In the coming weeks, we're going to have to change email services. I got a notice from Instant Church Directory that Big Tech is cracking down on all the little email services. Some of it's because of scammers, but basically all of the major email services are what Big Tech is going to continue to use and all these little services, they're basically keeping it hard and making it hard, keeping it very difficult for them to be able to do mass emails. So just in the last couple of weeks, there have been major interruptions with our email service. I have had multiple emails come back and re-subscribes and come to find out that there were interruptions, and some of it has to do with big tech, cracking down all the little services, and some of it has to do with scammers and spammers. So we're going to have to change email services. So I might be able to get out one more email with the church prayer list tomorrow, but it won't be until tomorrow night because we're going to be on the road. But if I can't get that out, it may be another several days until we decide on which one to use. I'm trying to find out what's the most cost effective. I've looked at MailChimp, Constant Contact, Tithely, which we use for online giving, they have a service, and then there's another one, I forget the name of it, Breeze. So I've looked at four, trying to find which one's best for us and most cost effective. And so you may see a little different service in the next couple of weeks and be looking for some, usually what happens is they send an email blast out saying, hi, we are your new email service with Berean Baptist Church. If you see something like that, I'll try to let you know that ahead of time if I can, but you may have to check spam folders. And anyway, I will try to let you know when that's coming. but you'll probably see something different here in the next couple of weeks as we work through the changes there. All right, let's go ahead and turn to the Word of God and we'll find Exodus chapter 20 in about 20 minutes or so that we have left tonight. I don't know if we'll be able to work our way all the way through this Bible study tonight, but we'll do part two, Lord willing. next week. But Exodus chapter number 20, we started the series a few weeks ago on the Ten Commandments. And we have been working our way through each commandment. We know the Ten Commandments. They're familiar to us, but I don't know how often any of us have done kind of a deep dive or a deep study on the commandments. Maybe we memorized them at some point, or at least we're familiar with them. And they have been, sadly, controversial at times, even in the United States of America, where much of our law and order has been founded upon biblical principles. Much of our nation has been founded on biblical principles. But of course, we have seen a great shift away from biblical principles, and we are seeing evil being called good and good being called evil. The Ten Commandments have become super hyper-controversial in some places, courtrooms and public places, and that's sad. We know that even if man tries to take the Ten Commandments out of courthouses and public places, we know that the law of God still reigns supreme. We know that God's commandments are still true, and they still dictate reality, and they are going to continue to remain faithful and true. And we know that God's word is eternal, and so we're going through each commandment, little by little, and we're gonna be in commandment number three tonight. Exodus 20, in verse number seven. Thou shalt not take the name of the Lord thy God in vain, for the Lord will not hold him guiltless that taketh his name in vain. Now, what does it mean to not take the name of the Lord thy God in vain? We probably immediately think of particular way in which God's name is used as a swear word, as a exclamation, as a way of expressing astonishment, or disgust, whatever the emotion is at that moment, and I'm not at all trying to be disrespectful, but there was a tract that I came across years ago, and it said at the title of the tract that God's last name is not D-A-M-N, because that's how often people use God's name. It is, when we really think about it, It is blasphemy. I know that we don't like to think of it that way. I know that there are various controversial perspectives on the Lord's name. We have been extremely strict at our house. I'm not saying everybody has to be this strict, but at our house growing up, we didn't even let our kids use euphemisms. It's just the way we decided to to do things, I'm not saying that's the way you have to do it around your house. But we don't want people to draw in their mind the wrong word, especially in relation to God. And there are all kinds of filler words, and I was shocked. I was a school principal for many years, Christian school, and honestly, I got to the point where I couldn't deal with it anymore. As much as I wanted to come down hard, as much as I wanted to give out demerits and infractions and put kids in detention for their abuse of the name of God, I got to the point where I guess you could say I'm a wimp, but I gave up on the discipline of it. Because Christian parents didn't care anymore. I mean, there were kids using the Lord's name in vain, left and right. and then the acronyms, and the texting, and the messaging, and it was the Lord's name, and they just didn't think anything of it. And I remember one time dealing with a kid in the hallway who had just used God's name in vain. And I said, we don't talk about, we don't