What Is Your Name?

What Is Your Name?

What do you think about yourself?  I want you to take a moment and write down a description of yourself, what you really think about yourself.  Don’t do any deep thinking – just describe yourself off the top of your head, several qualities, attributes of characteristics.

 

There are several “versions” of us, who we are.  We have:

1) The person we think we are

 

Jesus Predicts Peter’s Denial

Matthew 26: 27 “You will all fall away,” Jesus told them, “for it is written:

“‘I will strike the shepherd,
and the sheep will be scattered.’[d]

28 But after I have risen, I will go ahead of you into Galilee.”

29 Peter declared, “Even if all fall away, I will not.”

30 “Truly I tell you,” Jesus answered, “today—yes, tonight—before the rooster crows twice[e] you yourself will disown me three times.”

31 But Peter insisted emphatically, “Even if I have to die with you, I will never disown you.” And all the others said the same.

Later, in the courtyard, when he is accused of being associated with Jesus:

71 He began to call down curses, and he swore to them, “I don’t know this man you’re talking about.” 72 Immediately the rooster crowed the second time.[h] Then Peter remembered the word Jesus had spoken to him:“Before the rooster crows twice[i] you will disown me three times.” And he broke down and wept.

On the flip side, we may know that we are very good at something, or definitely have a certain personality trait.

In any case, we think of ourselves a certain way, whether it is accurate or not.

2) The person others think we are

 

Story of when I sat in the counselor’s office and she asked me why I didn’t like myself. I said I was ugly. She asked why I thought I was ugly.  I said because I was fat. She asked why I thought I was fat. She badgered me until I blurted out, “Because my father says I am fat.”  My parents had been very worried about my weight, and one day my father explained why. He told me that boys like pretty girls, and he didn’t want me to be disappointed.  My view of myself was based on my father’s view that I was fat, and that I must also not be pretty, because my dad said boys only like pretty girls. I would be alone forever because I was overweight and ugly.

 

My mother’s repeated term for me was “There’s something really wrong with you.”  So I came to believe there really must be something wrong with me.

 

I saw a video of a woman who has a syndrome that makes her unable to gain weight. She is very tiny and extremely thin, and has health issues from it.  Her classmates acted like she was a monster, and high school classmates named her the ugliest girl in the world in an online video, where other people posted comments that she should just kill herself, or that she was a monster that should be burned by fire.

 

When Jesus drove out demons, others thought he was possessed by demons himself.  That didn’t mean it was true.

 

Some of His disciples thought he was there to become a physical king over Israel.  That wasn’t true either.

 

In the Book of Acts, when the men started speaking in tongues, the crowd thought they were drunk. That certainly wasn’t true.

 

But sometimes other people may have a more accurate picture of who we are.

 

Nathan confronting David: 2 Samuel 12:

12 Then the Lord sent Nathan to David. And he came to him, and said to him: “There were two men in one city, one rich and the other poor. 2 The rich man had exceedingly many flocks and herds. 3 But the poor man had nothing, except one little ewe lamb which he had bought and nourished; and it grew up together with him and with his children. It ate of his own food and drank from his own cup and lay in his bosom; and it was like a daughter to him. 4 And a traveler came to the rich man, who refused to take from his own flock and from his own herd to prepare one for the wayfaring man who had come to him; but he took the poor man’s lamb and prepared it for the man who had come to him.”

 

5 So David’s anger was greatly aroused against the man, and he said to Nathan, “As the Lord lives, the man who has done this shall surely die! 6 And he shall restore fourfold for the lamb, because he did this thing and because he had no pity.”

 

7 Then Nathan said to David, “You are the man! Thus says the Lord God of Israel: ‘I anointed you king over Israel, and I delivered you from the hand of Saul. 8 I gave you your master’s house and your master’s wives into your keeping, and gave you the house of Israel and Judah. And if that had been too little, I also would have given you much more! 9 Why have you despised the commandment of the Lord, to do evil in His sight? You have killed Uriah the Hittite with the sword; you have taken his wife to be your wife, and have killed him with the sword of the people of Ammon. 10 Now therefore, the sword shall never depart from your house, because you have despised Me, and have taken the wife of Uriah the Hittite to be your wife.’ 11 Thus says the Lord: ‘Behold, I will raise up adversity against you from your own house; and I will take your wives before your eyes and give them to your neighbor, and he shall lie with your wives in the sight of this sun. 12 For you did it secretly, but I will do this thing before all Israel, before the sun.’”

13 So David said to Nathan, “I have sinned against the Lord.”

 

In all honesty, though, doesn’t everyone compare everyone else to themselves and their own idea of how people should be?  I don’t believe anyone truly has an accurate view of others, much less a crystal clear view of themselves.

 

How do you think others describe you?

