Who is Naming You?

You are listening to the podcast of Recast Church in Mattawan, Michigan. Our desire is to help you draw near to God by growing in faith, community and service.

Well, good morning. Come on now, this is the second service. Y 'all supposed to sound like y 'all woke. Good morning. It is such a pleasure to be here with you all this morning. I have with me my wife, Rosemary.

This is our first time being at Recast. A lot of people believe that she's my daughter, but no, she's my wife. Regardless of what it looks like, we are less than a year apart in age. I just got a lot more out of my life.

Well, life got a lot more out of me. Let me put it like that. Then we have the McCluers, Carol and Denny. Denny is one of our board members, and I see Deb Holtz and her husband here this morning. It's good to see you all.

They're members of Recast. I want to talk to you a little bit this morning. We're going to be talking to you about Gospel Mission. You know, I guess the Gospel Mission is is actually the largest rescue homeless rescue shelter in southwest Michigan.

A lot of people look at us and when they think about Mel Trotter, they think, well, Mel Trotter is bigger than Gospel Mission. Mel Trotter is bigger in some aspects. Their budget's larger, but we serve more people than they do.

Same thing with Holland. We serve more people than just about any other rescue mission in Michigan. I had one consultant that we had come in. He said that he would venture to guess that how did he say it?

He said that we were the most efficiently run mission. He said he knows in Michigan and he would venture to say in the country. And I mean, that says something about the staff that we have. You know, it says that they're a lot.

They paid a lot less than a lot of other places. That's what. But no, it says that we are serving a lot more people on the budget that we have, that we're doing what God called us to do. And I believe that beyond what you do with money, I believe that because we incorporate the spirit of God and we hear from God on everything that we do, I believe that's where our success comes from.

We've got a number of different programs, long term programs, short term programs, and our program staff every year reevaluate the programs that we have and those things that aren't working, we don't do them anymore.

The things that are working, we try to build on that and enhance our program. So every year, Pastor Steve Zerbe takes his team down to Ship Shawana and they will review what happened the year prior to and they will massage the programs and work on it.

We still need a larger facility. We still need to get rid of those old buildings on Burdick Street. We went to the foundations for our building project and the foundations let us know that they are not going to support what we do.

And only because we don't hire gays, transgender people, we don't put them in ministry positions. And so they said that unless until we do, they're not going to support us. But ladies and gentlemen, that's the way our country is going, you know.

And so I would have gotten upset if I had viewed them as my provider. But they're not. God is our provider. God is the one who birthed the idea of the gospel mission. And God, through his people, let me say that through his people are going to make sure we have everything that we need, because a lot of people sit back and say, well, God's going to do it.

I don't need to do it. No, God does things through people. Come on now. We are his hands. We are his feet. You know, we hold we hold on to the money and he gives it to us and we give it out to other places.

We are blessed to have churches involved in the ministry of the Kalamazoo gospel mission. And one of the things that we do to make sure the churches stay connected is called Bread of Life. How many of y 'all have heard of Bread of Life?

I would have thought I saw more hands than that because you all were involved in it. You know, and still are actually. Bread of Life is the ministry whereby churches come down on Sunday evening and we have enough churches that we have a rotation.

They come down on a given Sunday evening and they will do a service. The church brings the people that do the praise and worship, lead praise and worship. The one of the pastors from that church will deliver the message.

And then the members from the church will either pray with people at the gospel mission or go in and help serve the meal. And they'll serve like that. And what it does is it develops relationship with the people that we serve.

You know, somebody said people don't know, don't care how much, you know, until they know how much you care. And when you get involved like that, then it lets the people down then know that Recast is not just the name that they hear sometimes is involved.

It gives them an opportunity to see the people of Recast, to meet them, to shake their hand and to thank you all for being a part of what's going on in their lives. We right now, our largest growing population is women and children.

And so that's why we need to update the old facility on Burdick Street. I'd ask Maureen to give me an actual count because I used to go out and tell people, so how many people do you have room for? And I'd say, we don't turn anybody away, you know, like that.

But that doesn't answer the question. We don't turn anybody away. But what is full? You know, well, Maureen gave me these numbers and the actual bed and dorm space total is one hundred and fifty four beds.

