Weekend Sermon -- Ten Commandments -- "Thou Shalt Not Take the Name of the Lord Thy God in Vain."

     Thank you for stopping by to read the Weekend Sermon this week.  I am very glad that you have taken the time to read this sermon, and I hope that it is of benefit to you.

     I've had a very busy week.  I've been working on some writing ideas, and I've been staying busy at my job.  

     I would like to ask for your prayers about an important matter.  This weekend, they are predicting in my area that we are going to have extreme rainfall and flooding.  As I have mentioned before on the blog, my house is very old, and I have had problems in the past with water getting under the house and in the garage when it rains a lot.  I have tried my best to solve this problem, but things still aren't what they should be.  I hired someone to fix what could be fixed a couple of years ago, and that has helped some.  I just don't have the money to really fix the problem as it should be fixed.  It would cost thousands of dollars. 

     Please pray that these rains aren't as terrible as what is being predicted.  Please pray that I don't have problems with the house.  I am very concerned with this situation because if something happens with the house, I won't have a place to live. Now that my friend has passed away, I don't really have someone that I know would take me in.  I am really afraid that I will have to live in my car.  I don't want the rain to miss me and hit some other place.  Just please pray that the rain doesn't materialize in the way that is being predicted.  Thank you.

     Please pray this week for the people in West Virginia who experienced the terrible floods.  Pray that they will be able to recover.  Also pray for those who were injured in the terrorist attack in Turkey.  Pray for an end to terrorism and violence in the world, and pray for peace in Syria and Iraq.

     For our prayer focus countries this week, let us pray for Uzbekistan and Morocco.  Pray that people in these countries will hear of the love of Jesus.

     For the past weeks, we have been studying two different sermon series rotating back and forth week to week.  This week, we will continue with our series on the Ten Commandments focusing on the commandment that states, "Thou shalt not take the name of the Lord thy God in vain."

     When I was a child growing up, I was taught that the meaning of this commandment was that you weren't supposed to say any curse words with the name of God in them.  You weren't supposed to use Jesus' name as a profanity.  That is right and good, but I think that this commandment means more than that.  We shouldn't use the name of God and the name of Jesus wrongly.  The name of the Lord is holy and worthy of respect and honor.  The name of the Lord is to be praised not mocked and used as a profanity.

     In the bigger picture, I would like to focus on a couple of other ways that we can take the name of the Lord in vain and thus violate this commandment.

     First of all, I believe that we take the name of the Lord in vain when we tell people that we are a follower of the Lord, but our actions contradict what we say.  Anyone can say that they are a Christian and believe in the Lord.  As James said, however, faith without works is dead.  If a person is saying that they are a follower of the Lord, but they do not do what the Lord has said to do, that person is taking the name of the Lord in vain.  

     Our testimony to the world is very important.  People will listen to us if we share the message of Jesus with them, but then they will observe how we act to see if we practice what we preach.  If our lives match up to what we say, those who don't follow Jesus will become drawn to Him when they see that we live for Jesus and they see a demonstration of what Jesus has done in our lives.

     The Bible also says that those in this world will know that we are Christians by our love one for another.  If we do not show our love for one another, the truth is not in us.  We are taking the name of the Lord in vain, and people will not want to follow the way and the teachings of Jesus.

     The second important way that I think that people can violate this commandment is to make a promise and say "So help me God" and then violate their oath.  We have invoked the name of the Lord in a promise or oath, but then we violate our word and the name of the Lord is taken in vain.  

    Keep in mind when you are asked to take an oath and say "so help me God" that Jesus in the Sermon on the Mount said that we shouldn't take an oath.  Jesus said, "let your yes be yes and your no be no."

     We can also take the name of the Lord in vain when we ask the Lord to bless us in our vows to one another and then we break what we have vowed before the Lord.  In this matter, I am particularly thinking of marriage vows.  When two people take their vows before the Lord, and then they break those vows, in a sense, I believe that this is taking the name of the Lord in vain.

     Finally, I believe that we take the name of the Lord in vain when we try to place the Lord's approval on something that the Bible says the Lord is against.  Throughout the course of history, people have invoked the name of the Lord to try to justify some terrible things.  We have invoked the name of the Lord to start wars, take the land of indigenous peoples and enslave others.  We have used the name of the Lord to justify our greed and selfishness.  The Lord would not be pleased with this, and when we do this, we are taking the name of the Lord in vain because the Lord has nothing to do with our actions.

     These are just a few of the ways that I have thought of to apply this important commandment.  I am sure that you will be able to think of others.

     Next week, I will not be able to post the verses until Tuesday as the library is closed for Independence Day this Monday.  I will have a review of a good book on Wednesday, and we will continue with our lessons from the animals series next Friday, Lord willing.  May God bless you all.  Amen.