03 God's Top Ten: Using God's Name, Ex 20:7

Life Lessons with Dr. Steve Schell

Our mouths expose our hearts. Sooner or later our real beliefs and attitudes pour out of our lips. As hard as we may try to hide them it's impossible to filter everything, and in those moments when we drop our guard, our hearts speak what we really believe. That's why in these lessons on how to love God (Ex 20:3-11) He draws our attention to how we use His name. His purpose isn't simply to get us to patrol our speech more carefully; His concern lies much deeper than that. He wants us to love and respect Him and knows that if we do our mouths will speak accordingly. Jesus said, "For the mouth speaks out of that which fills the heart" (Mt 12:34), and again on another occasion He said, "But the things that proceed out of the mouth come from the heart" (Mt 15:18). So an honest evaluation of how we use God's name will tell us a lot about our spiritual health.

Today we'll listen to the warning God gives about using His name in vain, but we'll also look at the positive side of using His name. After all, as Christians we are people deeply associated with that name: we believe in His name, we pray in His name, we gather in His name, we serve in His name and we have been baptized in His name. Amazingly, we have been given the privilege to use "the name which is above every name..." (Php 2:9).

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