Now, this is just women and children. That's just women and children. One hundred and fifty four. Extra mats for the hallways is forty eight. Which is two hundred and two. Now that that seems like a lot, doesn't it?

Well, don't that seem like a lot? You figure two hundred and two beds for homeless people. Come on. How bad can the problem be? Well, we are serving an average of two hundred and thirty to two hundred and forty five women and children.

Now, a few years ago, that would have been my whole number for the total of people staying at the mission. But now that's women and children. The thing I love about working at the gospel mission is that we empower people.

We don't we don't just give people what we think they need as far as a place to stay, food to eat. We try to give them the life changing gospel. The life changing gospel, that's the only thing that's going to change somebody's life.

I mean, that's it. And we have a gentleman with us this morning, Leonard, who's going to come up and he's going to briefly give his testimony. And he's got an illustration that he does. When I picked him up this morning, he got in the car.

He had this bag. I was thinking, OK, did he think this was an overnight trip? He bought a change of clothes or something? I don't know. But but when in first service, when I saw his illustration and I'm telling you, I'm very impactful.

But this is the purpose of what we do at the gospel mission. And he's going to have a few comments and then I'm going to come back up briefly. Good morning, Saints. Good morning.

It's truly an honor to be here in your midst this morning. And I know don't preach. I tell you, you know, this is amazing. This is really a blessing, because two years ago, I've never in my wildest dreams thought I'd be standing here before a congregation of people giving my testimony where God has brought me from.

But he's brought me from a mighty long way. And there's some people in this room can testify to that. Miss Deb Hope back there. She is such a blessing. You guys got a diamond in the rough sitting in your midst back there today.

You know, she's done a lot for me, you know, in her classes. You know, they say you can't teach old dog new tricks, you know. But I'm here to testify, you know, that being in her class, she's learning this old dog how to jump, roll over and scratch his belly all at the same time.

You hear what I'm saying? And she's a diamond in the rough. When I first came to the you know, I'm in a long term program at Kalamazoo Gospel Mission. And when I first came to the Kalamazoo Gospel Mission, when I first walked through the front doors, first of all, this old boot here, I work in the in the rescue treasure store.

And one day when I was working in the store, you know, I come by this boot. My supervisor, I said, what am I going to do with these old boots? And she told me to throw them away. So the Lord started speaking to me through these boots.

And what he showed me is that when I first walked through the front doors of the Kalamazoo Gospel Mission, my life was a lot like this old boot. You know, I felt dirty. You know, my tongue was all dirty, you know.

And these strings here is an illustration of what the things I had lost in my life, you know, through using drugs, you know, and as you can see, I had just about lost everything. My life was really unraveled, you know, and I had a hole in my soul, you know.

And, you know, through the grace of God and the people that he placed, you know, within the Kalamazoo Gospel Mission and and trusting in God and serving him with my heart, you know, he has brought me to a place to a place in that program to where you've seen how my life once was.

But this is how my life is now. You know, he's brought me to the place where he was. He's put that Christian glow in my life, you know. And as you can see, according to the strings, my life, I'm starting to get a whole lot of things back in place in my life, things I I never knew I had, you know.

And and as you can see, he he cleaned my tongue up and got even went a step further with me, you know, and he healed a hole in my soul. And I thank God for this program, you know. And if you guys are wondering, what's this all about?

You know, we serve in a God that that is remarkable, you know. And, you know, not only will he put that Christian shine in your life, if you give him your heart and serve him wholeheartedly, you know, he'll go one step further with you and he'll give you what you call a Christian bling bling.

And this is what this is all about. That Christian bling bling, you know. And I just want to encourage, you know, if there's anyone out there, you know, that that has a family member that's, you know, struggling with drugs or alcohol or anything in their life, you know, to get a hold of Miss Deb and Pastor Brown, because it's a remarkable program that's got going on.

They saved my life. And I'll be forever grateful. And I ask every day that God use me. You know, and I want him to use me in such a way to where the community that I want is to help tear down. I want to be able to go back out there and help build it up.

