How Do I Get a Good Name? | Ways of the Wise

What does it mean to have a good name? In a world obsessed with personal branding, online reputation, and social media image, the Bible offers a completely different perspective on what makes a name worth having.

Drawing from Proverbs, Ecclesiastes, James, and Philippians, this message explores the biblical meaning of a name, why God calls people by name, and what it actually takes to build a life of lasting character and legacy.

Whether you are thinking about the legacy you are leaving for your children, working through the consequences of past mistakes, or carrying a label that someone else placed on you, this message speaks directly to the question of identity, character, and where to find grace for a fresh start.

This is a message for anyone asking questions like: How do I build a life of integrity? What does the Bible say about legacy and character? How do I recover from a damaged reputation? What does God think about my identity? How do I leave a meaningful legacy for my family?

This sermon was recorded at a Sunday morning gathering at Church of the Lookout in Longmont, Colorado.

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Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:00

Welcome to the Lookout Weekly Podcast. Church of the Lookout is an older Colorado, and our vision is Jesus abiding in his presence, growing in his family, and living on his mission to transform the world with awe-inspiring love. Visit us online at thelookout.church. So good to see you. What a beautiful morning. Yeah, go ahead and find your seat across the room, and uh let's get settled in. Um man, so so glad to spend the morning with you. Uh guys, I've been a little bit in and out over the last few weeks doing a couple things. I'll tell you about that in a second. One thing real quick the August 23rd, the end of summer barbecue, a couple of things you need to know. Not only is there a 16-foot bouncy slide, I know she said just for kids, but maybe. Um second thing, uh, Punch Buggy Shave Ice is gonna be here. If you know anything about shave ice, it's not shaved ice, it's shave ice, if you've ever been to Hawaii. Shave ice, punch buggy, the best in Boulder County, is gonna be here that Sunday, just dishing out shave ice. It's gonna be awesome. And that morning, I want to and I want to encourage you. If there is a neighbor or a friend you've been thinking about inviting to church and you've been just wondering like what's the right Sunday, how do I know if it's gonna be a good experience for them? Um, and you're never quite sure, sure, like which Sunday, what kind of Sunday you're gonna get, this is the one, all right? This is the one to invite your neighbor to. It's gonna be a fantastic morning. We're gonna plan it, just understanding that you're gonna be inviting friends and guests. So it's gonna be a great time. August 23rd, it'll be a great way to kind of bring things back as we uh my wife hates saying end summer because she refuses to live in reality. But I think the um it's summer all the time. It's either summer, it's either summer or Christmas for my wife. It's summer or Christmas, nothing else. Um uh either way, we're gonna come back together and then launch into the fall together. Sound good? Awesome. Um uh so last week was a really fun uh memorable moment. Uh some of you know that about 20 fathers and sons uh went up to the Sangre de Cristo wilderness and we backpacked together, and it was kind of like a rites of passage moment as our as our boys we were inviting to become young men. And uh, and so several of our fathers and sons were out last week. If you didn't notice that, we clah we hiked about 5.5 miles in, 2,800 feet of elevation gain up to past 11,000 feet. Uh over the course of three days, over 200 fish were caught. Uh over 200 fish were caught. Come on, come on, give it up for a young man, come on. Um uh and but you know, but the whole design of the time uh of this weekend, and we did a similar thing last year. The whole design of the time was just to mark this moment as young men are entered, these boys are entering into a journey into manhood. There's nothing in our culture anymore, in our particular Western culture, that will do that for you. You just expected to figure it out over time or to initiate yourself. So we want to take a moment, you know, uh just even a weekend where fathers could speak, connect with their sons, speak into their sons. We got to talk about a biblical vision for manhood. Uh, but on the last night, uh, we did this really special ceremony where we we uh we had all the fathers in one area, and then all the sons were up the hill. And uh and and we had set it up. They could they knew something was about to happen, but they they weren't quite sure what. And what happened was one by one the fathers would come forward in a line and we'd call out the names of our son, just with just as as as loud as we can, with as much vocal power amplification as we can into the woods. We call out