Latest / Millennial Mustard Seed / S5 167. Rod and Pete - Warning, Don't Take the Name in Vain

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S5 167. Rod and Pete - Warning, Don't Take the Name in Vain · Millennial Mustard Seed

• 0:07
  Welcome back to the millennial Mustard seed.
• 0:10
  I'm your host Rod, going to do things a little bit different
• 0:12
  today because I am teaming up once again with my good buddy
• 0:17
  Pete over at the Days of Noah podcast and we have a
• 0:20
  fascinating mini conversation for you guys, for the followers
• 0:24
  of the. Way.
• 0:25
  And we talk about the name of God and we just bring up some
• 0:29
  points that we felt are very interesting and that should be
• 0:33
  on your radar. So, so me and Peter are going to
• 0:36
  continue to do this for a little while.
• 0:37
  We've actually mapped out a handful of many episodes as well
• 0:41
  as bigger episodes, just kind of like we've done over the years.
• 0:45
  Think I've been on his show, I don't know, maybe six or seven
• 0:48
  times. He's been over here a handful of
• 0:50
  times as well. And continue to keep building
• 0:53
  with the Days of Noah podcast and highly recommend if you guys
• 0:58
  don't know anything about them, you go check them out.
• 1:01
  The hosts are Pete and Luke. They are brothers and they get
• 1:05
  into all kinds of fascinating stuff, kind of like what I do
• 1:08
  here. We dovetail each other quite
• 1:10
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  I'm excited for this mini episode with Pete.
• 2:44
  I'm ready. Are you guys ready?
• 2:46
  Let's go. Thank you for joining.
• 2:58
  Us on this little micro episode here I am chilling with Pete and
• 3:03
  we have it upon our hearts to encourage you guys and do kind
• 3:06
  of a mini recording just for digesting some material.
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  That, we believe, is helpful. And necessary for the Christian
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  mindset or? Should I say?
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  Those who follow the way. So, Pete, thanks for.
• 3:19
  Having me for a little micro recording.
• 3:21
  Yeah, Rod, I'm, I'm glad we're finally doing this.
• 3:24
  This, this idea that we're going to talk about came to me back in
• 3:29
  late May. I think it was around that time
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  I was going through all 24 episodes, which by the way, you
• 3:37
  guys can still find of Chuck Missler's Revelation series.
• 3:41
  It's over 30 hours of content and I'm kind of fortunate enough
• 3:46
  to have a job where I can actually listen to that stuff
• 3:48
  while I do my work. So I was able to get through it
• 3:51
  in a couple weeks. And one of the things that Chuck
• 3:55
  said, which really stood out as a new idea is when you look at
• 4:00
  the commandments and the one that says you shall not take the
• 4:05
  name of the Lord in vain. And most Christians today would
• 4:10
  emphatically say, oh, I know what that means, that, you know,
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  we're not supposed to just say, Oh my God, or, you know, say
• 4:18
  Jesus Christ as a, as a cuss word like we hear in movies.
• 4:22
  And, and from, you know, maybe people we work with, our friends
• 4:25
  even, or maybe some of us said that, said those words in, in
• 4:29
  times past, Right. But, you know, OK, I, I probably
• 4:33
  should stop doing that. Yeah.
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  I'm taking the late name of the Lord in vain.
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  And Chuck had this idea, or at least this thought that maybe
• 4:42
  that's not what it means. Maybe it has to do more with
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  whose banner you're holding, whose team are you on?
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  And are you, you know, if you're wearing the jersey of God,
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  right, that's taking his name. And but if your life doesn't
• 5:01
  measure up and you're just flippant about taking his name,
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  it's kind of the same thing as using his name God flippantly.
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  So I think it does mean to my opinion, it does mean to not use
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  those words for him flippantly, But I think that's a derivative
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  of what it actually means that it's about our life measuring up
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  or as I heard it put once many years ago, a lot of leaves and
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  no fruit, right? It's late.
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  It's like the the stereotype of the guy with the the Jesus
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  bumper stickers and T-shirts and tattoos, you know, and he's at
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  church three days a week, but he's living like the devil
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  otherwise, you know, So I don't know.
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  I think I think that's a really interesting concept that Chuck
• 5:55
  Misler had. And then there's some stuff that
• 5:58
  Mike Kiser had and one of his naked Bible podcasts along the
• 6:02
  same lines. But Rod, why don't you jump in
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  and and share what you think about it?
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  Well. Everything with me is.
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  Multi layered. So the more that I learn about
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  the character of God and his word and I, I go on these
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  journeys like, hey, the more I learn, the more I realized I
• 6:20
  really didn't know in years past.