talk like that about our God. This is a Christian school. I said, you may not have been taught this, but this is a Christian school, and we are trying to uphold the name of God and give it the reverence, give God the reverence he deserves. And that kid looked at me, I mean, I practically picked his jaw up off the floor, because he had never heard of such a thing. And it just became a losing battle. because their parents use a lot worse than just that. And let me just say this, let me correct what I just said, because really the worst cuss word is to take our God's name in vain. We consider that blasphemy according to the word of God. So really all the other words, as vulgar as they are, they're actually not as bad, if we can say it that way, as blaspheming the name of God, misusing his name. So I really want us to understand what this commandment teaches, but it's just a real struggle, even among Christians. I may talk about this a little bit more later, but we don't use our mom or dad's name as a curse word. Most false religions, I know one false religion in particular, Islam, they reverence the name of their God. They reverenced the name of their considered greatest prophet to the point that you can't even do cartoons and you can't even speak or say certain things without literally having your life in danger. It wasn't that long ago that there was a cartoonist in France and they got shot up by a bunch of radical Islamists and a bunch of them died because they had used the name Mohammed in vain and the name Allah in vain and had done caricatures. If a false religion, an ungodly, reprobate, false religion has a reverence for their false little G, God, and their greatest prophet, what is wrong with us as Christians that we don't have a reverence for our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, who died on the cross for our sins? For God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit. When we think about the early Old Testament scribes, the Mazarites, They wouldn't even pen the name of God in the manuscripts without going and washing themselves, coming back, writing the name of God, Yahweh, and then going back and taking another bath, washing themselves, and then going on with their manuscripts. That's reverence. We've lost that, sadly, in so many ways. So what does it mean? I'm gonna borrow from Matthew Henry. I thought it was said so well in his commentary that I'm gonna use it for my outline as we work our way through this third commandment. Five ways in which we take the name of the Lord in vain. One, by hypocrisy. Two, by covenant breaking. Three, by rash swearing. Four, by false swearing. And then number five, by using God's name lightly. and carelessly. First of all, by hypocrisy. Professing Christ, but not living up to that profession. We take the name of God in vain. How many times do we see the testimony of the church hurt by professing Christians who live worldly, who live carnal, even participate in scandalous sinful activity, but they name the name of Christ. They will call themselves good Christians. They will refer to themselves as Jesus followers, and yet you look at their life, and it's full of worldliness, lust of flesh, lust of the eyes, pride of life. There's a carnality to their life. There's even scandalous sinful activity, and there are good men and women who love the Lord who have fallen into sin, who have had to repent, who have had to be restored, and those are times that we are all grieving. as fellow believers. But there is a particularly hypocritical disgust for those who claim Christ, who have the Jesus talk, the Jesus lingo on one side, or in one circumstance, or in one place, and yet, in another place, in another time, in a different circumstance, it's worldliness, it's carnality. its ungodliness, even hidden scandalous sin, that hypocrisy is disgusting. As a matter of fact, it's similar to the way Christ refers to the church of Laodicea that was lukewarm, that caused God to vomit them out of his mouth because their hypocrisy, their lukewarmness was so putrid. Ephesians 4 and verse number one says, I therefore the prisoner of the Lord beseech you that ye walk worthy of the vocation wherewith ye are called. Live up to the name of Christ. We take the name of the Lord in vain when we don't live up to that profession in Christ Jesus. Paul tells us to walk worthy of the vocation, of the calling wherewith ye are called. We can talk about sports teams. I'm a sports fan, and there's all kinds of illustrations I could use of various sports teams. One team that I particularly do not like, but there is a way in which they conduct themselves that is supposedly the way, okay, and I'm gonna get a little bit bitter about my sports team, so I'm gonna have to be careful here. No, I'm just joking. But there's the New York Yankees that supposedly set the standard for Major League Baseball. They are the winningest, they are the wealthiest, whatever. The pinstripes, and you are to wear the pinstripe. They talk about it. Some guy will sign a big contract, multi-millions of dollars, And he'll talk about the Yankee way. He'll talk about wearing the pinstripes with honor. And I think about a sports team that wants to honor the history and all of the, I don't know, championships and victories and all the legacy of the New York Yankees. Honor that by wearing the pinstripes and conducting yourself in a certain way so that you show Yankee pride. And I think if a major league baseball team, a major league baseball player, professional player, can have