Would you please take your Bible, take your tablet, phone, whatever you're going to use to find Exodus chapter 20. And while you're turning there, I'm gonna ask, when you first learn that a couple is expecting a baby, think about that for a second. What are some of the polite questions that you ask? What are the questions that you automatically ask? What do you think? You find out, oh, they're expecting, so what are you gonna ask them? Is it a boy or a girl? Do you know whether it's a boy or a girl? You're gonna find out whether it's a boy or a girl. What'd you say? When are you due? That's a good thing. Good thing to know. Is there a due date? When do you think this baby's coming? That's good. Anything else? What was that? Yeah, is it a boy or a girl, and what are you going to name him or her? Have you picked out any names? Are you telling other people the names that you're thinking of? Now, some of that may be just polite conversation, I realize that. But I think in many cases, what we're after there is figuring out what is this baby boy or girl going to be like? How am I going to relate to this baby boy or girl? And it may seem strange to you, but that principle, that concept of how am I going to relate to this new life is actually really closely related, I think, to the third commandment. And it won't be obvious at first. I'll try to explain it as we go. But today, we're continuing our study of Exodus 20, and getting to the third commandment, and we're gonna be looking at the idea of what is God like? How do I relate to him? And that answer involves his name. It's very closely related to his name. Today we're going to talk about honoring the name of God, what that means, and how to do it. So hopefully you've had a chance to find the verse that we're going to read. I'm going to ask you to stand with me while I read Exodus chapter 20, verse 7. You shall not take the name of the Lord your God in vain. For the Lord will not hold him guiltless who takes his name in vain. Let's pray together. Our Father, as we look at this one verse this morning, we're asking for your help. We're asking for your help to understand what this verse means. And beyond that, we're asking for your help to know how it applies to our lives. We know that your word is like a mirror. that shows us ourselves. And Lord, where we need change, where we need to be conformed to the image of your Son, would you expose those things in our lives? Give your Holy Spirit free reign in our hearts this morning that we would be ready listeners, that we want to hear from you, that we are willing to hear from you, that we are willing to change in response to what you show us. Holy Spirit, would you give me clarity of mind and a voice And I pray that your words would come through to all of us loud and clear today. In Jesus' name, amen. Thank you. You may be seated. We've reached the third commandment. And I've shown you a chart each week that we've been in this study in Exodus 20. And you can see there, the first table of the law, the left-hand column there, are the first four commandments. They have to do with our vertical relationship, our relationship with God. So we've seen, have no other gods before me. Make no idols, no graven images. We talked about that the last time we were in Exodus. And that brings us to the third one today, honor God's name. Now I suspect some of you are thinking, I'm good here. I don't use God's name in vain. Let's go to lunch. Let's just be done. See, some of you are thinking that way. I get it. But although the third commandment does teach us not to use God's name as a curse word, and we'll talk about that, that application barely scratches the surface of what the third commandment actually describes. Here's my main point, here's the main idea I'd like you to remember to take with you when you leave today. Honoring God's name means recognizing who God is and living accordingly. Another way we could say that is that honoring God's name means that His character affects my character. His character affects my character. I'll attempt to explain those statements further as we go, but for now, let's look at verse seven, our one verse for today. You shall not take the name of the Lord your God in vain, for the Lord will not hold him guiltless who takes his name in vain. Since we have just one verse, we can look at the words and phrases of this verse, and let's start with you. Who's he talking to? We've built this up, we've been talking about this for several times now. The you are his people. They are gathered at the base of Mount Sinai, and they're hearing all of these words together. Moses is down there with them, Aaron's there with them. Who are these people? These are God's chosen people that he has redeemed, that he has brought out of slavery, and that he has brought out of the land of Egypt. You say, why do you keep bringing this up, Bob? Because I want us to have very clear in our minds He's not telling them this to tell them