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Proverbs 22:1
Encourage you or ask you turn in your Bibles to Proverbs 22. Proverbs 22 Alex would I tell you the name of this was. Oh yeah. What's in a name. There you go. That's such a creative title. I forgot what it was.
What's in a name. So tonight Proverbs 22 I want to read to you from the text. And it's a Wednesday night. I don't know if this is a sermon or if it's more of a devotional. I thought about calling it a summer sir.
Emotional maybe. But I think that sounds like something that would attack a preacher's ego. You know like you're so sir emotional today or something. So I don't know what we'll call it. You can decide when we get done but Proverbs 22 and I have some things that I think are pertinent to our church.
But before we get to that I want to talk about what the text means. And I certainly think the Word of God is always relevant and pertinent and sufficient for exactly the things that we need in our walk with him.
So I'm going to read Proverbs 22 and verse 1 and then I'm going to pray. And then I want to lead you through some thoughts that I have tonight from this text and just some things I began thinking about even last Sunday and then and then I just I can't really let it go and I almost was like well I won't even share that.
But I was like you know what I'm gonna use Wednesday night to do it. So Proverbs 22 in verse 1 let me read it pray. And then I will I'll share from the text. A good name is to be chosen rather than great riches and favor is better than silver or gold.
Let's pray father we pray that you would help us to understand this text tonight. Would you encourage us with it. Would you help us rightly by the Spirit. Apply it to our lives will help us to believe the wisdom it teaches.
I pray it would help us individually to put things in proper perspective help us to put things rightly in priority in our lives help us to remember that better than then the gifts of this world or better even than the riches of this world is to be holy and to have a good character and a good name.
We pray. We would even see how this connects and at least some way how it connects to thinking through our church and our church's name. And we pray it all in Jesus name. Amen. All right. So a few points tonight.
The first is I want us to just get the sense of the text. I don't want to run and apply it to something that is inappropriate. I would I would never want to apply it to anything inappropriate. I do think it has an appropriate application about things that we're thinking through as a church.
But before we get to that let's let's get to the main meat if you will of what this proverb is saying. So Solomon writes here a good name is to be chosen rather than great riches. And favor is better than silver or gold.
This is a one of those parallel parallel isms if you will it's it's two lines essentially saying the same thing. And if I could give them to you like this I would say it this who you are is more important than what you have.
And I think our teenagers should definitely listen to this and not that everybody everybody needs to know this. Right. All of us struggle with it. But I know I you know I look around I see the teenagers tonight and the young people just remember this that who you are is infinitely more important than what you have.
The text says that a good name is to be chosen rather than great riches. Now if you say you know maybe the young people look in here and they're like well what it. Wait a second. I didn't choose my name.
So what if I got stuck with a name like Braden. Right. Is that a good name. Does it work. Well. Of course you understand that the text is not talking about that kind of name. What's it talking about. It's talking about your reputation as it were.
Which in some ways you you don't have control over because for example in some areas the Apostle Paul had a bad reputation but he was a holy man. Right. So maybe more some commentators mentioned your character.
You do have control over your character. And so who you are is more important than what you have. As we've been going through Paul's letter to the Ephesians he's told us again time and time and time and time again who we are.
Right. Who are we. We are in Christ. We are a new creation. We have passed from death to life. We were dead in our sins. We were following the course and power of this world. We were opposed to God. But now we're in Christ.
Who you are is better than what you have. Also I would mention this about this parallel statement. Grace is more important than goods. So who you are is more important than what you have. Grace is more important than goods.
It's interesting to just note this and I'll just use this one analogy from the scriptures. But a good name is to be chosen rather than great riches. By the way great riches all the if somebody could offer you all the money in this world and say would you rather be who you are in Christ born again a person of faith a holy boy or girl or man or woman.
Or would you rather have the great riches. Well the choice ought to be undeniable for the Christian. We rather we rather have Christ. You can have all this world. Give me Jesus. This is in favor. Favor is better than silver or gold.