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  And then the like the humility sets in and the multilayered
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  effect is really to build in such a way that it's not merely
• 6:29
  just the confidence of the outward appearance of the way
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  that we carry ourselves that is important.
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  But then it's so much deeper than that.
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  And what I really appreciate about what Mike Heiser did and
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  Doctor Chuck Missler is they really opened the doors from the
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  academic perspective, challenging a narrative.
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  And I think that one of the things that I am personally
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  experiencing and witnessing is now the Ruach, the Spirit of
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  God, also moving and drawing these things and bringing them
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  into a deeper reality. So like we have the thought
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  process of, OK, yeah, challenging the narrative, do
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  not take the Lord's name in vain.
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  That's not merely just cussing and using the Lord's name,
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  although that's a part of the multi layered reality of not
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  doing that. That's what he's asking you not
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  to do. But that's not the height of it
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  is what we're learning. So one of the interesting
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  concepts that I'll share really quick that feeds into this idea,
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  Pete is just the the scriptures say that in him we have our
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  being right, we move and he works in and through us.
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  And it's, you know, pretty elementary to consider.
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  We go back to Genesis and and God breathes in his ruach, his
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  spirit into the earth, the at threats in the very beginning.
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  And it's like, OK, fascinating. And we have breath.
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  We are literally breathing and to take in breath, which is life
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  giving to the human body. But to act on behalf of
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  something that could be murder or theft, or to try to RIP apart
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  one of your fellow believers because of a plethora of
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  different hatreds and jealousies and musts, that is literally the
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  opposite of what we've been created to do.
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  So in one of the forms of understanding this is in him we
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  we have being. We can articulate ourselves and
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  think and and procreate and and solve problems and by the breath
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  we draw in ourselves. According to his design, using
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  that to then go and kill or deceive is an ultimate form of
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  rejecting the very thing that gives you life.
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  You are using it to break down and kill and destroy around you.
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  And I think that that fits in perfectly with the idea that not
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  to use the Lord's name in vain from a cussing standpoint as
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  well. It's one of the steps on the
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  ladder that gets us to these deeper understandings.
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  There's people around you that are.
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  Witnessing that young. Children that flippantly, you're
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  just tossing the the Lord's name around with disrespect that that
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  falls into their subconscious. They're going to witness that
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  they might they, they might pick up on that tendency.
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  But, and that's not all I have to say.
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  I don't want to go on for too long here, but in a nutshell
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  what I would say is it's always deeper and more beautiful and
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  and scarier than we would ever really like to consider even
• 9:46
  after deep thought. And the Bible.
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  Says work out your salvation with fear and trembling, Pete.
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  Yeah. And just to flush out this idea
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  of it, of this commandment meaning more than just what we
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  use in our language. If we are in a, a work
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  environment, a social Group, A club, A-Team, and, and we tell
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  people or they know that we are a churchgoer, a Bible reader, a
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  Christian. And there's all of these things
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  that, I mean, none of us are perfect and we all have carnal
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  areas of our lives. But if we are just, we, we say
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  that we're on that team, but nothing lines up and we're,
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  we're participating in everything else that everyone
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  around us is doing. And people don't see any
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  difference. It's like the salt losing its
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  saltiness, right? What good is it but to be thrown
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  out? I think that's the real danger.
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  Because now the world doesn't see how we can live as close to
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  Christ as possible in this life and get through this life with
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  grace. But they just see, well, you're
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  kind of like everyone else. So your faith, your religion,
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  your ideas must not have any power.
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  And I think that's the real damage, the thing that God is
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  saying. Don't do that.
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  Don't say that you're on my team, you're following me.
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  And then don't bother to let your, your thoughts, your
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  actions, your words, your behaviors line up.
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  I mean, it's hard enough in our private lives, you know, the
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  things that go through our minds, right, that we don't want
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  anyone to know about. But man, can we, at least in the
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  company of others, show God as someone real and true and
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  faithful that our our actions actually back it up?
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  And people think, yeah, that's that's a person of integrity, at
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  least on the outside. God saying don't take my name if
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  you're not going to follow through with it, That's just bad
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  for everyone else. And it doesn't lead anyone to
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  find the truth of me and then my Kaiser in his naked Bible
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  episode. And I'll post a link to that
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  too. I believe it's around the 4044
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  minute mark. He talks about this idea of name
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  theology and the ancient idea of naming a deity gave you control
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  over it, or at least access to its power.
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  And isn't that interesting when they think about that
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  commandment? What it?
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  What do you think on that rod? Anything there?
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  Yeah. I mean, it just takes me right
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  back to when Moses is encountering the Lord in the
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  burning Bush, the first thing he does to say, what is your name?