how to be saved. It's not here, keep the third commandment and you'll be saved. He has saved them already. They cannot save themselves. They could not, they would not. He has saved them. He has redeemed them. He has delivered them from bondage and he's telling them how he wants them to live. We've got to have that clear in our minds as we approach each of these commandments. So how did God want them to live? Starts off with you shall not. So many of the commandments have that wording, don't they? He's telling them what not to do in order to live for Him. What shall you not do? You shall not take. What does it mean to take? Tony Morita wrote that to take His name in vain does not mean simply to speak God's name, it means to carry or bear God's name. People who have publicly declared themselves to be followers of God are to exalt God's reputation by living in a way that honors Him. You shall not take, that's what take means, it means to lift, to bear up. You shall not take the name of the Lord your God in vain. One of the commentaries I read this week is by Douglas Stewart. He wrote that this phrase literally means, raise up Yahweh's name for no good. To hold it up as worthless. That's what this phrase means. Here's how he described it. Examples would include promising someone something by Yahweh, by God. Meaning, I guarantee you that my promise is true or Yahweh may kill me or otherwise punish me if I don't keep my promise. Or giving legal testimony with the meaning of, I swear that my testimony in this legal matter or before this court is true with the guarantee that Yahweh will kill me or punish me if what I'm saying is not true. That's the idea here. But even though swearing in God's name is the most basic interpretation, this wording is general enough that it applies in other ways. So we need to understand those as well. In other words, this is any misuse of God's name. Any misuse of Yahweh's name. That would include making light of it, mocking it, speaking disrespectfully of it. Now what about the name of the Lord your God? We're not supposed to take the name of the Lord our God in vain. So what name are we talking about? This is not a trick question. What name are we talking about? Yahweh. The covenant name of God. Yahweh. That's his name. But it's not just about that word. The best way I can think to illustrate the importance of Yahweh's name is for us to look several chapters later. So if you have your Bible, you can flip over a few pages if you want. So I'm going to put these verses on the screen. This is from Exodus 33-34. Those two chapters, it's a little bit later in the story, but they're still there on the mountain. He's still receiving the Ten Commandments. And at this point, Moses asks to see God. Some of you know the story, and we'll get to it and study it verse by verse later, but right now I just want to give you a couple highlights here. Exodus 33 verse 18 says, and he, that is Moses, said, please show me your glory. Verse 19, then he, God, responded. He said, I will make all my goodness pass before you. How's he gonna do that? And I will proclaim the name of the Lord, Yahweh, before you. I will be gracious to whom I will be gracious, and I will have compassion on whom I will have compassion. This is what it means to be the Lord, to be Yahweh, to be gracious, to be compassionate. His name is related to his character. You starting to see that? If we go a little bit later, chapter 34, verse five, now the Lord descended in the cloud and stood with him there and proclaimed the name of the Lord. And the Lord passed before him and proclaimed. Are you ready? Here it is. This is the Lord telling us his full name. The Lord, the Lord God. merciful and gracious, long-suffering and abounding in goodness and truth, keeping mercy for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin, by no means clearing the guilty, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children of the children's children to the third and fourth generation." Those statements should sound familiar to us. If you've been in this study or you've read chapter 20 and some of the chapters before that, You should recognize God describing himself as merciful and gracious and long-suffering and abounding in mercy and truth. That he's keeping mercy for thousands. Didn't we just talk about that last time? Thousands of generations will receive his mercy, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin. But the flip side, the other side of that coin, He's not going to forgive those who reject Him. He is going to punish those who are guilty, who do not find redemption and restoration in Him. My point in sharing that with you is that this is more than just a single word. As important and valuable as God's name is, it's not just about the English word God. and how we use that. It's not just about the Hebrew word Yahweh, or how we use that in a sentence, or when we're writing. It's about his character. Because you've heard me say