the name of our son and invite them to come join the men. And uh, and what would happen is each time uh the father would go up and he'd call out the name, and then you'd see the son kind of making their way through the dark forest into this illuminated path. And uh, and and it was uh pretty incredible to see each father be the first one to embrace their son and everybody in kind of hushed silence, just kind of honoring the moment, this kind of sacred moment, as as the father is just receiving his son again into just the arms of affirmation, just kind of like we're singing, but like a visible embodied response to that, right? And uh, and receive them and pray over them, and then after the son father would receive the son, kind of walk them back, and there'd be a whole line of men, and each each man in the line would high-five and hug and cheer on the sun and say, Hey dude, I am so proud of you, and I want you to know I am with you on this journey. You are not alone, you're not alone. I'm with you on the journey. And they'd come in, and then we all surrounded. After every son kind of came through this moment, we were all there around this LED fire. God, send the rain, please. It's not quite the same without a fire, but we got it pretty good. And we were all there, and then the fathers would just share words of encouragement and affirmation over what we saw in each of these boys as they're starting this transition into the most epic season of their life. And uh I shared that with you for a couple of reasons. First of all, to know that this is the kind of church that we seek to become once we're meeting every every everyone, even our young ones, where they are at and accompanying them and companion them with what God is doing in their life and their journey of discipleship. But there's something powerful about having a moment where your name is called out. Where your name is called out by your father. There's something as I stepped out and just had a chance, as I did with my older son last year, I got a chance to do with my younger son this year, and just with as much fervor as I could muster, just called out his name. Master Michael Humbrecht. I'm calling you out by name. Come step into your manhood. Because there's something about all of us that we long, we crave in our hearts to be called out by our name. Our names matter. Do you know that? Your name matters. And for every person in Scripture who's called to Christ, any person in human history who's called to Christ, Christ doesn't call you in generalities, he calls you by name. He doesn't look across and say, Hey, you come on over. He knows your name. He knows the name of every one of his sheep, and he calls us by name. He doesn't, you're you're not a number to God. How easy would it be to be a number to God? Can you imagine God calling you to himself? He looks at you in the eyes with all the affection of the Father and says, Hey, hey, number 22,197,643,341. I love you. Like, can you imagine that? It's like you're not a number, you're not a sequence, you're not one of many, you're one of a kind. You are the apple of his eye. He loves you, he calls you, and your name matters. The name that we've been given matters. And in a Hebrew understanding, names are more than a label, it's more than a category. In a Hebrew understanding, names are like the sum total of your identity and what you have been given and your inheritance and your blessing on the earth. And that's why in the scriptures, when we read about some of the saints of old, we read about how God, the faith was associated not just with one name, but the names of many. He's the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. And so even me calling out the son, the name of my son Asher, I'm not just calling out his name. I'm I'm calling, I'm reminding him that you're standing on the shoulders of generations before you, and the generations that will come after you will receive the benefits of everything that God deposits on your name in your life. So when I call out his name, I'm I'm also saying, may the God, the faith of Asher be the same as the faith of Luke, the same as the faith of Mark, the same as the faith of Harry. That's right, Harry Humbrecht. Anybody vote to bring back the name Harry, by the way? I feel like we're missing something in our culture. Let's bring back Harry. But genealogies matter. You read this in the scripture, names are associated with well-being. It's associated with the sum total, the content of somebody's life. This is why even when the angels would visit Mary and Zechariah, they would give them the names of their sons before they were to walk the earth. Thank God. Just imagine if the angel showed up to Mary and never gave never gave her the name Jesus, and she's like, I was gonna go with Brian, but thank you. Jesus will do, right? God, our salvation, that the name matters, that names carry something. It carries the weight of community. And in an ancient context, it means a lot more than it does now. Now we can have