that kind of commitment to the honor of a athletic team, what is wrong with us as Christians when we don't wear the name of Christ with that kind of honor, with that kind of integrity? to represent the Lord Jesus Christ, our Savior, who died on the cross for our sins. Why do we not live the Christian life with that kind of honor, with that kind of reverence, with that kind of respect? And we all fall short. But it is something that comes to my mind when I see athletes, and it's not just in sports, it's in other areas where It's a certain way, conduct yourself, represent the uniform, represent the corporation, represent the company, represent the team, the group, the club, whatever it is, represent them with whatever the ideals are according to the mission statement. This is what the ideal member of this group should look like. And we say, oh, that's great. And we want to live up to that. And we want to be good representatives. And that's a good thing, especially in our places of employment and various places that we're at. And we want to do that. And we should do that. That's part of our Christian testimony. But far greater than a sports team or a corporation or a logo or some place that we associate ourselves with and identify ourselves with, far greater than any of those, should be our identity with the Lord Jesus Christ, as believers who are found in Him. It should speak to the way we live our lives, that we don't be hypocrites. And what is the definition of a hypocrite? All of us, some of the time. Sadly, it is some of us all the time, and that's particularly egregious. But the definition of a hypocrite is me, when I look in the mirror, because I don't always live up to, especially as a pastor, just ask my wife and my children. They know that I don't live up to everything that I preach from this pulpit. And I say that to my shame, because I wish, and by the grace of God, and thankful for his forgiveness and his redemption. And I'm just saying, I'm preaching God's ideal from his word, knowing that I don't always measure up. It's a humbling thing. It's something that often God uses to remind me of how unworthy I am to stand behind this pulpit. But all of us as believers are ambassadors for Christ. All of us are a new creation in Christ Jesus, so we should be living up to that standard. Be holy, for I am holy. So hypocrisy, professing Christ but not living up to that profession. Number two, covenant breaking. Another way in which we take the Lord's name in vain is by covenant breaking, making promises to God but not keeping them. Ecclesiastes 5 and verse 4, when thou vowest a vow unto God, defer not to pay it, for he hath no pleasure in fools, pay that which thou hast vowed. Verse number five of Ecclesiastes five. Better it is that thou shouldest not vow than that thou shouldest vow and not pay. When thou vowest a vow unto God, defer not to pay it, for he hath no pleasure in fools. Pay that which thou hast vowed. We take the Lord's name in vain, we make promises to God, but don't keep them. Too often people make a commitment to come to church, to read their Bible, to be a better Christian, on and on and on it goes. but they don't follow through. Too often, we have people who claim Christ who are like those who make New Year's resolutions, and we're all guilty of making them. January 1st is gonna be the new me. I'm gonna go to the gym, I'm going to lose so much weight, I'm going to whatever it is, right? Get out of debt, you name it. We have all of these goals in what happens about January 15th. Maybe we make it to March 1st. If we really work hard, it's about July 4th. And then it gets really hard, right? And those bad habits creep back in. All that weight that we lost the first half of the year, somehow it just comes back. And it always comes back so much faster than it goes off, doesn't it? Right? You know? It's like Mike Maynard's song, The Fat Came Back. The cat came back the very next day. Mike Maynard sings the song, The Fat Came Back. If you don't know who Mike Maynard is, you can see me later. He's one of my favorite evangelists. and he sings a song called The Cat Came Back, but it's The Fat Came Back. I can play it for you sometime. Anyway, but it's that way, isn't it? All those things that we work so hard at, and yet we blow it, and we have to go back and renew those good habits and that right thinking, but as believers, how often do we make commitments to God that we don't follow through? It gets tough, it gets hard, this or that happens, people disappoint us, whatever it might be, and we quit. And I just don't see in the Bible, as hard as it is, I just don't see quit in the Bible when it comes to serving the Lord. I just don't find it there. If you can find the chapter and verse, please see me. But I don't see in the Bible where there is the quit on God when the going gets tough. I see in Philippians 3, Paul saying, I press toward the mark. As a matter of fact, he says, forgetting those things which are behind, which is hard to do. It is hard to forget. And I don't wanna preach this Sunday morning's message yet, so that's a sneak preview of it. Anyway, no. But pressing toward the mark, forgetting those things which are behind. We see in Paul's life that straining, and he's talking about that apprehending and attaining, and that constant desire. And he says toward the end of his life, I have fought a good fight, I have kept the faith, I've finished my course. And we wanna hear, well done, thou good and faithful servant. We know people who make verbal