[Doug Wendt] Brethren, when you think about our great God and how much He's done for us and the opportunity we have to come before Him to meet in His presence and to be reminded of His ways, it's an awesome blessing. And we should stop and think, are we truly getting ready for all that God has planned out? Because we read in the Scriptures all these things that will come to pass, and as Christians, we need to do more than just remember the Sabbath. More than just, you know, looking at these laws and reading them, we need to live by them. We need to prepare and allow God to build the character in us, and our lives must be changing. And we know that we all have areas to work on. Every one of us has weaknesses that God says, "I don't want that to be a part of My Kingdom, My family." And we think about our conversation even about people. We hear good things about individuals. You know, we're talking with one another, we hear, "Oh, this person did that and it's great that they were able to perform that." And then we hear bad things as well, don't we? That somebody says, "I can't believe they did that. I can't believe they..." And it just goes on and on.

So we hear good and bad things about individuals as we're talking. And whether it's in the family, whether it's among siblings, whether it's at work or at school, all these items that we discuss, we have to consider that that's referring to a person's name when you're saying things, good or bad. And so we have to ask ourselves the question, what would people say about us? You know, if they're talking, whatever it is they're discussing, what would they say about us? How do we come across to them? Are we kind? Are we generous? Are we positive? Is that what comes up in their conversation? Or would they say negative things? They say, "Well, that person's pretty lazy," or they never pitch in, and the list goes on and on. So we have a choice of how people refer to us, how they bring us up in conversation, by the way, we handle our lives. And we have to look to the father, our Father in heaven and Jesus Christ, and how they model their lives because they set a perfect example for us in how we should be living.

Let's begin today in Psalms, Psalm 8:1. Psalms 8:1. It shows us here how to view God's name. You think about today in the world, we don't hear much about God's greatness, do we? I mean, you can look at the creation and all of the things that God has done, but most people, if you hear His name, it's usually because they're taking it in vain. So as Christians, we need to handle that differently. We need to look at what we're saying and make sure it's in line with God. Psalm 8:1 says, "O Lord, our Lord, how excellent is Your name in all the earth, who have set Your glory above the heavens!” And then it goes in to describe a little more about this creation that God has done, but you think about, that's all reflected in His name, isn't it? Everything God does, it gives you an image of who He is. Just like what we do, people look at us and say, "Oh, that's who you are," based on what we do.

And so we're given an example here of how our names reflect who we are. It's hard for us to imagine how great God is. But as we look at his creation, as we think about His words in the Bible, we start to realize what a great God we serve. Notice verse 3, chapter 8 verse 3, "When I consider Your heavens, the work of Your fingers, the moon and the stars, which You have ordained," and then it goes on to say, "what is man even that you are mindful of us?" I mean, we're so small in this universe and yet God looks down upon us. And all that God has done is revealed through His various names. You know, if you think about titles and names that God has, whether its Creator, He's created everything that's physical, even everything that's spiritual. He made us from the dust. He's our life giver. He actually breathe life into us. I mean, what power He has to do that. He's a sustainer. He allows us to keep living, to keep enjoying life, and to prepare for a future life. And so as it says here, “how excellent is His name.” It's beautiful what God is doing. And His character reveals how great His name is. God has perfect character, nothing negative. He's never sinned. He has no weakness, no faults. He's perfect in every way. And so that's what we should be striving to do so that we can one day join that family and not bring any shame to that name that God has.

Let's look at verse 9, it basically repeats verse 1. "O Lord, our Lord, how excellent is Your name in all the earth!” And so, one day the earth will hear about the greatness of God, the beauty of God's ways, and we can look forward to that. But do we strive to follow the example of God? Because our name is associated with our character as well. And we have to think about that. I'll give you a quote here by an individual named Logan Pearsall Smith. And he said this, "Our names are labels, plainly printed on the bottled essence of our past behavior." So your name, when somebody looks at you, they basically come up with an idea of everything they've seen you do. That's who you are. That's who I am. And so we have to be careful of those actions, of those words, everything we do because that's how we're characterized. That's what gets pinned to our names. And so as we live life, we attach meaning to our name. And now that we are called the children of God, we should be building that character and growing in that way. So my title today is, "The Importance of Having a Good Name."

I think we all realize how critical that is. What do people think when they hear your name? Just stop and think about that. We all have a name, but people think things. And as Christians, consider whether you could improve in striving to have a good name. Let's turn to Isaiah 9:6. Isaiah 9:6, very familiar scripture here. We'll just look at some of the names that God has given Himself in Scripture here. And here in Isaiah 9:6 it says, "For unto us a Child is born, unto us a Son is given; and the government will be upon His shoulder." Now notice this part, “And His name will be called,” so here's future names. Of course, this was a prophecy. Christ, Jesus Christ hadn't been born in the flesh yet, but, "and His name will be called Wonderful, Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace. Of the increase of His government and peace there will be no end.” So those are just a few, as it says here, names that God has been given. And we think about, those describe God's character. Just as people look at us and the things we've done, it describes who we are, and they pin that to our name.