Now that word for favor you might remember is from Genesis or is used and also in Genesis chapter 6. Who do we learn about in Genesis chapter 6 a man by the name of Noah. And what does the Bible tell us about Noah.
Noah found what favor. Noah found favor in the eyes of the Lord. Now when we were going through Genesis a few years ago we observed from that text that the text is not saying that Noah earned favor. Right.
Noah wasn't a righteous man because he pulled his own righteousness from his own self and then God rewarded his righteousness with favor. No no. Noah found grace in the eyes of God. Noah was an instrument of grace in the hands of God.
Noah was a recipient of the sovereign grace of God. And so think about this for just a moment. Picture Noah on the day that the rains came and all Noah has is this ginormous ark. And he looks out perhaps.
And he sees the people of the world. He sees all that they have all the treasures that they have all the if you will the silver and gold that you have. But on the day it begins raining what do you think Noah says is better.
Do you think that he says I rather have favor. Or I rather have silver and gold. What do you think he says I rather have favor. I rather the grace of God be upon my life. I rather the grace of God have changed me have transformed me have brought me to Christ than to have all the silver and gold now.
That's hard right now. Okay. Because we're not where Noah's at. We're not on the day right. We're not on the day when it's raining and we have to we have to deal and contend sometimes in the world with all the silver and gold.
And we're tempted by that. Aren't we. I mean just be honest at times we're tempted by these things and we think what we begin to think in our minds what is better is is grace better or is silver and gold better.
But I just want to remind you of that day as we read in the children's story that day that the king comes and sets the city of destruction on fire. What will you say that you wish that you rather have favor or silver and gold.
Of course you'll have rather had grace and so rest in that now seek that now pursue that now a good name is to be chosen rather than great riches. And favor is better than silver or gold. Now what I want to do is I want to take this text and I want to I want to expand just a little bit on it.
I want to think a little bit more about it. When it talks about a good name I think about that there's not a greater name in the Bible perhaps than the name of Christ. I want you to think of a few passages you can turn to these.
In fact let's let's do that. Let's uh let's let's start out in the New Testament. Let's read Matthew 1 21. Matthew 1 21. Gunnar would you read that for us. Matthew. Matthew 1 21. You will call his name Jesus.
He will save his people from their sins. As you think about this text a good name right is better than great riches. Is there a better name to think of than Jesus now. I know obviously some people would push back on that.
Well that's an English translation. All that. Yeah. But you understand what I'm saying that the name Jesus represents the person of Jesus and that the name Jesus is is a derivative meaning of Yahweh that Yahweh saves.
And the angel tells Joseph that they shall call the name of this child Jesus because he will save his people from their sins. Another passage to look at. Go to Philippians 1. Philippians. Sorry. Philippians 2.
Philippians 2. Philippians 2. Braden. Would you read Philippians 2 9 through 11. Philippians 2 9 through 11. Now I actually think the emphasis here in Philippians 2 9 through 11 is not so much the name Jesus per se but actually it's there in verse 11.
And every tongue confess that what Jesus Christ is Lord he is Greek. Curious. Okay. But that's often trained used to translate the Hebrew term Yahweh. Jesus is Yahweh. He is Lord. So as we think about a good name there's not a name that is better to call upon than the name of our Lord Jesus.
In fact turn to Joel chapter 2. Now I'll give you a second there because the book of Joel's a maybe a little bit harder to find than these other New Testament ones. But in Joel chapter 2 you'll recognize this because this is quoted in Acts 2 as being fulfilled in Acts 2.
Paul also quotes part of this in Romans 10. So Joel chapter 2 I'll read verse 31. Joel chapter 2. Verse 31 the sun shall be turned to darkness and the moon to blood before the great and awesome day of the Lord comes.
And it shall come to pass that everyone who calls on the name of Yahweh shall be saved. For in Mount Zion and in Jerusalem there shall be those who escape as the Lord has said. And among the survivors shall be those whom the Lord calls or Yahweh calls.