 

3) The person we wish we were

Often we are attracted to characteristics in others that we wish we had for ourselves.  When I asked my daughter why she like her new boyfriend, Thomas, she said, because he is really good and nice, and he makes me want to be more like him.

 

I was attracted to Ronnie’s ability to fix anything mechanical, and do anything he set his mind to.  I admired his fearlessness in witnessing to people, and his continual follow-through to do what he had promised.  I wished I could learn to be more like him.

 

Galatians 5: 22 But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, 23 gentleness and self-control.

 

1 Cor 13: 4 Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. 5 It does not dishonor others, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. 6 Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. 7 It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres.

8 Love never fails.

 

We look at Jesus and compare ourselves to Him.  We are told by the Bible how we are to act, and it points out that we fall short most likely every day, especially if we are trying to do it in our own strength, without be filled and led by the Holy Spirit.

 

Who is the person that you wish you were? What would those characteristics be?  What would you like your tombstone to say?

 

4) The person we are called to be

I’ve explained before that we have a godly personality within our own spirit that only becomes active when our spirit is “born-again” after salvation. This is the personality that God intended us to have, instead of the personality that we have according to our unspiritual body, mind and emotions.

 

How many of you had a personality change when you were saved?  Some of the new characteristics may have expressed themselves immediately, while others took years to show up on the outside.

 

Let’s take a look at Peter again.  We know he thought he was fearless and would die for Jesus, when he was actually a coward who denied Jesus.  Before the denial episode, Jesus saw Peter for who he WOULD be when filled with the Spirit. He even re-named Simon into Peter, or petra, when Simon believed that Jesus was the Messiah.

 

Peter Declares That Jesus Is the Messiah

13 When Jesus came to the region of Caesarea Philippi, he asked his disciples, “Who do people say the Son of Man is?”

14 They replied, “Some say John the Baptist; others say Elijah; and still others, Jeremiah or one of the prophets.”

15 “But what about you?” he asked. “Who do you say I am?”

16 Simon Peter answered, “You are the Messiah, the Son of the living God.”

17 Jesus replied, “Blessed are you, Simon son of Jonah, for this was not revealed to you by flesh and blood, but by my Father in heaven. 18 And I tell you that you are Peter,[b] and on this rock I will build my church, and the gates of Hades[c] will not overcome it. 19 I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven; whatever you bind on earth will be[d]bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will be[e] loosed in heaven.” 20 Then he ordered his disciples not to tell anyone that he was the Messiah.

 

John 1:40 – 42

40 Andrew, Simon Peter’s brother, was one of the two who heard what John had said and who had followed Jesus.41 The first thing Andrew did was to find his brother Simon and tell him, “We have found the Messiah” (that is, the Christ). 42 And he brought him to Jesus.

Jesus looked at him and said, “You are Simon son of John. You will be called Cephas” (which, when translated, is Peter[g]).

 

Jesus knew exactly how cowardly Simon was, but he looked beyond that to Simon’s born again personality, which would be Peter.  This is not the man who cowered in a room after Jesus’ death, afraid to open the door even to a housemaid.  This is the man in Acts 2 who testified that Jesus was raised from the dead and 3000 were saved.  This is what they did when faced with the Jewish rulers:

 

” 18 So they called them and commanded them not to speak at all nor teach in the name of Jesus. 19 But Peter and John answered and said to them, “Whether it is right in the sight of God to listen to you more than to God, you judge. 20 For we cannot but speak the things which we have seen and heard.”

 

They gladly went to jail, and withstood beatings for boldly proclaiming who Jesus was. This was who they were MEANT to be.

 

When God names someone, it means something.

Jesus’ name means God Saves.

Peter’s name means little rock, and he went from being like the waves of the sea, blown back and forth, to a rock steady leader who proclaimed that Jesus is the risen Son of God and that salvation comes by no other name.

Abram (Noble Father) becomes Abraham (Father of many) and Sarai, (Princess) becomes Sarah(Mother of Nations).

He changed Jacob (supplanter or deceiver) to Israel (powerful prince with God).

 

In Hannah Hurnard’s book, Hinds Feet On High Places, all of the characters are named according to their trait.  The main character is Much Afraid, her cousin is Craven Fear, one of her cousins is Pride, and she is given handmaidens called Sorrow and Suffering.  But in the end, she is given a new name, Grace and Glory, and her companions become Joy and Peace.

 

Revelation 2: 17 Whoever has ears, let them hear what the Spirit says to the churches. To the one who is victorious, I will give some of the hidden manna. I will also give that person a white stone with a new name written on it, known only to the one who receives it.

 

Do you yet know what God calls you?  Do you know His purpose for your life?

 

What is the name that you call yourself?

What is the name that others might call you?

What is the name that you wish you were called?

What is the name that God will call you?