documentation and credit scores to make our way through the world. But it used to be that your name had everything to do with your trustworthiness. Whoever you were associated with, and the quality and content of your name had to do with your position in the world. We want to be known for having good names, and we want our children to have good names. Names matter for a lot of reasons. Business owners obsessed over brand names, parents who agonized over baby names. They keep it top secret so their friends don't find out about them, right? And we think that the names of our babies are like so like unique until like 13 years later you realize half of boys are named Asher anymore, right? There's a lot of Ashers out there. I had no idea. 13 years ago, but there's a lot of Ashers. But names matter. Here's a kind of a funny story, too. Sometimes this goes too far. We want so much to be packed into the name, the well-being of our children. And any of you familiar with Bill Bryson, the travel writer, he he he uh he wrote a book called Made in America, and he pointed out that there were so many Puritan names on the Mayflower era, in the Mayflower era era on the passenger logs. There's Puritan names, and parents would bake into the names of their kids what they wanted for their kids, right? So uh a name like uh last name Cooper, first name humility. Humility Cooper, all right? A virtue. I want you to be known for humility, or another one, last name white, first name resolved. Resolved white. But they started to kind of build from there, and some of the names actually carried lifelong instructions, and so last name Cole, first name be courteous. Be courteous Cole. How did that work in school? I don't know. Just call him Kurt, right? Be courteous Cole. Um, but it but there's actually recorded history here of names even going further than this, of parents trying to preach full sermons in the names of their kids. The next generation would want up them with names like search the scriptures, Morton, fight the good fight of faith, white. All right? All hyphenated, fight the good fight of faith, white. Okay? And it even gets even crazier than this. There was a particular family named the bare bone family. The father's name was Praise God, Barbone. His first son was Fear God, Barebone. Okay. But his next son was called this, and I I am not making this up. Last name Barebone, first name. If Christ had not died for thee, thou hadst been damned. Barebone. Oh God. That poor kid. It's no wonder that he would grow up and change his name to Nicholas. He's like, can we just go with Nick? All right. And uh I I was like reading these names, I'm thinking, I mean, I just would love one conversation with those parents, you know. Just like, hey, I see what you're trying to do. I love it. I just think we should reconsider, all right? Let's go with Nick. So the names matter. And um and the reason that they did that, in their world, most people couldn't read, so a name wasn't just a label, it was a sermon you carried around with for the rest of your life. So every time somebody called your name, the gospel was preached, right? Fear God, praise God. Some names were a prayer for who a child might become: faith, grace, patience, mercy. You spoke over your daughter the thing that you hoped God would grow in her. Underneath all of this stuff, the instinct was right. They believed that a name should mean something, it carries something. That your your life was supposed to point beyond itself to something true about God. And so that's what a good name does, is it preaches, and it's and and it actually evokes something to others to encounter you. And so I that's all kind of a setup as we're coming back into this ways of this the wise series and Proverbs. There's so there's much in the Proverbs that talk about how to have a good name. That's the kind of the question we're getting at today. How do I get a good name? Because in the scriptures, in the Proverbs, a good name is also linked to legacy and inheritance. Here's what it says in Proverbs chapter 22. A good name is to be chosen rather than great riches, and favor is better than silver or gold. And so, according to Solomon, and and as we as we'll see in some of these other Proverbs, a name is both desired, but the way that you get to a good name is not image management. It's not just cultivating a perception of yourself. You become the kind of person that your name evokes. Image is what you project, but a name is what you earn over a lifetime. And for all of us, we have we're called into this life with the name that we've been given and the life that we've been given to live into a long faithfulness that actually, when our name is mentioned, something happens. And so, how do we get a good name is a good question, but what brings ruin to a name is is a question we have to ask too, and we'll get to that in a little bit. Because some of us know what it's like to have a name tarnished or denigrated or full of shame. And we could say, we could I could stand in