What's in a Name?

This message was delivered by Dr. Robert H. Schuller from the pulpit of the Crystal Cathedral. It was aired during the Hour of Power program on Hong Kong's ATV World Channel on 10 July 2011.

I have a folder that I use in preparation for Sunday mornings. I use it to write my thoughts down and then bring them up to the pulpit. This morning, I woke up at about two o'clock to think and prepare in prayer for my message to you today. Here's what I wrote on the third commandment, which is: "Take not the name of the Lord thy God in vain." The name of God; what is it? It's like it is for you and for me - the name is who you are. People know you for words that you have spoken and for work that you have done and that's who you are. Your name becomes the incarnation of your words and your work.

So how do we break the commandment of God? Obviously by profanity. It is this commandment that a few thousand years ago caused religious leaders to issue the order that religious people are not to use profanity. Even today profanity is still recognized as something less than the best. In reality, it should motivate us to create a vocabulary of adjectives and adverbs and nouns that honor our fellow society members. "Take not the name of the Lord thy God in vain."

We break this commandment by personality when we allow ourselves to develop a personality that does not honor God but embarrasses Him by how we treat our fellow human beings.

If I could summarize it in a sentence, its lack of reverence for the sacred. In the conflict of life between the sacred and the profane, we misunderstand that we are always torn in that, knowingly or unknowingly. There is the sacred and there is the profane and in the conflict between the two, in all that we see, or hear, or feel in the cultural conflict in society, we must maintain reverence for the sacred in our society. In our day and age, the widespread profanity and the use of sex is enough to greatly dishonor the Lord who created the fabulous potential of sex for love and relationships, for the baring of children, and the happiness of marriage. That's the sacred so turn the secular into the sacred.

What is the positive challenge of this commandment? It's to sense and to see that all the timing in this world - while we're eating and living and breathing, there is around us a pressure that would draw us away from God until what is sacred becomes secular. Then we're in trouble but we may not know it.

So the call of this commandment is to see God in the secular. The name of God; it's not just a word like God and Jesus and the Lord, its nature around us. That is God's work so we respect Him in nature. It is God's wonder. We respect Him in the living plants and the stars in the sky. It is seeing that all of life is a reflection of God. Whether you see it or don't see it, it is God all around us and we must have a reverence for life and all that's in it.

Then, we embrace the name of God in friends, in people, in fellow human beings. All around us, in every living creature, God is alive, constantly, always. So taking not the name of God in vain means don't embarrass people. They are the name of God. Don't shame people. Honor them, uplift them. In this ministry, we try to focus on bringing dignity to fellow human beings.

Then the secular life becomes sacred and in the process, we are worshipping God. That's why when we invite you to accept Jesus Christ in your heart, here's what happens: your attitudes change, and more than you are aware of, you are changing from a purely secular person to a sacred creature. You are becoming an instrument and God is looking through you, listening through you, touching people through you, helping people, inspiring people, and encouraging people through you. So you, a secular person, become a sacred person. You become a part of the image of God in society. Your personality is transformed when you ask Christ to be Lord of your life. You turn from a secularist to a sacred creature.

So I invite you to take Christ into your life as Lord and Savior. It's relatively easy for people to accept Jesus as their Savior, after all, you carry enough guilt with you that you want forgiveness of sins. You have enough anxiety about what happens after you die that when you accept Jesus as your Savior, you know that He will bring you to heaven. What's tough is to make Him Lord over your life so that He becomes the subconscious power within you, affecting your attitude toward people and the words of your conversation and dialogue.

"Take not the name of the Lord thy God in vain." Take God seriously and you do that by embracing Jesus as your Lord and as your Savior. Then simply ask the question: what would Jesus do? What would Jesus say? What look would Jesus carry on my face? What words would Jesus like to have me drop? Let Him become Lord over your life wherever you are: behind the wheel of the car or as a passenger, at work or at play. The positive fulfillment of this commandment comes when you accept Him as Lord. Take the name of God seriously and He will bless you, first of all, with a wonderful sense of humble pride. You'll be filled with self-respect when you feel the spirit of Jesus smiling and talking and looking at people through you.

I remember when Dr. Norman Vincent Peale first preached for me in the Orange drive-in theater. Now if you don't know what a drive-in theater was, you're too young. The drive-in was our first church and we were there for six years. I'd climb a step ladder, get on the tarpaper roof, stand on top of the snack bar rooftop and talk to you in your cars.

I invited Dr. Peale to preach for me in the drive-in theater, and he said yes, which kind of surprised me. He came and we stood on that tarpaper rooftop, and we looked at a packed crowd of cars. I introduced Dr. Peale, he came up, and he said "Well, if Jesus was here, what would He tell you? What would His sermon be? Would He tell you what a sinner you are and probably point out some of your guilt?" I think at that point in my own life, I hadn't matured and I maybe nodded my head 'yes.'

Then Dr. Peale said, "I don't think He'd tell you what a sinner you are; He wouldn't have to. Deep down in your heart you already know that. What He would tell you is, 'follow Me and I will make you fishers of men. You will be the light of the world, the salt of the earth; really good people. So come to Me.'" To this day, I never forgot that sermon or the man who gave it. So today I'm asking you, if Jesus were here today, would He tell you you're a sinner? No, He wouldn't.

The bible tells the story of Jesus going through the city of Jericho and He saw this one man hanging from the branch of the tree. It was one of the town's most notorious, infamous persons. This man had heard about Jesus, but didn't want to be seen running to hear Him. So he found out which way Jesus would be walking and he climbed up on the branch of a tree hidden behind the leaves, and he watched this Jesus come. He watched Jesus stand still and start to talk to the people. Then he heard Jesus suddenly stop talking. Jesus threw His shoulders back, lifted His head, looked into the branches, saw Zacchaeus and said, "Zacchaeus, come down for I'm going to your house today." Wow. Instead of throwing out the guilt and the sins of this man, He honored him.

In closing, the way to reach people is not to accuse them and cause them to be reminded of their badness, but to honor them by saying "you're invited to join my family. I belong to a wonderful family. It's called the church. I invite you to become a member of my family. God loves you, so do I and you will be taking God's name seriously."

Let's pray: So Lord, we've come to the place where You live. You're there every Sunday before we get there. And here, oh Lord, are people whose minds are changing. They're making a decision to become a Christian this morning, to follow Jesus now and for the rest of their lives. Hallelujah. Amen.