Are we willing to work at having a better name? Because it's not easy. We all have these habits, these weaknesses, and we want to improve them. That's what God is asking us to do. So we have to be careful and we tend to want to hide our character. You know, it's like, “Oh, we'll cover it up. Nobody will see it.” But God say, “No, don't cover it up. Change it. Become a new person, a new creation.” So that's what He's asking us to do. Let's look at Proverbs 22. Proverbs 22:1. At times we don't pay much attention to our name, and one example of that is when we sin. We're not really thinking of when we commit that wrong action of how that's going to affect the name we have.

Here let's look at a few verses here. Proverbs 22:1, "A good name is to be chosen rather than great riches." Are we able to do that, to consider in that way “loving favor rather than silver and gold." I think most people believe this. You know, if they read this, they'd say, "I believe that a good name is better than a huge amount of money," but do we actually live our lives that way? It's difficult to put into practice because wealth is so attractive, isn't it? It's like, "Wow, money. It buys this, it buys everything I need." And so it's easy to put that above a name. And that's why people tend to lie and cheat and steal, because all of a sudden in order to get more wealth, they're willing to do that and lower their name to raise their riches. But here God's telling us what the better goal is. And God has nothing against wealth, but He's telling us that our name, our character is more important than all this money, because one day God will give us a vast inheritance. So if it comes down to one or the other, whether you want a good name or you want a lot of money, we need to choose the good name. We can ask ourselves, what areas do we fall short in? Our attitudes, our words, our actions?

There's so many things we need to consider because we live in a world where a good name is less and less important. Today, people look at the money, they look at the position, and they fulfill their desires, and the name of a person isn't that critical. You even look at some of the actors or the sports figures, their names might be great in the sense of how well they do in that sport or they're acting, but some of their side character that comes through and their family life and things they do isn't always the best. And it's tough for us to gain respect if we don't work on certain elements in our life to improve them, to grow in them.

And so let's look at a few areas that affect our name. I'd like to look at four areas. There's so many more than that, but I think God is telling us that we need to develop a good name. And I'm not saying that we don't have one, many of you do, but we can always do better in this. And so my first point today is, be true to your word. That's an important part of people looking to you and what they think about you. Because we say a lot of things, but do we stick to those things that we say? Are we honest in our word and in our actions? Are we true to our word?

Let me read you a short story that I think has a lot of meaning to me anyway. This is written by Armstrong Williams, and it's an article that was in the Reader's Digest, and it's called "The Power of a Good Name." So I'll just read a few paragraphs, and listen to what this young man, this is a teenager that experienced sometimes many years ago and how he looked at a name. It begins like this. "One day my father sent me to buy wire and fencing for our farm in South Carolina. At 16, I liked nothing better than getting behind the wheel of our Chevy pickup. This time, my father had told me I'd have to ask for credit at the store." So here's a young man. He's all excited about driving, but he's going to have to go and see if he can get this put on credit.

He goes on to say, "16 is a prideful age when a young man wants respect, not charity. It was 1976 and the ugly shadow of racism was still a fact of life. I'd seen my friends ask for credit and then stand head down while the store owner questioned whether they were good for it. I knew black youth just like me who were watched like thieves each time they went into the store. My family was honest. We paid our debts. But before harvest, cash was short. Would the store owner trust us?" And so he writes about this and he says, "The general store owner, his name was Buck Davis. He stood behind the register and was talking to a middle-aged farmer. When I brought my purchases to the register, I carefully said, "I need to put this on credit."

So you think about this young boy, he's approaching somebody else in line listening to this, and he's afraid of what's going to happen because he's seen other situations. "The farmer gave me an amused, cynical look, but Buck's face didn't change. "Sure." He said, easily, "your daddy is always good for it." So you think about how pleasing those words to this young boy. "The farmer nodded in a neighborly way and I was filled with pride. James Williams’ son. Those three words had opened a door to an adults respect and trust. That day I discovered that a good name could bestow a capital of goodwill of immense value. The good name my father and mother had earned our whole family the respect of our neighbors. Everyone knew what to expect from a Williams, a decent person who kept his word and respected himself too much to do wrong."

And so I think that's a good story to show us, even at a young age, this young lad realized that his dad's character was tied to that name, and he had that name so people would automatically pass that to him. And you and I are really in line to become the children of God and to take on that name. And so we have to think about, are we living a life that's in accordance with the family name? So this young man was able to stand on his parents' good name. And it's a pleasure to do business with people we can trust, isn't it? I'm sure you've all had situations where it didn't go so well. So we have to think about, are we true to our word? And it's a blessing if our parents have set a good foundation for us so that we can build on that and grow throughout life. If we say we're going to do something, we need to do it. You know, if you go and you need to rent a house, you need to buy a house, and you sign that contract, you say, "This is what I'm going to fulfill. When I sign my name, I will do this." Think about how many people out there don't do that anymore. They go, "Oh, I'll look for a way to get out of it."