this before, many of you have studied this on your own, in the Old Testament especially, but throughout the Bible, names have meanings. And a name represents the entire person, his essence, his being, So when he says, you shall not take the name of the Lord your God in vain, he's saying, you may not treat me lightly. You must ascribe to me the worth that is due to me, and that's represented by my name. Do you understand? That's what we're getting at here. It's his essence, it's his character, his attributes. When you're able, I'd encourage you to study out the phrase, the name of the Lord, or for the sake of his name, or for his name's sake. Just do a little bit. If you're doing it online, it's really easy. You just type that in. I use Bible Gateway a lot, and put in those words, and it's gonna pull up all the times that appears. Warren Wiersbe said, if God is the greatest being in the universe, and he is, then his name is the greatest name and must be honored. Many of you are familiar with the Lord's Prayer. We call it the Lord's Prayer. It was the example prayer, the model prayer that he gave to his disciples. Anybody remember how that starts? Can anybody start me off here? Our Father, and what does it say? Who art in heaven, and then what's the next line? Hallowed be thy name. What does hallowed mean? It means set apart, holy, revered, honored, sanctified, blessed. Now I want to clarify one thing. People through the ages, well-meaning people, have taken this a little bit further, I think, than God is asking us to. The Jewish people, even to this day, Orthodox Jews, many of them will not write out the word God. If they're writing in English, I mean, they put G and then a hyphen or dash and then D. And that's out of reverence for God. That's a good motive, guys. I'm not criticizing them. But I bring that up because God isn't telling us we can't use his name. Just stay away from it. Don't speak it. Don't write it. What he's saying is don't misuse my name. That's what this commandment is about. Why? The last part of the verse. The Lord will not hold him guiltless who takes his name in vain. To hold him guiltless, one other translation says, leave him unpunished. Or we could say, letting someone get away without punishment. This verse says, God won't let us get away with dishonoring his name. How seriously does God take this offense? If he's saying, I'm not gonna let it go, I'm not gonna overlook it, how seriously does he take it? I think we should look at the Bible for that too, don't you? So this is Leviticus 24. You don't have to turn there. You can if you want to. I'm gonna read a few verses in a minute. But Leviticus 24 records two men fighting. And the two men, in this argument, one of them takes God's name in vain and blasphemes. And this is early on in the history of Israel, and they're not necessarily sure what do we do with him. So they, if I can put it this way, they put him in jail. put him in a holding area until they can ask God, how do you want us to handle this? What do you want us to do? Lord, how do you want us to deal with this? And God gave his response. It's a very clear and forceful response. It's in Leviticus 24. I'm going to start reading at verse 13. And the Lord spoke to Moses saying, take outside the camp him who has cursed. Then let all who heard him lay their hands on his head, and let all the congregation stone him. Then you shall speak to the children of Israel, saying, whoever curses his God shall bear his sin, and whoever blasphemes the name of the Lord, blasphemy means to speak against, the name of the Lord, shall surely be put to death. All the congregation shall certainly stone him, execute him. The stranger as well as him who is born in the land, when he blasphemes the name of the Lord, he shall be put to death. God takes this seriously. Now, I don't know about you, I'm very glad that we don't have to follow that penalty today. Most of us, if not all of us, would be dead. we would be under a pile of rocks. Who are the people who take his name in vain? Because he said, I will not hold him guiltless who takes my name in vain. Who are those kinds of people? The Bible tells us that as well. It's his enemies. Psalm 139.20 says, for they speak against you wickedly, your enemies take your name in vain. You wanna be God's enemy? Go right ahead, take his name in vain, break the third commandment all you want. I don't wanna do that. He doesn't want us to do that. So that's the interpretation. We've looked at the verse, we've looked at the phrases, the words, I hope we have a clear idea of what that means. Now we need to apply it. In what ways can we break the third commandment? I have a list, I think I came up with six different ones. You may come up with a different list, that's okay. But I'm gonna offer you six ways that we can break the third commandment. And the order in which I'm gonna go through them is what I would consider to be the most obvious to perhaps the least obvious. So