Okay everyone who calls on the name of Yahweh shall be saved. So again I want to say this again a good name is to be chosen rather than great riches and favor is better than silver or gold. What I'm saying here in this point is yes there is an application of this text whereby we ought to have a cat.
We ought to care more about our character than the goods and the things that the world has to offer. Yet at the same time there's not a better name that you can choose than what the name of the Lord call upon the name of the Lord.
Seek the name of the Lord. And Paul reminds us that everyone. Joel reminds us. And Paul quotes at Romans 10 everyone who calls upon the name of the Lord shall be what saved. Now next that's in repentance and faith.
So the sense of the text and the name of the of Christ is supreme. Thirdly let me just mention for a moment names in the Bible. Now this is interesting and and I hate to defer to the LSB here but we're going to have to do that.
Or maybe you have a New American Standard probably the same. So those of you that have an LSB the word good in your text is it in italics. Yeah. Why. When you're reading LSB are certain words. When you read a word that's in italics.
What does that mean. It means it's not in the text. It means it's not in the Hebrew. So the Hebrew word toe for good it's not there. So so it really just reads a name is to be chosen rather than great riches.
That's interesting isn't it. But but the reason the translators put good in there is because that is the sense of the text. You understand that is the sense of the text is not just talking about a name but but a good name.
And in and I want to make the argument here in this point for just a moment that names in the Bible mean something. Okay. So you remember like a long time ago people used to be named based on important things.
Right. And now sometimes people are named by just I've never heard of these names. You just put vowels and consonants together and you just boom. You know and you're like what's the name Skylark or something.
I don't mean to be offensive to anybody who might be named that. I'm just saying there's a lot of strange names that float around there. But in the Bible we understand that often someone's name was connected with something about them.
For example Abram was that me Abram of Rome. He wouldn't be named Abraham. That's very good Trey Abram. It's father. Right. Abraham his father of many. Right. So you think about that Sarah right is princess.
So you think about in the Bible names meant something. Think about how we won't read this. But just think back in your mind to Genesis 2. What did God tell Adam to do in Genesis 2. This is before Eve is on the scene.
So God has has done something for Adam. Well it's not explicit in the text. But he brings something in front of Adam. And Adam has a task. And so what is it. He names the animals and whatever he calls the animal.
That was its name. Maybe there's a few names I'd like to ask Adam about. You know about what you know. No but but you understand even in when when Eve comes along he calls his wife woman. She's out of man.
And so what I'm saying in this point is names carry quite a bit of weight in the scriptures. In fact in fact names carry so much weight in the scripture that there's something very special about God's name in the Bible we know that we would I think Yahweh is the right way to say it.
Some would say Jehovah. What is so unique about God's name is that he actually gives us a commandment in the third commandment which is what thou shall not take the Lord thy God's name in vain. Now we tend to think that that just means don't say.
And I won't even repeat or even get close to it. We tend to say well that just means don't use the name of the Lord like a cuss word right. Now. Does it mean that. Sure. Yeah. Don't do that. That is that is blasphemous in a sense.
But it means more than that. Okay. What more than that does it mean. It means that we ought to honor the name of God. We don't throw around Jesus's name casually. I want to caution you about that. Right.
Because a lot of times when we get done with our prayer what do we say. We pray a prayer and at the very end we tack on Jesus's name. Now we ought to pray in Jesus's name. But what I'm saying is we shouldn't just throw his name around mindlessly.
Should we. Right. That's the name of our Lord. Right. So so what I'm saying is God's name carries weight. Because God's name identifies who he is. Right. Just the very term Yahweh. The the idea of I am who I am carries with it just God's aseity God's eternality the mysteriousness of the Godhead.
All these things are are just packed jam-packed into the name of God because God's name communicates who he is. So back to the text a good name is to be chosen rather than riches and favor is better than silver or gold.
