worth, in you I find my identity.”
I want to share a quote from CS Lewis that needs to permeate this conversation: “Most people, if they had really learned to look into their own hearts, would know that they do want, and want acutely, something that cannot be had in this world. There are all sorts of things in this world that offer to give it to you, but they never quite keep their promise… If I find in myself a desire which no experience in this world can satisfy, the most probable explanation is that I was made for another world.”
A while ago, I read a comment posted online. The person said, “They have never messed up their life so bad that they needed to be a born-again Christian.” To me, that's very sad. Jesus did not say you had to mess up your life to be born again.
Jesus said in John 3:1-3,7:
NIV Jesus teaches Nicodemus
Now there was a Pharisee, a man named Nicodemus, who was a member of the Jewish ruling Council. 2. He came to Jesus at night and said, “Rabbi, we know that you are a teacher who has come from God. For no one could perform the signs you were doing if God were not with him.” 3. Jesus replied, “Very truly I tell you, no one can see the kingdom of God unless they are born again.” Verse 7: You should not be surprised at my saying, “You must be born again.” 8. The wind blows wherever it pleases. You hear its sound, but you cannot tell where it comes from or where it is going. So it is with everyone born of the Spirit.”
Mark Buchanan is an associate professor of Pastoral Theology at Ambrose Seminary in Calgary, Alberta and was formerly the pastor of New Life Community Baptist Church in Duncan, BC.
In his book “Your Church Is Too Safe,” he talks about a time he was speaking in Toronto a few years ago. One of the singers on the worship team told a story about the Man who knows everything we do and still invites us to know him, still imparts to us the gift of God. The singer was part of a church plant on the east side of town– lots of drug addicts, drug dealers, gang leaders, prostitutes, the usual suspects– and so often the services were filled with a wild assortment of God evaders and God chasers. Every Sunday, the church served communion– mostly because every Sunday, people needed the Bread of Life and Living Water. They needed to know what Jesus did for them, what they could never do for themselves.
One Sunday, a streetwalker, who had never been to the church before, came in. She was in rough shape, bruised, shaking, bedraggled. When the pastor stood up to serve a communion, he explained what it is: taking Christ himself, his forgiving, redeeming, healing life, into the very blood and bones of ourselves. It is feasting on Christ's forgiveness and love and promise of newness.
Then they passed the plate around. The streetwalker took a handful of bread and piled it on the lap of her short skirt. When invited, she ate it all, licking crumbs off her fingers. Then the cup came around, and she did the same: took six or seven little thimblefuls and downed them all, tipping each cup back to drain the dregs. All the time she wept.
She wasn't physically hungry. She wasn't physically thirsty.
She was starved for love. She was parched for grace. She could not get enough of Christ.
“Come, and see a man.” Come and see the man who knows everything I've ever done and still offers me everything he's ever done. Come, meet the man who knows me through and through and loves me all the same.
Come meet the man.
This is what I'm asking all of you here: come meet the man who loves you.
I would like to share with you what Jesus did for me and what he can do for you. When I look back over my life before I accepted Jesus Christ as my Lord and Saviour, I was so lost in sin for 30 years. I was not a good person. I was told early in my life that I was no good, not wanted, lazy, fat (or husky as they used to say), shy and not going to amount to much. I did not receive much affection from my parents growing up. I can see how much damage I did. How angry I was. How much I hurt people, the destruction I caused. I felt I was totally unworthy of anyone's love, especially Jesus's love. To use the Old Testament phrase, I was unclean. But even though I was unclean, Jesus accepted me the way I was in two in October of 2006. He still loved me enough; he still loved me even when it took another three years to completely shed my old life. I believed a little in Jesus before that, but mainly, I was doing my life my way. Anything I wanted to do. I thought I was doing great. I thought there was nothing wrong with it. The reason I felt that way was that my sin had a firm grip on me. It would not let me go. I had to keep feeding it. A lot of you reading this can relate to that. I got tired of it, but every time I got out, it dragged me back in. I'm telling you the honest-to-goodness truth, if it wasn't for Jesus coming into my life and me accepting him as my Lord and Saviour, more than likely today I would be dead or dying.
If Jesus can save and accept an angry, argumentative, unfeeling, unworthy, sinful man like me, Jesus can do that for you as well. You only have to ask Jesus to come into your life, tell him how sorry you are for your sins (we all have them). Ask Jesus to forgive you for the wrong things you have done.
Although we are saved by faith alone, not the words we utter, a verbal profession can be the external manifestation of saving faith.
Romans 10:9-13 in the Christian Standard Bible, if you confess with your mouth, Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. One believes with the heart, resulting in righteousness, and one confesses with the mouth, resulting in salvation for scripture says everyone who believes in him will not be put to shame since there's no distinction between Jew and Greek because the same Lord of all richly blesses us bless blesses all who call on him for everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved. When we experience salvation after enduring a life of brokenness, it becomes imperative to share this transformative life journey with others.
Let us pray, oh Heavenly Father we just praise you and thank you that we can come to you no matter what our life was like no matter what sin we've been through what sin we're in whatever is happening in our life you accept us the way we are in fact your word says you run after us Lord that's just amazing that to think that when we're doing something so bad so terrible that you're running after us that we walk away from you you want us back you are Yahweh the one who is the one who is there with us and for us the one who was there with us and for us the one who will be there with us and for us you are the one who seeks us when we run from you you're the one who loves us even when we don't deserve it you are the one who tells us that we cannot do anything to make you love us less and that we cannot do anything to make you love us more we praise you and we love you you are an amazing God and you will accept anyone that comes to you in Jesus name I pray.
Amen
A quote I wanted to share with you is said that DL Moody made a commitment to God that he would not go to bed without having witness to at least one person on several occasions he went out late at night to find someone with whom he could share the gospel there should be a sense of urgency and passion for the lost that drives and motivate us to be effective ambassadors for Jesus Christ there's so many people out there that are suffering that are lost that are hurting that they need to know about Jesus and they need to know that he will accept them and love them and heal them and make life so much better for them as he's done for most of us here in this room if not all of us so I just encourage you if you get a chance to share the gospel share your story that's the best testimony there is. Have a great week.