here's the first one. Using God's name as a curse word. That's what most of you thought if we just walked in the room, took a poll this morning before we ever started. What does it mean to take God's name in vain? It's to use God's name as a curse word. That's probably what you thought. And that's true. to use his name as a curse word or in a flippant way. And we have a term for that in English, it's called profanity. To make something that is related to God, take that and drag it through the gutter, that's profanity. to treat it as unvaluable. So what are examples of that? And I'll tell you right now, I'm going to give you like phrases and words today. I'm not going to use them in a way that I'm trying to dishonor God, but I'm trying to make sure we know what we're talking about. So oh my God, used as an expression. I'm shocked, I can't believe that. That's wonderful, that's terrible. And people use God's name in vain. That's an example of this. That's not valuing God's name. People take the name of Jesus Christ and use it as a curse word. People will say God Almighty and they mean it as a curse word. People will ask God to damn something. Now at this point, I probably just split the room into two different groups. I have the people who are thinking, Bob, what is the big deal? Why does this even matter? And then I have other people who are saying, I never do that. I'm feeling very good about myself right now, because this isn't one that I struggle with. Okay, so you're probably in one of those two camps, so we're going to address both of them. First, why is it a big deal? The most basic answer is because God says it is. We just finished reading the verse. He will not hold guiltless those who take his name in vain. It was important enough for him to talk about it in the third commandment. And I just read to you that this third commandment, in times of historic Old Testament Israel, it was a capital offense. It was punishable by death. And I hope some of these broader ideas about his character are starting to come through, his attributes that go with these things, that it's starting to make sense, but maybe this will help. We're gonna start, we're gonna just take one of those phrases in particular, talk about it for a second, and that is God damned. That phrase, when someone's saying, I want God to damn this or that person, What are we saying? What are we talking about? Well, the word damn means to condemn. Specifically, it means to condemn to hell. So let's ask ourselves, would God do that? Would God send someone to hell? The answer is that yes, he would. Revelation 19 and 20 says that he is going to condemn to the lake of fire those who reject him, those who do not repent, who do not come to Jesus Christ for salvation. But the more important question perhaps to ask is does he take delight, pleasure in that? And the answer is absolutely not. He does not take pleasure in condemning the guilty. 2 Peter 3.9, I quote this to you all often. He's not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance. That's our God. He's merciful. Yes, he is just. Yes, he will condemn the guilty. We've seen that even in Exodus 20. But He's loving. He's forgiving. He's gracious. He's merciful. In fact, the name Jesus in particular means salvation. It means Yahweh saves. That's what Jesus means. Go to the New Testament for a second. Acts 4.12. Nor is there salvation in any other, for there is no name under heaven given among men by which there's no other name given him a name whereby we must be saved. There's no other way to be saved than through the name of Jesus. It is a valuable name. It is a gracious name. So his name, his character that we've already seen in Exodus, it implies love and mercy and compassion and faithfulness. So when we mischaracterize God as hateful, unjust, In other words, we're focusing on his justice to the exclusion of his love, and promoting those false ideas to others is actually breaking the third commandment. Furthermore, is it my place to tell God whom or what to damn? It is not. I'm not God. I have no right to tell him, you should condemn that person, you should condemn that thing. Treating God and hell for that matter in a flippant way is breaking the third commandment, period. Now, for those of you who would never say those things, Please understand that this principle would also apply to all of the euphemisms. What are you talking about? G and G's are shortened terms of Jesus. Gosh, golly, and those kind of things are shortened forms of God. And while we're on this topic, dang, darn, those are shortened forms of damn. And you all are thinking, where is he getting this? Look it up. Get an English dictionary. There's shortened forms of that. And so I don't think those euphemisms are any more appropriate for us to say as believers than the harder forms. Why? Because it's not about me, it's not about my vocabulary, it's about God and his name and his holiness and his character. That's what this is