Or I had a neighbor years ago that told me, this is his own words. He said, "I haven't paid my mortgage." So it was his house. He was buying it from the bank. He said, "I haven't paid my mortgage for four years and I'm just waiting until they kick me out, and I'm saving all this money." And then he didn't fix the place up. So it was his property still, but he didn't fix it up. And so he was taking advantage of that. And then when they finally forced him out, he just left and left them hanging with everything. And I just thought about, what about his name? Would you want to do business with a person like that? Trying to take advantage, or not being true to his word, because he signed a contract saying what he would do.

Let's turn back to Proverbs 21. We're here in 22, just go back one chapter, Proverbs 21:6. You know, as we deal with people in the world today, we realize how few can be trusted, but do we get caught up in that same mode like, "Oh, I can jump out of this contract I've made. Everybody else is doing it." Even if the government allows it, but does that make it right? We have to think about the things we've said on the dotted line that we would do. Proverbs 21:6, "Getting treasures by a lying tongue is the fleeting fantasy of those who seek death." So the reason that individual did that on the house is because he could make more money. He didn't have to pay and he could live there for free. He was taking advantage of the bank or whoever had the loan.

And so some people don't like to believe this, what we just read, and so they try it. They deceive others to get wealth. And as Christians wanting to improve our name, we have to be careful that we don't do that. I lived in Kansas for several years and just did home remodeling. And as I visited the various farmers and did jobs for them, one of the things that some of them would bring up and how in their community, you know, a small group of men having all these acreage and… that they trusted each other. And with a handshake, they would know that they could trust the others work. And so they would be taken advantage of when a person coming into town, a salesman, let's say one story I remember they told me they got taken advantage of. They were selling lightning rods. And so they had their barns and all these items, and they were selling lightning rods so that, okay, this will protect your barn and do this.

So this salesman would come in, quickly go around to all the farmers and say, "Well, we need half down. We want 50% of the job up front, and then we'll come back and finish it." So they go around to all the farmers, collect the money, and then skip town, they called them a fly-by-night salesman. And so the salesman... or the farmers would be shocked because they'd go, "If we give a handshake, that means we're going to do it." But the salesmen took advantage of that because they go, "We can collect money and never show up." So we have to think about that, that individuals are willing to try that. But are we careful in our lives so that we're true to our word? Because it does affect the name that we are building.

Let's look back a few pages here. Proverbs 16:13. Proverbs 16:13. It says, "Righteous lips are the delight of kings, and they love him who speaks what is right." This is what God would want us to do as his children. Just like we would want our children to speak truthfully and not tear down the family name. That's what God is asking of us. I can remember back in high school, I was naive, I was young, but one of my so-called friends came up and said, "Can I borrow $10?" Well, that doesn't seem like much, but back then in high school, you work a little part-time job and making maybe $1.50-$2.00 an hour. That's a lot of money. So I gave him $10 he said, "I'll pay it right back tomorrow." Tomorrow came, made another excuse. He didn't pay it back. The days went by, the weeks went by. I never got it back, but he kept saying, “I'll pay it back.” Every time I went to him, “I'll pay it back. Something came up.” He wasn't true to his word. And so we have to be careful because we don't want to treat someone that way. We don't want someone to feel… I know how I felt and I go, "I don't want to make someone else feel that way." Even though I take advantage and I can maybe come up with an extra $10 or today, you know, maybe a huge amount of money by being false in my words, but God is asking us to be careful with what we speak.

Proverbs 13:3. Proverbs 13:3, "He who guards his mouth preserves his life,” are we careful with what we say? "But he who opens wide his lips shall have destruction." Let's go down to verse 5, "A righteous man hates lying, but a wicked man is loathsome and comes to shame." And then verse 11, "Wealth gained by dishonesty will be diminished, but he who gathers by labor will increase." So God asks us, expects us, to work for what we should have and not try to take advantage by having false words, not being true to our word, so we have to be careful in how we handle the situations in our life.

Let's go back to 2 Kings 5 as we look at a situation here that discusses some of the Proverbs that we've read here and how important that is. 2 Kings 5:20. So we know from the Bible how important it is for us to speak truth, to be careful with everything we say. So here in this chapter, it discusses Naaman. Naaman was a Syrian commander, but he had leprosy. And I don't know that today I've ever seen that, but from what we read and understand, it's a terrible disease. And so he goes to his leader of the country because his wife has this Israelite girl working for her, a slave girl that tells that, "You would be healed if you went to the prophet in Israel." And so he gets permission from his leader there in Syria and goes over to Israel. He actually goes to Elisha and seeking to be healed. And I think you're familiar with the story. I won't go into all that because I want to get to a part further down. But he doesn't do what Elisha says. You know, he told him, "Just go dip in the Jordan seven times and you'll be healed." And he got angry. Like, "You didn't even come out to see me. You just sent me your servant. How dare you." But finally, Naaman's servant said, "If he told you something more difficult, wouldn't you have done it to be healed?" And then he kind of rethought about it and he went and did it and he was made clean.