And what I want to say is we think about names in the Bible. We think that names in the Bible are something that ought to be lasting. Right. In the sense of the name of the Lord is everlasting. These names of people that we know in the scriptures of course we know them because we read of them so much are are lasting.
But the idea that of course you probably already understand that I want to move to tonight is this fourth point. And this is certainly not the text. The text is not talking to us about the name of our church.
Okay but the fourth point I want to mention is considering the name of our church. And here's why if we put all of this biblical data that we've talked about this evening together I think it lays for us now I'm gonna tell you something.
Don't wait for a reveal like if you're like oh he's come up with a name and he's about to launch it on us. And yet that's not what I'm doing. What I'm trying to do is I'm trying to lay groundwork to help us think through the name of our church.
Right. To pray about it to think about it and to consider the biblical data when it comes to choosing a name. So if we want to have a name that's better than great riches. And if we want to have a name that's that's better than silver or gold.
Then we need to think about these three things. The first is what is our church's character. Okay what is our church's character. Who are we. Right. Remember what I said character is better than everything that you can have individually.
Right. Your individual character matters more than the goods that can be provided from the world. Right. And if that's true of an individual then it's also true of a church. Our character is more important than anything else.
What is our character. Our character is to be the holy people of God. Right. Our character is to be a regenerate church. What does that mean. People who are born again people who have been saved by grace.
People who have who have understood their need for Christ and have repented of their sins and put their faith in the finished work of Christ. What is our church's character. Our church's character is holiness living out the things that God has worked in.
No we can't live the gospel by the way can we know. We don't live the gospel. Jesus live the gospel. Right. But believers live out what the gospel has accomplished right. What is the character of our church.
The character of our church's holiness. Secondly considering the name of our church we ought to consider what are our church's convictions. So character connotes holiness. Right. Convictions can know what we believe as a church.
Now it's very easy for us to simply just say and in some senses I want to just say we're a church that we just believe the Bible. Right. We believe the Bible. We believe what the Bible teach. We just want to come to the Bible.
We want to open it up and we want to say whatever the King says in the book. That's what we're gonna do. Right. However you also know because I've told you before that I think that it's quite helpful to have our convictions about the Bible written out.
Right. That is because if you go to the Jehovah's Witnesses gathering and you say what do y 'all believe. They say oh you know we believe here. We believe the Bible. Right. If you went to a Mormon temple or something like that what do you believe here.
I said oh yeah we believe the Bible. So because of our culture's fallenness and because of the confusion and chaos in the world today it's not enough for us simply to say to a lost and dying world that we believe the Bible.
Rather we need to have convictions. What are our church's convictions. Well I'm not gonna rehash all of them tonight but I'll mention a few of them. We confess the second London Baptist confession the 1689.
We confess that not because we believe it's equal to the scriptures by a long shot we simply believe that our Baptist forefathers hundreds of years ago did a pretty good job when they wrote out what they believed about the scriptures and what the scriptures taught.
And so our church's name should reflect our character it should also reflect our convictions. What else do we believe. Well we're heirs of the Reformation as it will as it were. We believe in the five solace.
Right. We believe that salvation is by grace alone through faith alone in Christ alone to the glory of God alone. And the reason that we know all of that is why the scriptures alone. So these five solace sola scriptura sola sola gratia gratia sola fide sola Christus and solus Christus and soli Deo gloria.
This is part of our identity this is this is who we are. We we are reformed in that sense. We're not reformed in the sense that we that we baptize babies or whatever but we we are in the sense that we we are heirs of the Reformation.
We confess the 1689. We we hold to the five solace. We have also written out those are historical things. And then we ourselves have written out some things that we just want to be clear what we call our our ten distinctives things for example like evangelism like if you come to this church and you don't care about evangelism well we may politely or maybe have to be firm and just say maybe this isn't the church for you.