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  And if you know anything about Egyptian, you know the Book of
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  the Dead and all, the whole concept of what they learned in
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  Egypt. Moses was raised a very educated
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  Egyptian, so name theology was like on the course, like he knew
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  exactly what was happening when he would control Egyptian
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  deities by knowing their name and knowledge was power.
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  So when you went into the next the the afterlife, right, you'd
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  be able to open and close gates and and move through the
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  spiritual realm by knowing the name of these entities.
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  And it's fascinating, you know, to consider that he's bringing
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  that worldview into his first encounter with God.
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  And so it's fascinating to consider that we as believers
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  and followers of the way may end up finding ourselves doing that
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  same type of thing at times, right?
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  Like knowledge is power or we know this Moses understanding
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  the power of a name and trying to use that with with Yahweh
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  you. Know the the.
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  Unutterable name the great I am right, You can't.
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  You can't speak that one out. I think it might have a lot more
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  to do with breath than many people would like to admit when
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  it comes to comprehended pronunciation of that name.
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  I'll just leave that one there for a little while.
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  This is this is what I would say.
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  The Bible says that the power of life and death is in the tongue.
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  The Bible talks about a whitestone that has our name
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  written on it at the end of the age that no man will know.
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  And I just like to softly introduce the idea that God is
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  not restricted to a vocalization of your name being your
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  identifier. We can see in the Old Testament
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  that Abel's blood cried out to the Lord.
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  So the Lord is much greater than than most of the time.
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  What we can wrap our heads around in the simplicity of how
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  we may enter into understanding these concepts.
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  That's why it's so important to be a Berean and to hash these
• 14:52
  things out and really just not be afraid to ask weird questions
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  or pontificate at times. On.
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  Elaborate on some deep thoughts that have taken place in the
• 15:02
  background. But this kind of brings us to
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  the reality that a name has a lot of power.
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  The genealogies used in the Bible were to literally declare
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  generations and and. Climactical Activities.
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  Names were given with like, huge power and demonstration.
• 15:21
  You know, it wasn't cute. Kind of like it is today.
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  People were like, oh, your name's Rod, what does that mean?
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  And I'm like. Hear he the rod No.
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  I'm just kidding. Sounds fun, right?
• 15:30
  Get a little laugh out of it, but.
• 15:33
  You know my name would come. From Rhodes Island or it means
• 15:35
  muscular but in Bible times when you would hear well, everyone
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  will know this but Noah meant rest or comfort, right?
• 15:44
  And so we look at genealogies and the power of a name and and
• 15:48
  since we are an example of God's glory and his power and his
• 15:52
  brilliance where micro Stardust following the trail of the
• 15:56
  superstar, the real one. Names are powerful and his name
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  and how we deal with it is very important.
• 16:06
  Most importantly, in my opinion, the fabric of how we are living
• 16:10
  our lives. You can't claim that you love
• 16:15
  God and follow God and you treat people bad.
• 16:18
  Doesn't work that way. The old model has is getting
• 16:23
  thrown out and let me just tell you, you'll be exposed if that's
• 16:26
  what you're doing. God is doing some unique things
• 16:29
  right now where he is exposing each one of us for certain
• 16:32
  things that we have left in the background, whether on a
• 16:36
  personal scale or on a public scale.
• 16:38
  I really do believe He wants His bride fit, ready and, and tidy
• 16:44
  for, for what he has planned for us.
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  And, and I would just say as a comfort to just be honest and
• 16:51
  real with the Lord wherever you are.
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  And there's a lot more to consider about taking the Lord's
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  name in vain than simple utterance of words.
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  Pete, Hopefully that kind of painted the picture of how I'm
• 17:05
  viewing it here. We could probably go on and on
• 17:07
  for a while on this one, but that's kind of where my heart's
• 17:10
  at with the topic. Now that's good.
• 17:13
  And I thought of that verse that I think I heard you mention on a
• 17:15
  recent episode of yours. A good name is to be chosen
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  rather than riches. How good is God's name?
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  And let's strive with His help to show the world that He has a
• 17:29
  good name, that He literally is the epitome of every great
• 17:35
  adjective you can think of in the dictionary.
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  Integrity, wisdom, you know, loyal, every, every adjective
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  you can think of, he is the embodiment of.
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  But if we're not living or striving toward that, that life,
• 17:51
  you know, not in perfection, not in legalism, but but humbly with
• 17:56
  his help, if if we are doing that, then the world's going to
• 18:00
  see him hopefully in truth and and go, yeah, I want to follow a
• 18:05
  God like that. So thanks for listening guys.