So at this time under Elisha, Gehazi was serving him as the servant of Gehazi. And I just want to pick up on the point of this. We need to be true to our word, and we should look at here what he did because God put this example for us to consider and we can learn from it. Let's look at 2 Corinthians 5:20. Did I say Corinthians? 2 Kings 5:20. "But Gehazi, the servant of Elisha the man of God, said, ‘Look, my master has spared Naaman this Syrian, while not receiving from his hands what he brought; but as the Lord lives, I will run after him and take something from him.'" So after Naaman was healed, you know, he offered almost anything. He was like, "Here, let me pay you back for changing my life to the good." But Elisha said “No.” So Gehazi gets the idea, "Well, maybe I can get that." “So Gehazi," verse 21, "pursued Naaman. When Naaman saw him running after him, he got down from the chariot to meet him, and said, ‘Is all well?’ And he said, ‘All is well. My master has sent me, saying, "Indeed, just now two young men of the sons of the prophets have come to me from the mountains of Ephraim. Please give them a talent of silver and two changes of garments.”’" He wasn't being true to his word. He made all this up.

Let's skip down to verse 25, it says, "Now he went in," So Gehazi went in “and stood before his master Elisha and said to him… Elisha said to him, ‘Where did you go, Gehazi?’ And he said, "Your servant did not go anywhere.’" So he was trying to hide this. And verse 27, “'Therefore the leprosy of Naaman shall cling to you and your descendants forever.’ And he went out from his presence leprous, as white as snow." God puts a stark reminder here for all of us to show us how important it is to be true to our word, to really consider that this is an important part of what our name is. And He's wanting us to become the children of God.

And we have other examples in the Bible. You can think about Ananias and Sapphira, how they lied. And God tells us in John 14:6, that He says, "I am truth." That everything He says is truthful. So we should work towards that. And Hebrews 6:18 it says, "It's impossible for God to lie." So as children of our Heavenly Father, we want to imitate him in that way and to consider that we need to be more truthful in everything we say, everything we do, it's important. We're in training to be rulers because we just read when the righteous king rules, the people rejoice. So we're striving to work towards serving in God's Kingdom. So are we trustworthy? Are we honest? Are we careful with what we say? Do we even keep the confidence of others as they share things with us? Are we careful not to just say, "Oh, I'll keep that quiet," but then we go share it? So we need to think about all those areas.

Let's look at a second area that's important in having a good name. Point number two, be reliable. Be reliable. Who doesn't want to be surrounded by dependable people? You know, somebody that you can really rely on when times get tough. And we've all known individuals that say, "I'll do that," you know, whatever it is, they say, "I'll do that," but then they never do it. They never get around to it. So that wouldn't be truthful either. But you could also put that under this point if they're not reliable. They might say, "I'll show up at this time," and they're always late. Not reliable. And we can have good intentions, but our habits sometimes cause us not to be able to stand up to what we said. So we should ask ourselves, can others count on you? Can they depend on you just as we depend on God? Everything He says He does. And it's easy to make a commitment, but it's a lot harder to follow through on it. And that's what God is asking us to do as His children, to think about our name and how it reflects, and how others view that.

I'll just refer to Psalms 15:4. It says, "He who swears to his own hurt and does not change." So even if the situation that you said you would do, if it doesn't come out as good as you think, do you back out of it or do you say, "No, I've got to do it. I said I would do." Are we reliable? Let me read that from the Good News Bible. It says, "They always do what they promise, no matter how much it may cost." And the ISV translation says "Who keeps his word even when it hurts and does not change." So are we willing to be reliable in everything that we speak? Some of you have had repairs done on your house, you have a contractor come and they can tell you what's going to cost this much. You know, they usually pad the job to take care of materials and labor and some hidden costs. If they're opening a wall, they don't know what they're going to get into. And so I've had ladies come to me and say, "My previous contractor just told me it would cost this much. That was the total, no matter what happened, because they, you know, inflated the cost to cover for that. But then when they finally sat down and asked for the bill, it was so much higher." They go, "I don't have that much money. I didn't agree to that amount, so I wasn't prepared for that." But they sometimes even double the cost. And so it's amazing, you know, what individuals do out there.

Let me read what Albert Barnes says in his notes on the Bible about those who don't follow through on what they say. He says, "One who has made a promise or entered into a contract that is likely to turn out contrary to his expectations, to his own disadvantage, but who still adheres to his engagement. But he is not at liberty to violate an agreement simply because it will be a loss to him or because he ascertains that it will not be as he supposed to his advantage." So, are we willing to be reliable to the point that we will carry through even if it's not going to turn out the way we had hoped? Like we were going to... If it was a job that you thought, "Well, I could make a profit on that." But am I going to renege and not be reliable because, well, there's something I overlooked and I made a mistake.”