saying. We're not referencing God's name. And since I've really gone down this meddling direction, let's just finish this off. If you text OMG in a text, that's not different from saying, oh my God, it's what it means, it's how it's interpreted. So we need to think through my written communication, my verbal communication. Have I become oblivious to the fact that I'm breaking God's law? I'm dishonoring his name. God takes this seriously, I think we should too. Now, how many of us have broken the third commandment at some time in our lives? You don't have to raise your hands, but all of us have. In all likelihood, all of us have. But some of us have habits in our lives that we're breaking on a regular basis, and that needs to change. That's something we need to repent of. Second category. swearing in God's name with no intention of keeping your word or of later breaking your word after swearing in God's name. Taking an oath using God's name is a big deal and not doing so correctly is to break the third commandment. Now there was a right way to use God's name in an oath in the Old Testament. In fact, his people were commanded to do so. Here's Deuteronomy 6.13. You shall fear the Lord your God Serve him and shall take oaths in his name There was an appropriate way to do that but if I make a promise and say as God is my witness or swear to God and Then I don't keep my word That should tell me and it definitely tells other people I don't put much stock in God's name I It's just an expression. Now, as New Testament believers, our instructions are different. The emphasis is not so much about swearing in God's name as it is telling the truth in all circumstances. There were certain times that they were supposed to swear an oath in God's name in the Old Testament. Jesus clarified that for us a little bit. Here are his words. Matthew 5, this is in the Sermon on the Mount. Verse 33, again, you have heard that it was said to those of old, you shall not swear falsely, but shall perform your oaths to the Lord. That should sound familiar to us right now. But I say to you, do not swear at all, neither by heaven, for it is God's throne, nor by earth, for it is his footstool, nor by Jerusalem, for it is the city of the great king, nor shall you swear by your head, because you cannot make one hair white or black. He's saying, you don't need to swear at all, but let your yes be yes, and your no, no, for whatever is more than these is from the evil one. If you are a person of integrity, if you are, people are used to you telling the truth all the time, you're not gonna need to swear. You don't always have to cross my heart, hope to die, because I'm gonna tell you this is what I'm gonna do, or this is what I did, and you're gonna believe me because I'm telling you the truth. Are we supposed to be people of the truth or not? James says something very similar. But above all, my brethren, do not swear either by heaven or by earth, or with any other oath, but let your yes be yes, and your no, no, lest you fall into judgment. Now, let's pause and ask. What if this is hitting me square between the eyes today? What if I know that I am in the habit of using God's name in vain, or of swearing oaths in His name, and I just, this is my habit, this is what I do all the time. The same thing we've said we should do with any of these commandments. You repent. You confess, which means agree with God. Let's say, God, Your Word is clear. I'm in violation. Forgive me. And you know what He says He'll do? What does 1 John say, folks? 1 John 1.9, If we confess our sins, then He is faithful, He is righteous to do what? Forgive us our sins and do what else? cleanse us from all unrighteousness. And we need that, and we need that repeatedly. We are blood-bought saints, but we are living in sinful flesh. And over and over, we must confess our sins and agree with God and say, God, I'm sorry. And as we've talked about recently in that sermon on repentance, it's not enough just to say, I'm sorry, God, and then go do it again. Repentance is, I'm sorry God, I need to change. And I can't do that on my own. I need your power. I need your Holy Spirit. I need to submit to your Holy Spirit on a minute-by-minute, day-by-day basis so that you can change me. I need to be renewed in your word so that you can help me create new habits in my life. Because if anybody goes out of this sermon and says, that's just the way I am. I can't help it. I've tried. I can't change my speech. You're denying the power of the God who sent Jesus to pay the penalty for our sin. We need to submit to the Holy Spirit, walk in the Spirit, and not fulfill the lust of the flesh. That's what we need. Here's another one. Thoughtlessly speaking or singing God's name. Does anyone remember what our verse of the month is? You didn't know there was going to be a quiz, did you? It's Luke 2.11. Luke 2.11. There are three names of God that appear in that verse. Savior, Christ, Lord. Undue is born this day