front of you and mention a lot of different kinds of names throughout history that would immediately evoke emotional response. I could go through a list of the last five presidents, and that would immediately evoke an emotional response in this room. There are villains and there are heroes, there are saints, there are sinners. They are all over, and a lot of that gets associated with the name. So, what is a name? How do we live our lives with weight to our name? So, kind of the first point here is that the best legacy is actually a good name. The best legacy is a good name. Proverbs 10, 7 says this the memory of the righteous is a blessing, but the name of the wicked will rot. The memory of the righteous is a blessing, but the name of the wicked will rot. Kind of intense language there. But there's something about a righteous life that is worth being remembered. And it's it's important that we actually separate what we're talking about, a righteous life, versus just an accomplished life. Author David Brooks, he talks about the difference between resume virtues and eulogy virtues. So many of us live our lives trying to stack up resume kinds of virtues, right? Things we bring to the marketplace, achievements, competencies, external success. We are ordering our lives based on certain kinds of accolades and labels and categories. But eulogy virtues are much different than resume virtues, right? Eulogy virtues are what actually gets said at your funeral. And what gets said at your funeral is not your net worth or how many homes you own or what you accomplished in your business. Maybe, maybe for a few, your life had such a dramatic effect in particular areas of the world or in your marketplace that that would be worth mentioning. But for the most of us, what actually gets said at our funeral at our funeral is whether you were kind, faithful, honest, courageous, the co the qualities at the core of your being. And so while our culture spends all its energy, near, you know, nearly all its energy cultivating these accolades, everybody quietly knows that what gets said at your funeral is more often how you make how you made people feel in the course of your life. What they will remember for you is not what you accomplished, but how you made them feel, how people felt in your presence, right? When people remember you, those are the kinds of things they will talk about. So a righteous name is so good that it becomes a blessing, and that people remember the quality of life you live before God and others. And the same thing, a wicked, a wicked name rots, it sours over time. Nobody wants to remember. So, you know, there's certain names that we can say out loud and we can pay attention to how they feel, right? Mother Teresa. How does that feel? That's a good name. That's a good name, right? Billy Graham. Good name. Walt Disney. Ah, come on, Walt Disney. Steve Jobs. You know, a little of this. And then we can certainly we could go to the other extreme. You say a name like Adolf Hitler, and it's no no secret that it there's maybe a pit in your stomach. And there's probably a lot of others in the same way. Leaders, people who've gone before, their names actually carry something. Their whole life is just and ends up becoming distilled into one word. Ecclesiastes 7, also written by Solomon, he says this again. He says, it's in 7-1, he says, a good name is better than a precious ointment. A precious ointment would be what would soothe the skin. Um it would be good for your well-being. It's like it creates a glow. A good name, a good name is the same thing. It carries a sense of radiance to it. And so some of us were working to reverse maybe certain family legacies, maybe your family's financial trajectory, and that's a good that's that's probably a good thing. You're working to undo certain things that maybe were inherited, but but you're still fearing that you'll have little to leave behind. But the proverbs would say that the best inheritance is not a trust fund, it's a respectable name. The best inheritance you have to give to your kids is a quality of life lived from the inside out. Let me just mention a few other names. If you've been around the lookout community for some years, these names might do something to you as well. Cheryl Yoruso. What a name. Joyce Robertson. What a name. John Freeman. What a name. Bob Baker. What a name. So saints that have gone before and that were standing on their shoulders, their lives that were lived, and there's a quality to the life that is a gift to God and a gift to the world. Outside of anything we know they accomplished, it was a way of being in this world. So what comes up in a room you're not in? When your name comes up in a room you're not in, what does it mean? This is very important. In your marketplace, in your work. When your name comes up in the office of the other office, what is your name associated with? Does it evoke does it evoke energy? Does it evoke kindness and generosity and well-being? Or is there a certain fear or a certain