If you have agreed ever to sell a home and then the person, you make a contract with them, and then all of a sudden somebody comes by after that and you've already signed, but somebody says, "I'll even pay you more." See, it's easy to go, "Oh, that money is alluring." I had that years ago. My dad and I put some money down on a house and I was going to start remodeling it, and the individual said, "We'll sell it to you for this much." We worked it all out. We went home. We said, "We'll call you back. We'll set up a time." By the time we even called them back, they go, "Nope. Deal's off." In other words, the handshake wasn't any good because somebody else had come by and already offered more. And so, at times we're affected by this and we see how it feels when it happens to us. So we have to be careful that we're not the one making someone else feel bad because we didn't stick to what we said, we weren't reliable.

Let's go back to the book of Proverbs. Proverbs 25:13. As you can see, there's a lot of words of wisdom in the Proverbs that tie into so many topics. Proverbs 25:13. It says, "Like the cold of snow in the time of harvest," now, I want you to stop and think about that. I worked on a farm when I was a young boy, and we were baling hay and it got so hot. And you had that dry hay sticking to you and you were stacking it up and you were enclosed in a barn and the tractor was lifting it way up. And I mean, I was sweating profusely and had your shirt off and you still... it was like muggy and you couldn't get enough air. You almost thought you were going to pass out at times if you were working really hard, like exercising super hard and trying to keep up with the bales coming in. And here it says “Like the cold of snow in the time of harvest…” I would have loved some cool air, just to blow past me instead of this 110 degree, you know, hot, humid temperature. And so you can understand what it's saying here. It's like a breath of fresh air in a sense. So, "Like the cold of snow in the time of harvest is a faithful messenger to those who send him, for he refreshes the soul of his masters." So in that sense brethren, are we like a breath of fresh air? Are we reliable to the point that somebody says, "Wow, I can really count on that individual"? You know, can we put our name in there? Like they can really count on you, on me. That's what God is wanting. It's a blessing to have friends and family like that that we can count on. It literally refreshes their soul. Like it says here, it's like they're solid. I can trust what they say, the first point. And they're reliable, the second point here. It's important.

Let's go back and look at an example of this back in the book of Genesis. Oh, I see. Look at my Bible. I've had this Bible a long time, and this is the first page that ever just came out. So I guess I've used it a lot. It's time for another one. Genesis 24 and we'll probably be getting around verse 10. So as you're turning there, think about that we're asked to be servants of God, faithful servants. And Abraham here is old, and he asked his servant to go find a wife for his son Isaac. He says “I don't want my son to marry into foreign people who worship other gods.” So he takes his reliable servant and sends him. And so let's just read a few verses here. Starting in verse 10 of Genesis 24, it says, "Then the servant took ten of his master's camels and departed, for all his master's goods were in his hand." So you can see that Abraham trusted him. "And he arose and went to Mesopotamia, to the city of Nahor. And he made his camels kneel down outside the city by a well of water at evening time, the time when women go out to draw water. Then he said, ‘O Lord God of my master Abraham, please give me success this day and show kindness to my master Abraham.’"

So notice something here, and a part of being reliable, this servant prayed so that God would give him the ability to do his job. That's a significant part of how we do a reliable job. We need to ask for God's guidance, His direction, and this servant did a great job. And so he asks, you know, "Let the lady that does a certain thing here be the one that you select God. I'm putting it into Your hands to show me the way forward." Let's skip down to verse 26. Verse 26 says, "Then the man bowed down his head and worshiped the Lord. And he said, ‘Blessed is the Lord God of my master Abraham, who has not forsaken His mercy and His truth toward my master. As for me, being on the way, the Lord led me to the house of my master's brethren.’"

So you think about when we do ask God for His help, when we trust in Him, and when we're reliable to seek Him in a right way, look at what God can do. And I just think I would love to have a servant like this that Abraham had, so reliable that he did his job well. He took it seriously. Let's skip down to verse 32. It says, "Then the man came to the house. And he unloaded the camels, and provided straw and feed for the camels, and water to wash his feet and the feet of the men who were with him. Food was set before him to eat, but he said, ‘I will not eat until I have told about my errand.’ And he said, 'Speak on.’" Now, you could imagine you're going on a long trip, you're hungry. God in a sense, showed him what should be done. But he says, "No, we haven't finished business here." I mean, this is a reliable servant. He goes, "I'm not going to even eat. Let's finish what I was sent to do." And so my point is, is these little stories in here can teach us, are we reliable in all that we do? Are we willing to fulfill our task and not say, "Well, no, I got to put some food in my stomach," or, "I got to do this and that," things that are important. But he said, "No, my master is counting on me. I'm going to do it to the best of my ability with God's help." And so he followed through on that. And I think God is showing us here, he wants us to be just like Abraham's servant.

And so we can be unreliable in so many different ways, whether it be for work or school. You think about the foolish virgins, you know, when there are those 10 virgins and five were wise and five were foolish. But those foolish ones, they weren't reliable, were they? The door was shut and then they show up and they hadn't prepared. They weren't good servants in that way. And so I would thank all of you that are reliable. Those that show up on time, those that serve, those that help in various ways, whether it be with music or flowers or coffee bar, it's all a part of being reliable. It's all a part of serving the people of God under our great God and allowing your name to have that good name, to develop that. So we have to be careful that just because we have a habit, it doesn't mean we have to stay that way if it's a bad habit. We can improve it for doing better in our service and our growth because all of these areas are commitments and we need to be committed to serving one another and growing in God's grace and being more reliable in everything we do. Because when we ask, what is... when our name is spoken, what comes to mind? And as we improve the words we speak and the reliability we have, we should have a better image in people's mind as they hear our name.