commitments about vocational ministry, yet never pursue it. I'm disappointed through my life. People who I thought, whether they were in the Preacher Boys class with me or whether they were in other places along the way, made commitments. They said, I am going to be a preacher of the gospel. I am going to be in full-time vocational ministry. They never follow through with that. I've told young people who've told me they were called to the ministry, whatever that ministry may be, they believe that they were called to the ministry. And I tell young people, I've done it even since I've been here. And I say, well, then you need to be faithful right now in the little things. Faithful right now, find the area to serve, and serve, and look for the next area, and be available, and be willing, and be dependable, and God'll take you to the next step. And then when it gets hard, when you become 18, 19, 20 years old, and it gets hard, and there are pressures, and people are saying, but if you're really committed, and you're telling me you are, then when you get 18, 19, 20, and you have another year of college, and then there's this boy, or there's this girl, and there's this temptation and somebody's waving a big fat paycheck in front of you. And I watched this happen. A good friend of mine in college who was called to the ministry, he was on fire for the Lord. He had a zeal. I was looking up to him at one point thinking, I hope I have that zeal one day. and he got a job with a concrete company in college to pay his way through, and he was making buku dollars by the time he finished, and he dropped out of his studies, and he never went into the ministry. I can't know his heart. Maybe he was never truly called. Maybe it was just a verbal thing. But I'm also thankful for men. I just saw another gentleman. We graduated about the same time, and he's still faithfully pastoring a little church up in the Northeast, up in New England. And I'm just so thankful. I see many of those. And I'm not saying this about me at all. This isn't about me. I'm just talking about, in general, verbal commitments. I'm gonna be, use the Lord. I surrender my life to the Lord. then we keep serving. We remain faithful. We stay in the Bible. We stay in the word of God. I know that things can get in the way of church sometimes, work, and various things, but we still make that commitment. We still are faithful. We're still regular. When it comes to the home, when it comes to parenting, when it comes to so many different areas of life, we stay by the stuff. We stay true to the word of God. We stay faithful. And we keep that vow because it's worth it. It is worth it. We make commitments to credit cards because we want those 200 points and we want that bonus at the end of the year, right? Wasn't it American Express or one of those credit card companies that talked about all the promises? I forget what it was. It was one of those credit card companies. Membership has its benefits. Was that American Express or something like that? Membership has its benefits. And sometimes we come to church and we look at the Christian life and we say, what's in it for me? And I think that is totally the wrong attitude. That is not what the attitude should be. It should be a living sacrifice, a reasonable expected service for the Lord. So let's not be afraid to make vows of commitment to the Lord. Let's not be afraid to make promises to God, but then let's be willing to keep them for God's honor and for God's glory. We'll have to stop there, we're out of time. We'll come back, Lord willing, next week, and we'll talk about the other three with the Lord's help. But thank you for being here tonight, and we look forward to a time of fellowship, and there's gonna be hot dog roasting sticks in the back, or at the table, or maybe around back. Help yourself to a hot dog, and if you like yours, well done. Just don't burn the building down. But if you like your hot dog well done or just a little bit warm, however you like it, Willie's gonna be out there at the fire pit. And to help yourself to a hot dog, we'll get the ice cream cups out and there's a bag of chips, at least one for everybody. And then there's some bottled water and we'll enjoy some time of fellowship. And encourage our young people, thank them for their good work and their good service, as well as the workers. And thank you to all the parents and grandparents all the work that you've done in time and commitment you've made as well. Let's bow for prayer. Lord, thank you for our time together tonight. Thank you, Lord, for what you are doing. Pray continue to work in our hearts. Help us, Lord, to be faithful, committed servants. And Lord, even when things get tough, help us, Lord, to remain faithful. And Lord, we thank you for the Kids for Truth, that ministry. We pray that, Lord, you'll continue to bless that program and continue to work in the hearts of our young people. And may we see that ministry continue to grow. and more young people reached with the gospel and growing in the word of God, and laying that foundation for the rest of their life. And again, we thank you for our time. Pray you'll bless this time of fellowship and the food, and pray you'll bless in the remainder of the week, these different needs, special needs, and travels, and all that we have ahead of us, and pray, Lord, that you'll bring us back, Lord willing, together on Sunday to worship you. In Jesus' name we pray, amen. Again, thank you for being here. Have a great rest of the evening and a great rest of the week.