shame associated with that? We'll talk a little bit more about that in a second, but a bet the best legacy is a good name, but just to stack the points here, a good name is the result of living well. So there's no fast track to a good name. You can do all the marketing, you can do all the personal branding you want. It's the result of character built over time. As Eugene Peterson would say, it's a long obedience in the same direction. Longevity is the key separator in our lives of long faithfulness, of a life lived with God, thousands of tiny decisions, all stacking with each other. Proverbs 3, 3 through 4 says this let not steadfast love and faithfulness forsake you. Bind them around your neck. Write them on the tablet of your heart, so you will find favor and good success in the sight of God and man. How do you win a good name in the sight of God and man? It's not managing perception. It's not PR stunts. It's steadfast love and faithfulness written on your heart. What's inside eventually shows up on the outside, and your name becomes associated with it. Quality and character of your life is your best gift to the world. So in the New Testament, if we're just to kind of fast forward a little bit, the author James, which is Jesus' little brother, he uh he comments in this in his own words. He talks about a life of wisdom, and he does not separate it from the quality of heart. Wisdom was not just this kind of like just kind of floating around and giving blessings and wise sayings. It was a way of living in the world that had this quietness, this hiddenness to it, but kind of this purity of heart. Here's what James says in chapter three. He says, Who is wise and discerning among you? By his good conduct, let him show his works in the meekness of wisdom. So he's associating wisdom with works and meekness. Just catch that. But if you have bitter jealousy and selfish ambition in your hearts, do not boast and be false to the truth. This is not the wisdom that comes down from above, but is earthly, unspiritual, demonic. For where jealousy and selfish ambition exist, there will be disorder in every vile practice. But the wisdom from above, listen to this, the wisdom of above is first pure. Just catch that for a second. I this just stopped me while I was reading it. I don't when I think about how to describe wise people, very rarely do I go to the word pure. I don't think about pure. Oh man, he's so pure. Look at the wisdom on his life. But James is saying the wisdom that comes from heaven that marks our lives and the quality of lives that we live is first pure, then peaceable, gentle, open to reason, full of mercy and good fruits, impartial and sincere. And catch this. And a harvest of righteousness is sown in peace by those who make peace. Would you receive that word this morning? A harvest of righteousness. There's something in the life of wisdom that is lived before the Lord that's actually sowing into. It's sowing into the ground, a harvest of righteousness. Who wants to leave behind a harvest of righteousness for the next generation? Who wants their life to last beyond your very own breath? I do. And there's a lot of different versions of that in our culture. How to make a life that lasts. All the billionaires are building bunkers right now and trying to figure out how to live forever. I mean, they're literally trying to extend their bodies as I mean, it's transhumanism, is what it is. We're trying to become, we're becoming machines that will live forever. There's this thing of how do I live forever? How do I have a name that lasts that just goes beyond my lifetime? Proverbs saying, listen, if you want wisdom that lasts beyond you, then you need wisdom from above so that your life will plant seeds of righteousness that will produce a harvest for years to come. Some of you need to know in your family line, some of us, you might be a first generation Christian and you are rewriting your family history from here on out. And I want to say, praise God for you. Praise God for you and the generations that will come after you. The prayers that you pray today will reap a harvest for generations to come in Jesus' name. Some of you, that was for you. Others of you, you need to know that you're standing on the shoulders of saints that have gone before you, of good names that have gone before you. Maybe you don't know, but the quality of their life and the prayers that they prayed, you are standing on their prayers. I'm standing on the prayers of my parents. I'm standing on the prayers of those who have gone before. And I pray that for my sons and my daughter, that as I bless them and I leave a life, a harvest of righteousness, God willing, by his strength and grace in my life, not by my own good works, but because of his energy at work within me, that I'm believing that God has given me all things that pertain to righteousness and godliness, so that the life that I live is not just good for me. It's good for my kids and their kids, kids, and kids, kids, kids. We don't think