in the city of David a Savior, which is Christ the Lord. Remember it now. Did we think about God's name when we said that verse? No. I was very dutifully quoting my verse and looking at my screen so I could say it when Mr. Phil told me to say it. Did we think about it? Earlier we prayed together in this service. Was your mind engaged when someone was leading us in talking to God? Here's one some of us struggle with. I'm including myself. We get into patterns when we pray out loud. Now there are others of you that there's a different conversation we need to have because you're afraid to pray out loud. But right now I'm talking to those of you who pray out loud. Sometimes we end up saying God's name a gazillion times. It goes something like this. Lord, thank you, Lord, that you've brought us to this place today. Lord, we're so thankful for this, Lord. And we just pepper it because somehow that sounds more spiritual to us. It could be God Almighty, it could be your choice. I'm not saying don't pray to God in his name or don't use his name. What did I say earlier? We're supposed to use God's name, we're not supposed to misuse God's name. Don't overdo it. Because if you come to me and you start having a conversation, Bob, are you paying attention to me, Bob? Bob, I have something for you to tell you. That's not the way we normally talk. And if your kid comes to you with that, then, daddy, daddy, can you do this, daddy, daddy? What do you want? Why are you doing this, okay? So let's just use some common sense here and not overuse God's name. How about when we sing? Can anyone name any of the songs we sang in the first part of the service? We did three of them. Any ideas? What? Oh, come all you unfaithful, that was one of them. Hark the herald angels sing, and a little tell of Bethlehem. We got them all. Good, good. Any idea what you sang about God in those songs? I have the advantage on you, because I knew I was going to say this, so I looked them up. Do you know how many names of God were in those songs? King, God, Christ, Lord, Godhead, Deity, Jesus, Emmanuel, Prince of Peace, Son of Righteousness, God, Christ, Lamb, Offering, God, Christ, Holy Child, Emmanuel. Those are the ones I found. I might have missed one. Did we think about God's name when we sang it? When we said it? Were we thinking? Were our brains engaged, folks? When we fail to give God's name and character the reverence he deserves in our singing and our speaking, we're breaking the third commandment. Now all of that was pretty heavy, and I would imagine that it hit home for many of us. It does to me. So I'm gonna give you one that is no less important, but probably fewer of you have committed. Maybe this is a good time to insert this one. Using God's name for profit, monetary gain. There are so-called faith healers and televangelists and online preachers who do this every day. These false teachers are like Balaam in the Old Testament, and they're seeking to profit from using God's name without really knowing him. Jesus talked about people like this. It's a little bit later in the Sermon on the Mount, Matthew 7. Not everyone who says to me, Lord, Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of heaven. But he who does the will of my Father in heaven, many will say to me in that day, Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in your name, cast out demons in your name, and done many wonders in your name? And then I will declare to them, I never knew you. Depart from me, you who practice lawlessness. Were they using God's name? Yes. Were they using God's name in vain? Clearly so. They're doing it because it's a business venture. And they're using God's name in vain. Now this is about as broad as I think we can go with this. Claiming to be a Christian, but not living like a Christian. is actually taking God's name in vain. Why? Because if you call yourself a Christian, you're using one of God's names as a label. Where does the term Christian come from? It was originally a derogatory term in the book of Acts, but it's little Christ would be a pretty good description of it. And Christ, of course, means Messiah. So you're taking God's name on you. If you call yourself a Christian, you say, yes, I'm a Christian. I'm a believer in Jesus. You're taking his name on you. So you better live like a Christian, or you're using his name in vain. If you're not following him after him as his disciple, you're a hypocrite, breaking the third commandment by not honoring his name. Luke 6 46, Jesus asked a question. He said, why do you call me Lord, Lord, and you don't do what I say? Don't call me Lord, and then go your own way. Lord means master. If I'm your master, you need to do what I say you should do. Paul wrote this to Timothy, 2 Timothy 2.19, let everyone who names the name of Christ do what? Depart from iniquity. Flee from sin. Repent, turn from it. If we name the name of Christ but remain in known, unconfessed sin, we have a serious problem. We're