Let's look at another point here. Point number three. Strive to be generous. Strive to be generous. You know, in this society around us, you think about how many people are always trying to get. Which, I mean, I know we need to work, provide for our families and so forth. So there's that part of getting that is important part, but when it's all get and there's not much give, not much helping others, serving others as could be, and that's what God wants us to do. Let's go back to the book of Psalms as we look at a few scriptures there. Psalms 112. Psalms 112:1. Says, "Praise the Lord! Blessed is the man who fears the Lord, who delights greatly in His commandments." So we see the way we should be walking as we're serving God. Now, let's go down to verse 3. "Wealth and riches will be in his house, and his righteousness endures forever." So God wants us to do well. We don't have to be poor and just struggling along in life, no. He's saying if we're following Him, and God, we're following His laws, He will bless us. Verse 5, "A good man deals graciously and lends; He will guide his affairs with discretion." So we should all think about that. Verse 9, "He has dispersed abroad, He has given to the poor; His righteousness endures forever; His horn will be exalted with honor."

So, as we think about that, and it makes me think sometimes, you know, some of us are poor, some of us are rich, some are all in between there. But no matter what level we're at, is there not the ability to give something? Just like the poor widow that gave the two mice. No matter how little you have, could we give more so that God could bless us more? So that we could have a good name in that sense. Many of you have heard the name of Andrew Carnegie. He was a very wealthy man. He built up a steel business and he sold that many, many decades ago for $480 million. Today that would be billions of dollars. But he had a reputation for giving. I wanted just to read a couple of quotes he had. One is he says, "I spent the first half of my life making money, and the second half of my life giving it away to do the most good and the least harm." So what a tremendous attitude that he had in being generous and giving to people? He also stated this, "I resolved to stop accumulating and begin the infinitely more serious and difficult task of wise distribution." So he said, "I did all that work to collect money and make money," and he did well at it, but he goes, "Now this is more important. I have to figure out how to give it away. I have to figure out how to share it and use it properly." And we're not talking about waste here, but he saw something important here. It was a godly principle that he was following.

So we should think about that. The word generous, it means "Showing a readiness to give more of something than is strictly necessary or expected.” Let me read that again. “Generous, showing a readiness to give more of something than is strictly necessary or expected.” So whether it's our money or our time, God wants us to be generous. Look at how generous He has been with us. A generous person goes above and beyond, and we all have room to grow in that, areas to think about. Please turn with me back to 1 Kings 17, we'll look at an example of that. Someone that was generous, 1 Kings 17:9. So even if we're poor, and I know many of you don't have a lot of possessions, a lot to share, but we can still find ways to give. Give up our time, share our thoughts, and so forth. So here in this account, there was a drought and Elisha had experienced that drought and God had fed him by ravens. Even the stream he was camped next to dried up. So he asked him to move to another city. And so let's look at a few verses here.

1 Kings 17:9 it says, "Arise, go to Zarephath which belongs to Sidon, and dwell there. See, I have commanded a widow there to provide for you." So that's a great thing. Someone can help him out. But let's look at her condition. "So he arose and went to Zarephath. And when he came to the gate of the city, indeed a widow was there gathering sticks. And he called to her and said, 'Please bring me a little water in a cup, that I may drink.’ And as she was going to get it, he called her and said, ‘Please bring me a morsel of bread in your hand.’ So she said, ‘As the Lord your God lives, I do not have bread… only a little oil in a jar; and see, I am gathering a couple of sticks that I may go in and prepare it for myself and my son, that we may eat it, and die.’" And you talk about tough times here. She was in a sense saying, "I think this is my last meal. I don't have anymore. There's a famine, it's really bad, and that's what we're doing."

And Elijah said to her, "Do not fear. Go and do as you have said, but make me a small cake from it first and bring it to me and afterward, make some for yourself and your son." How many of us would share our last bit of food with a stranger? See this lady was generous. That would not be easy. It's like this meal may get us through to the next thing, and we might have a little more time with this meal. But he's saying, "No, give some of it to me." It's like, that would be difficult. And yet God is teaching us this principle of sharing and generosity. And God inspired this story of the widow because she had the character to share what she had even though times were tough. I mean, she in her mind, and I would even agree with her, that she needed that to sustain life, but she was willing to apply a principle here.

Let's go to verse 14, "For thus says the Lord God of Israel: ‘The bin of flour shall not be used up, nor shall the jar of oil run dry, until the day the Lord sends rain on the earth.’ So she went away and did according to the word of Elijah; and she and he and her household ate for many days. The bin of flour was not used up, nor did the jar of oil run dry according to the word of the Lord which He spoke by Elijah." It takes faith to be generous. Sometimes we go, "We don't have very much. I can't give that away. That's all I've got.” No, God is showing the principle if we're wise in this. Of course, there's balance in everything, but if you only have a little, you could still share a little of it because God can multiply that. He can help us.