multi-generational enough. We need the wisdom of God not just for our day, but for the generations that come after us. Come on. Somebody preach back to me. Let it be so, God. I just pray for a harvest of righteousness in this church. I pray for seeds to be sown in peace by those who make peace. We thank you for good fruit, God. So a good name is the result of living well. It's wise living pure before God. But kind of this last piece, though, living well requires, listen to this, living well requires restraint. Everyone's favorite word. Because you came to church today to hear about restraint. It sounds like such a boring word, but the Proverbs double down on this all the time. Like, listen, if you want a wise life, if you want to live not like a fool, if you do not want to take a path of a fool, you need to learn the path of restraint, which is odd for anybody growing up in the United States of America. Because we celebrate freedom, not restraint. But in the spirit and in a kingdom life, if we don't get restraint right, we will never get freedom right. Smile at me. Come on. Biblical restraint is not just moderation, it's discipline for the sake of a focused direction. Okay. It's about what keeps my life, guardrails that keep my life moving towards the glory of God. Guardrails, we don't celebrate guardrails just for the sake of guardrails. Guardrails exist because there is a destination on this road. So Proverbs applies restraint in a lot of ways. Proverbs talks about anger and temper. Whoever is Proverbs 16, whoever is slowed anger is better than the mighty and he who rules his spirit than he who takes a city. If you want to know good strength, you think that taking a city requires strength. How about ruling your spirit and ruling the attitudes of your heart, submitting them before the Lord, processing them with God so that they transform into something new and different? Anger and temper. Some of you grew up in a home where there was anger and a temper that was unrestrained, and you took the brunt of that. Or your siblings took the brunt of that. Or your your mother or father, whoever, took the brunt of somebody else's unrestrained anger. Proverbs saying no. A fool gives full vent to his spirit, but a wise man quietly holds it back. So anger, pride, and self-promotion, retaliation, envy, comfort and ease. Proverbs 20, 13, love not sleep lest you come to poverty. I didn't say it, okay? Proverbs said it. So we're like, we're going after sleep now. Um the Proverbs is very clear. Like, listen, if it it's not anti-rest, it's make sure you're diligent with the work of your hands. The Proverbs will talk about the difference between a sluggard and one who works hard. So comfort and ease when it's unrestrained, it works towards our destruction. Meddling, uh getting involved in issues that are not your own. Speech, we've talked about that in previous weeks. Wealth and pleasure. Proverbs 21, 17 Whoever loves pleasure will be a poor man. He who loves wine and oil will not be rich. I'm saying unrestrained pursuit. Appetites, this gets into what we put into our bodies. Gluttony. Proverbs has a lot to say about our appetites and certainly our sexuality as well. That it's not we we while we live in everything goes culture, do whatever feels right, do whatever seems right, let everybody live and let live is kind of the mantra of the day. That's fine. But when it comes to life in the kingdom, a life marked by wisdom and righteousness, it's marked by people who know how to leverage the self-control of the Holy Spirit as a fruit of our life, to keep our lives directed on what brings God most glory. And so this is important not only for the Christian life and a life in the kingdom of God, but also for a good civilization. Let's just take the Christianity part out of it. Just for a good civilization to walk in freedom, you need people who live with restraint. Edmund Burke said this in his letter to a member of the National Assembly. This is 1791. Here's what Edmund Burke said. Men are qualified for civil liberty in exact proportion to their disposition to put moral chains upon their own appetites. Okay, put on your think through, think through this with me. Society cannot exist unless a controlling power upon will and appetite be placed somewhere, and the less of it there is within, the more there must be without. It is ordained in the eternal constitution of things that men of intemperate minds cannot be free. Their passions forge their fetters. How powerful is that? Let me just translate that for you. If you're not willing to restrain yourself, somebody else will need to restrain you. Be it a government, be it a system, whatever. To live in a free society, we must be the kind of people who can live directed and disciplined and focused on what truly matters. Does that make sense? This is how to be a good American and how to be a good Christian. Is we live with a sense of restraint over the appetites that get the best of us. And this is when it comes to how does a good name get