If you don't want to come and and think about how this church can reach the lost and proclaim the name of Christ in our community then perhaps there are other places that you should go. We're a church that cares about the home and and believes in the and the leadership of a husband in the home and and and the importance and necessity of godly women in the home and in the church and and and godly men as the leadership in the church like this is what we believe.
So a church's name should reflect our character. A church's name should reflect our convictions. And so this leads to the third point which is really just restating here and that is what is our church to be called.
I will say that we don't need to take lightly the legacy of the name Second Baptist Church. There have been many godly saints that have come through this church that have given their lives and even their resources and their time and their money for the furtherance of the gospel.
This church over 20 what is it now 27 years has seen salvations has seen people born again. But as we think about that name Second Baptist ultimately I come to the conclusion that it does not very well capture our character nor does it very well capture our convictions.
And furthermore it sends out some negative connotations if you will about maybe our origins or maybe just the idea of like I mean honestly we've talked about this before who wants to be second right. And so as we think through these things and as we think through the biblical what I would call the biblical data for thinking through carefully about a name then I think that we should allow these things to shape our process as we as we work through this now let me just encourage you with some pastoral applications here.
First of all don't think that this is like I know I've heard some comments my kids have been some of these comments like we're ready for new shirts right. It's been a few years since we got new shirts right.
Well we're obviously not gonna get new shirts right now before we figure out a name. But let me just tell you guys something we're not in a rush for new shirts. We can wait right. We can pray we could be in unity we can we can think through this together.
And by the way I think that there is very much unity in all this and I'm very encouraged by that. But another thing to consider is you want to get this right. This is not something that you want to revisit in three years.
We don't want to be like yeah well that we were counting that was that was kind of lame. Let's do something else by the way that's why I don't think contemporary names. Are that good now I'm not gonna say any because I don't want to be unduly offensive to any other church organization but if you try to pick out something that's very very contemporary in in the 21st century what happens when your church turns 50 years old.
Right. It's it's like it's like some of these names I think of young people and I think can I imagine a grandmother being called by that name right. Or a grandfather being called by that name. It'd be strange wasn't.
Wouldn't it. And so we want to think through this carefully. We don't want to be changing this every five years every two years but we want to we want to come up with a name that is a good name better than riches better than silver or gold that connects to the character of who we are the convictions that we hold.
And when people call us by that name we say yes this is who we are. So that's my exhortation to you tonight. That's what I want us to think through as we're thinking through this carefully it should never be a divisive issue.
It should be one that we give over to prayer and discussion. And Pastor Jacob myself were more than happy to discuss these things and ideas that you may have. And I submitted some of those things on the I submitted those things on the messenger today just for you to be thinking through.
And maybe you look at those names and you're like honestly these are all lame they're all terrible. And if you feel that way I would hope that you just communicate it and talk to us so we can think through it rightly.
But above all we want to honor Christ right. Jesus is King. And we want a name that reflects that that reflects the reality that of who we are as a church and the convictions that we hold. So here's what I'm gonna do.
I'm gonna go ahead and pray and we'll stop the live stream and then I'll give you opportunity because you may not want to ask questions on live stream. So I'll give you opportunity to ask questions or make comments about all that let me pray father help us to be a people who choose a good name in our individual lives.
Help us to choose a good name in the lives of our family. We pray. We'd choose a good name in our church not just on the sign but in the way that we live in the way that we conduct ourselves in the community.
And the things that we say are important in the priorities that we make in the efforts that we make towards evangelism and and healthy ecclesiology and all these things help us to have a good name in the church but also help us to to actually pick a good name.
Give us wisdom in this. And you know even my own heart I've heard what I think are several good names. I've gone back and forth and what. This is good that's good. Well I don't know about this. And I pray for wisdom for our church.
And I pray for humility and unity. And most of all I pray that our goal is not any sort of exaltation of the church above all father we want to exalt Christ. And so we pray that you would help us in this endeavor and that would be pleasing to you for your glory.
And we pray it all in Jesus name.