Verse 20 in the same chapter, 1 Kings 17:20 "Then he cried out to the Lord and said, ‘O Lord my God, have You also brought tragedy on the widow with whom I lodged, by killing her son?’" So her son had experienced some head pain and so forth and he died. Sounds like rather suddenly. And so she calls to Elijah and asked him some things here. Verse 21 "And he stretched himself on the child three times, and cried out to the Lord and said, ‘O Lord my God, I pray, let this child's soul come back to him.’ And the Lord heard the voice of Elijah; and the soul of the child came back to him, and he revived. And Elijah took the child and brought him down from the upper room into the house, and gave him to the mother. And Elijah said, ‘See, your son lives!’ Then the woman said to Elijah, ‘Now by this I know that you are a man of God and that the word of the Lord in your mouth is the truth.’" And so that even ties back to the first point, that we need to speak truthful things. But also notice, this lady was blessed. She was generous with the little bit she had. And even Elijah's name in her eyes was increased because of what he did, his faith in God. So all these things tie back together about the importance of a name. And we have the example of our great God showing how important our names are and how important he is.

In a sense, you could say your name is synonymous with your character. So that when I say your name, whatever it is, that's kind of tied in with who you really are. You know, your examples, your words, your actions. And yet some people change their name, don't they? You know, a lot of people are saying, "I don't like my name," but I don't think that's the real issue that we should be focused on. You know, you've heard maybe the name Marion Michael Morrison. You think, "Well, I don't remember who that was," but that's what John Wayne's name used to be. And so, he wasn't okay with his original name, probably for better stage name. But God is asking us really to change our character, our attitude, not our name. And I'm not saying anything wrong about people that have changed their name, but our focus should not be on, "The problem is with my actual name." No, "The problem is what I… the character I have that gets tied to that name, that's what I need to change." It's the traits we connect to our name, the things we do and say that are important.

And so what if your family is tied to a bad name. You know, somebody down the line did something really terrible and the whole community, the little farming town, whatever, all talked about it, all knows it, and it's there. It's like, you feel like that's always hanging over your head. And some families and their names have a bad reputation. Is it possible to overcome that stigma? Yes, it is. We even have a biblical example. You know, when I say the word Korah, what do you think about? It's like, "Wow, he's the one that defied Moses and was swallowed up in the earth by God." That's not a good name right off. But if you think about the sons of Korah, they always had that hanging over their head. And yeah, just we won't turn there, but you could study into that on your own. But they went on to improve their name. No, it wouldn't have been tough… Or it wouldn't have been easy, I should say. It was very tough. And yet they worked on that, and God used them to even write a part of the Bible. Eleven of the Psalms are directly attributed to the sons of Korah, and 25 Psalms are from the descendants of Korah. So they went on to say, you know, "Our great, great, great grandpa,” whatever he was to them, “he really messed up and he's a bad example in here, but we don't have to let that become our name.”

And so each one of us should think about that. No matter what your family name was growing up, you can change that by the character we develop. Also, King David appointed them to sing praises at the Tabernacle in 1 Chronicles 6. In 1 Chronicles 9, they were gatekeepers of the Tabernacle. And so our name is really what we make of it. Just because it was something, it doesn't mean we can't change that, just as God is asking us to improve and develop and become a part of His name one day. And so we need to continue to develop that character. Even whether our mate or our parent or our child has a bad name, we still need to grow and not be overcome by that like, "Oh, I can't do it." No, God asks us to continue to grow in grace and knowledge so that we can improve.

Let's look at one last point. Point number four, have genuine concern and humility. So this is another part to developing our character so that we're ready for the Kingdom of God. When we look at individuals in the Bible, many times they had names that didn't leave a good reputation. You know, terrible people can come to mind. You know, think about the name Jezebel. I mean, I don't attribute good qualities to her name. Or Nabal, you know, Abigail's husband, and how greedy and selfish he was. These individuals didn't have much concern for anyone but themselves. And so we have to be careful with that, that we're not continuing in that way.

Let's go back to Philippians 2:3. Philippians 2:3. Well, of course, when we look in the Scriptures, we have Jesus Christ is the best example there has ever been. Walking in the flesh, the very Son of God, and he showed us that we need to have that humility, that we need to have genuine concern for others. Philippians 2:3, Paul writes this, "Let nothing be done through selfish ambition or conceit, but in lowliness of mind let each esteem others better than himself." Verse 4, "Let each of you look out not only for his own interests, but also for the interests of others." So that's having a genuine concern, isn't it? That's a form of humility, to not think highly of yourself, but to have that lowliness of mind as it mentions here, that humility, and combining that with a deep concern for those around us. Verse 8, "And being found in the appearance as a man, He” Jesus Christ, “humbled Himself." So we notice this is an important part of our name, that we need to have this quality. "He humbled Himself and became obedient to the point of death, even the death of the cross. Therefore God also has highly exalted Him" and notice this "and given Him the name which is above every name,” because of His example, because of His character, God ties that in. And he goes on to say “that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow.”