ruined, you've probably seen it. I've seen it time and time again, how a good name gets ruined is people who are given over to the desires of their flesh, the their their appetites that exist within that are completely unrestrained. Nobody ever wakes up planning to blow up their life. Okay? It's never happened. Nobody wakes up planning to blow up their life. But what happens is over time, and you feel this, and I feel this time to time, life squeezes you. There's pressures that exist upon your life. There's things that happen, financial constraints, health constraints, relational constraints. And when life starts squeezing us and pressure starts coming, we're tempted to believe this thought of I didn't deserve this, and so I'm gonna take more liberty in another area of my life. So we overcompensate in pressure by taking more liberty somewhere else. We start cheating in small decisions. My work isn't paying me enough, so I'm gonna take it in another way. I'm not getting what I need from my marriage or certain relationships, so I'm going to find it in another way. We start getting into this, I deserve more. And what happens is when pleasure becomes medication and escape, that's when it does its most destructive work. And some of us, again, you that hits very close to home because either you have lived with somebody that that has lived with somebody unrestrained or undisciplined in that way, or maybe that has marked your own life. That's been part of your own story. And I'm just saying, all of us have some version of these stories in our lives. So a name can get ruined by living with restraint. For some of us, though, names can get ruined by others when we have enemies through gossip and slander, misunderstanding, betrayal. Who's ever been misunderstood or betrayed? Who's ever had a name that has been slandered? I bet if we raise our hand in this room, all of us have a story. I have my own stories. Um, even as a pastor, not everybody is thrilled about that. Not everybody likes everything I have to say. And I've had to walk through things, even in a public way, before, where things I've said or things that have been misrepresented, people feeling like I've said one thing and did not, and things that unfold, I'm like, that completely misrepresents everything I would say or believe. And so the feeling of having a name slandered, there's the kind of it feels vile, doesn't it? It feels nasty. But all of us, kind of a reality check, just cross the as much as a good name is important, can we just all agree? For every single one of us, our name has been sullied in one way or the other. Nobody in this room has a perfect name. So let's just create a level playing ground. Nobody in this room has a perfect name. There's not, the scriptures that even say there's not one righteous, no, not even one. And so the good news for us, though, as we're kind of, as we're talking about a life that carries substance and legacy and inheritance and harvest of righteousness, none of us will completely nail it in the course of our life. And all of us has it has a name that has been tainted in some way, which is why the Bible doesn't just leave us with, you better get a good name, or you know, or else. It leaves us with more hope and promise. Proverbs 18, 10 says this it's the name of the Lord that is a strong tower. The righteous man runs into it and is safe. So when your name runs out, you have another place to run to. You have a name you can run to. What I love about this is it doesn't say the righteous are perfect. It doesn't say the righteous nail it all the time. The righteous need a place to run to as well. Like, oh God, the pressure. Everything around me. I need a place to hide to run, and where else to run? But into the name of the Lord. His name is a strong tower over our life. And guess what? He is pleased to give you his very name. The righteous run into it and are saved. So if you need a name beyond your name to run into, you have it. It's the name of Jesus. Acts 4 12 says, There is salvation in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved. Somebody say, Thank you, Jesus. Thank you, Jesus. When we call on his name, listen. When you call on his name, he gives you his name. And this is the promise in the book of Revelation that there's a name he even has reserved for us that we don't even know. It's written on a white stone. You won't even know it until the end of time. God has a name for you because he sees you and he knows you. And there's been other names that have been given to some of you over the course of time, and God wants to free you from that. Maybe you're here even today and you've been given the name. You're a mess up. And you've been you've been carrying this thing. I'm a I am a mess up. I am a drunk. I am a abuser. I am a cheater or liar. What names have been given to you? Maybe by others? By your parents? By your children? Maybe by yourself. By the evil one. Listen, I believe for us the wisdom that we're receiving today is to know that our lives and our name