breaking the third commandment. Do you remember in the Old Testament when the prophet Nathan confronted King David about his sin? What sin had he committed? He committed adultery with Bathsheba. He had had Bathsheba's husband Uriah killed. You remember the story? And he sought to cover it up and ignore it for months. And Nathan came and confronted him. It's a great story. You can read it on your own. It's in 2 Samuel 12. And when Nathan confronted him, he said that, David, you committed adultery. You've broken the seventh commandment. That's the one that is. And guess what? You ordered someone's murder. That's the sixth commandment. But through the prophet Nathan, God also addressed the third commandment. It's in 2 Samuel 12, 14. By this deed, you, David, have given great occasion to the enemies of the Lord to blaspheme. I told you earlier what that word means. It means to speak against. What do I mean? David was God's chosen king, but David had misrepresented the Lord to the nations of the world. He had acted as one of the enemies of the Lord, and in so doing, he had taken God's name in vain. I heard one pastor describe it this way. I don't think people can do greater damage to the cause of Christ than when they go around telling people they're a Christian. And at the same time, they're living in adultery. They're doing drugs. They're getting drunk. They're wasting their family's money on gambling, destroying their homes, walking out on their spouses. To tell people that we're believers and then to contradict that with the way we live is to take the name of the Lord in vain. There's one more way. It's very similar to what we were just talking about. But it's outright lying about God's name. And that's for me to claim to be a Christian when I'm not. And there's some people who do that. We talked about the result of this one earlier. Jesus told those false teachers, depart from me, I never knew you. And if we have no relationship with God through Jesus Christ, that someday he's gonna say that to us. Honoring God's name means recognizing who God is and living accordingly. Honoring God's name means that his character affects my character. Now here's our process that we've been working through with each of the commandments. It's from Ephesians 4, 22 to 24. It's put off, be renewed, and put on. What do we need to put off when it comes to this third commandment? We need to put off false swearing. We need to put off any lack of honesty and integrity in our lives. We need to put off the misuse of God's name. How can we renew our minds? Well, that word study I mentioned to look through the names of God, that would be a good one. But let me give you one verse you'll find if you do that. This one is from the New Testament, book of Colossians. Colossians 3.17 says, and whatever you do in word or deed, that would be everything we do, everything we say, do all in the name of the Lord Jesus. giving thanks to God the Father through him. Do everything we do, say everything we say in the name of the Lord Jesus. What does that mean? In a manner consistent with walking worthy of following the teachings of Jesus. What should we put on? Honor for God and his name. Remember that early part of the Lord's Prayer? Hallowed be your name. That's what we should put on. Honoring, giving reverence to, ascribing worth to God's name. And honesty toward other people. What are some ways that we can honor God with our words? our attitudes, our actions. I think this would include singing, praying, worshiping, praising, thanking, blessing, magnifying, trusting. These are ways that we can honor God, trust in his name, bless his name, honor his name. Now, I have one last verse to share with you, and that's for any who are here or any who might be online today who don't know Jesus as Savior. Because there's some verses about the name of the Lord in regard to salvation as well. This is a well-known one. Romans 10.13 says, whoever calls on what? The name of the Lord shall be saved. And you can do that today. He invites you to do that today. Would you bow your heads and close your eyes? Father, we are people in need of your mercy and your grace. Thank you for not turning us away. So often we discover that we have sinned again, and yet you invite us to come and to confess our sins and to find forgiveness and cleansing in you. Thank you for your love, thank you for your faithfulness, thank you for your compassion, your mercy, your grace. You are so kind. Please reassure each person who is praying to you right now, who is confessing sin. Lord, may we recognize your holiness, but may we recognize your kind, faithful love. Lord, I pray for those who are making decisions this morning that you would pour out your grace. You have said that you give grace to the humble. You give empowering grace, the ability to obey to those who seek you. May we seek you. May we find that grace. We know that it'll be sufficient. Make us like Jesus. We pray this in his name, amen.