So when we hear that name, we all think highly of it, don't we? I mean what Jesus, the very Son of God did for us. I mean, what a tremendous name. And He's asking us to take on those qualities, to allow that Spirit to lead us so that we have a better name so that one day we can take on their full name. And so it's important to think about that. I'll just refer to James 2:14, it tells us “faith without works is dead.” He said, you know, if you're just warmed and don't do much, if you, you know, if you're cold or, that you have to take action, and your faith is lacking if you're not really heated up and showing self-concern… or concern for others, I should say, not for self.

And so, we can't just say the words, we have to do them. We have to show the concern, show the love to others, and to have the humility while doing that. You know in Proverbs 15:33 it says, "Before honor is humility." So God is showing us that humility must come first before He will honor us, and raise us up to the positions of taking His name and being in His Kingdom. Because humility is acknowledged, we need God's help. We need to allow Him to build that in our lives, and we need to be under His authority. Are we careful not to think highly of ourself? How concerned are we for others? Are we genuine? Are we willing to lay down our life for a family member, for a neighbor, for even a stranger? There’s so much to think about. And so there's so many factors that add up to having a good name. God wants each one of us to be developing that.

Let's look at 1 Peter 5. 1 Peter 5:5, showing us the importance of humility in our lives. 1 Peter 5:5, "Likewise you younger people, submit yourselves to your elders. Yes, all of you be submissive to one another, and be clothed with humility, for ‘God resists the proud, but gives grace to the humble.’ Therefore humble yourselves under the mighty hand of God, that He may exalt you in due time." If we think about those words, and so many in the world today try to lift themselves up, but God is saying, "No. Take that humble approach. Be a servant, be a helper, and I will give you recognition one day," God is saying, "I will exalt you. I will lift you up to become the very children of God." And so we need to clothe ourselves with that. Just like we've put on our clothes, God is saying put on these qualities so that that name that you are developing becomes more and more like Him.

Let's go to Revelation 3 as we began to conclude here. Revelation 3:5, and we'll notice a few more statements here about the name, because we know our Heavenly Father is asking us to improve our names so that one day we can literally take on His name. Revelation 3:5, "He who overcomes," and if you think about that word overcomes, it's in every one of these messages to the seven churches that is so important for us to change and be growing and developing. And here it says, "He who overcomes shall be clothed in white garments, and I will not blot out his name from the Book of Life; but I will confess his name before My Father and before His angels." See how important the name is to God, just like His name is really important to Him. He has those qualities, He's always shown it and always will. And He's asking us to use His help. And as we keep the Feast of Pentecost tomorrow, we recognize one of the important ways that God has given us to grow in developing our name and these qualities is through His Holy Spirit that He offers to us. And here He says He will confess our names if we overcome. Are we willing to really work at that? Because we are creatures of habit. It's so easy to continue how we are.

In Ecclesiastes 7, Solomon wrote, "A good name is better than precious ointment." So think about your names more. Think about how others view you, how God views you because we're striving to please him and he will judge us based on what we're doing. One other verse here, and staying in Revelation 3, let's look at verse 12 and 13. "He who overcomes, I will make him a pillar in the temple of my God, and he shall go out no more. I will write on him the name of my God. And the name of the city of my God, the New Jerusalem, which comes down out of heaven from My God. And I will write on him my new name." So if we continue to develop the name that we have, that we've been given from birth, and allow this character to be tied to that, then God says, "If you will continue to change your ways, become more like Me, I'm going to give you My name," He's saying. "I will write on him My new name." Verse 13, "He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches." Are we really listening to what God is trying to tell us about how important it is to walk this way of life, to overcome? And I've just mentioned four areas. There's so many more that we could work on to develop a better name.

And at the first resurrection pictured by the Feast of Trumpets, we have the opportunity to become spirit beings in the family of God. This is our future. This is our inheritance that God wants to give to us, but He's asking us to improve our names. And you consider for a moment when two individuals get married, and that wife takes on the husband's name. I mean, it's important for her. In most cases, the wife takes on the husband's name and she says, "I want that name that I'm taking on to have a good meaning. I want it to... not everybody go, "Ooh, that name?" No, she wants to have a name she's proud of. But if you reverse that now and that we're going to be married to Jesus Christ, we're going to be collectively the Bride of Christ. Why would He want to marry a bride, a wife, a Church who has a bad name? And so we need to improve our name just as the women would want their husbands to have a good name. We really need to think about that.

So today I've covered four areas for us to think about. It's just the starting point. But let's be true to our word. Let's be reliable. Let's be generous. Let's have genuine concern and humility for others. And if we develop these qualities that God, through His Word, is asking us to develop and add to our character so that our name continues to improve, it continues to grow, and it does take hard work. So no matter where we stand, we can all do better, can't we? So continue to think about, and from time to time, stop and ask yourself, "How do others view my name?"