matters. But it's not about how do I figure this whole thing out to have a legacy. It's about coming headlong, headfirst into the name of Jesus Christ and letting him rewrite our identity, rewrite our history, so that we can receive the grace of God and the mercy of God where we need it most. The righteous are not perfect, they're the ones who know that they've been saved. A perfect name is hard to come by. But one of the good news as well is even Jesus knows what it means to have a name that is profaned, mocked, denigrated, misunderstood. Jesus himself who came to us, who who stepped out of all of his privilege in heaven, it says in Philippians 2.5. He emptied himself, he took on the form of a sermon, servant, and he was born in the likeness of men and given an actual name. And being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross. Check this out his name was mocked. Can you imagine the name of the Son of God being mocked? And profaned. They laughed at him. And they wrote a sign on the cross, King of the Jews. Look at this cute little man, King of the Jews. Who does he think he is? Jesus of Nazareth. And he allowed it. He allowed himself. Dear Jesus, he allowed himself to be subject to the scorn and the shame of his very name. So that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow in heaven and on earth and under the earth. And every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of the God the Father. Come on, thank you, Jesus. It doesn't matter what's done to your name, it doesn't matter what's done to his name. The Father has exalted him. The Father will exalt you. Run to his name and receive mercy and forgiveness in your time of need. If you've screwed up, if you've messed up, join the party. We're all in the same boat. But when we come to him, he rewrites our story, he rewrites our history. He gives us his very name, the name of Jesus, that will be exalted today, yesterday, and forevermore. Amen. Amen. Let's stand together. We're gonna sing this name. We're gonna sing about the name of Jesus. And as we sing about his name, I just invite you to receive the identity that he gives to you. Through his name, he changes your name and your identity where you need it. Let's sing this together. Come on, let's put in the name of Jesus together again. Jesus, we call on your name Jesus. You're the name we run to. You're the only name that saves God. You're the only name that saves Jesus. Thank you, Jesus, you are Lord. Your name is expulsive. Your name is cured. Your name is righteous. We thank you for your name, God. And I pray over us this morning, God. If there's anybody that walked into this room with shame, we say shame is broken in the name of Jesus. We thank the identity is rewritten in the name of Jesus. You are not an orphan, you are a son and daughter, you are not outside of the family of God. You call in the name of Jesus, you are adopted and he's proud of you. He delights in you, he loves you, and that will never change. Jesus' name. Come on. Come on, let's go. So, Jesus, today we thank you, God, for the life that you have called us to. We thank you that you've given us a path forward. You have given us your very name and your strength and the strength and the power of the Holy Spirit to live for your glory. And I thank you in this room, as we've said before, God, for as we live into the life that you've called us to, as we call on your name, God, that through our lives there will be a harvest of righteousness, seeds sown into the ground for the sake of this church, for the sake of our neighborhoods, for the sake of Boulder and Weld County, for the sake of Colorado, United States, God, that heaven may come to earth wherever we put our feet. Let it be so. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen. Amen. Come on. Come on. Listen, today, as you're here this morning, there may be some specific things that are percolating in your heart and in your being. And you need to pray with somebody. Maybe you need to talk to somebody about what does even a relationship with Jesus even mean? What does that even mean to call on his name? And listen, we're going to have our ministry team members. You're going to see some ministry team members with purple badges. They're going to be kind of on the sides of the room. And listen, I want to invite you. These are people that are here to pray with you. And maybe there's something specific in your life that you just want some, you want somebody else's faith and just hope to journey with you. These are people you can trust. Do not leave this room until you get prayer today because God wants to meet you, okay? If you're a guest here today, we'd love to meet you too. Don't just run out. We'd love to meet you in the back. You'll see a sign that says connect with us. But as we go, we go with hope. Do we not? We're not going empty handed because we're recipients of the free and beautiful gospel of Jesus Christ. So as we go, may we love well, light up and look out in Jesus' name. Amen. Love you guys.