And building lives through the power of Christ. That's what the Kalamazoo gospel mission is all about for me, because they've saved my life. And there's a there's a whole lot of there's a whole slew of testimonies there, you know, and the place is this bulging with women and children.

You know, and the children, you know, I'm not with my biological family right now, but I'm telling you, I got family all over the place. You know, I'm called Grandpa. You know, I'm called Pops, you know, and they call me by Leonard.

But, you know, there's a lot of love there for me and those children. And I thank God for every day that I'm there, you know, and I'll never I'll never forget the place. And God bless you all. And thank you for having me here this morning.

Pastor Brown told me not to preach, so I'm going to give him his time.

Leonard is just one of a number of stories about how you can have your life changed through the power of Christ. You know, somebody said, I forget who first said, you know, but by the grace, there go I, you know, and all of us, you know, have had different incidents in our lives where if it wasn't by the grace of God, we could have wound up down a dark path, you know.

Misidentification, Gospel Mission, and the Power of Christ

Now, one thing I want to clear up before I go ahead is that I just want to make make it understood that we don't turn anyone away from the Kalamazoo gospel mission. Nobody I know that I've heard. I've heard it said that, you know, I rub with the different foundations is because we don't serve gays and lesbians.

That's not true. I've heard it said that we don't serve Muslims. That's not true. As a matter of fact, last week, we had a little nine year old Muslim boy who his mother asked him what did he want to do for his birthday?

And he she asked him if he wanted to go to a couple of places, you know, little arcade places and take his friends. And what he elected to do was choose nine of his friends and come serve down at the gospel mission.

But we we house anybody. It's just that we don't make special accommodations. You know, I mean, if you're a man, you're sleeping with the man, if you I mean, and if you're confused about that, we're going to you're going to sleep with the man anyway.

I mean, we're just not we're not catering to all of that confusion. But we do have people that come and stay and we try to show them love, you know, because that's what they need. We don't want to beat them up.

We don't have a special Thompson chain Bible about that big that we beat them up with anything like that. We look at what's on their driver's license and whatever your driver's license say, you know, that's who that's who you stand with.

And so and and it's I believe that a person who is confused, confused in that area and live in that lifestyle is not qualified to minister. At the Kalamazoo Gospel Mission, and so we have those limitations, but you have to qualify for anywhere that you go to work, isn't that true?

And so I think that one of the things that I have learned through years of dealing with people and also in my own life, being lost and confused about who I was and about what God's will was for my life and about the different things that I did growing up as a teenager, as a young adult and before I totally committed my life to the Lord.

I believe that what happens, you can identify people's brokenness as a a case of mistaken identity. I mean, you've got people who really don't know who they are, you know, and I think to a certain extent, all of us deal with that.

I mean, all of us, even those of us that know the Lord and everything, I believe that there's still an element of mistaken identity because we're not living to the fullness of what God has for us. Part of that has to do with the renewing of your mind.

So we're still growing up mentally. God's still working with us. And so I want to talk to you a little bit today. When I first heard this message, this message was first brought to me by a friend of mine, and he called it the labels that limit us.

And I choose the title. I like to talk about who's naming you. That's what I want to talk about. Who's naming you? I want to ask you that. When I was growing up, you know, the fact that I was Michael, my mother named me Michael.

That says something, you know, he who is like God. If anybody don't believe that, you know, I believe it's true. Come on, y 'all. But then I was the number seven child. Come on now, God. Come on. That's like that's like God putting his seal on me, you know.

But I grew up. I didn't know who I was, you know. And even though I was raised in a Christian home, I listened to what people had to say about me. And it kind of deflated my bubble, if you will. You know, and it caused me to live at a lower level than what I believe God wanted me to live.

So today, as I talk to you about who's naming you, I'm going to be talking to you from First Chronicles four, nine and ten. And I want to read this. Initially, I want to read it from the amplified version.

And in the amplified version, it says this. It says Jabez was honorable above his brothers, but his mother named him Jabez sorrow maker, saying, because I bore him in pain. Jabez cried out to God, to the God of Israel, saying, oh, that you would bless me and enlarge my border and that your hand might be with me, that you would keep me from evil so it might not hurt me.

And God granted his request. Now, in the King James Version, it reads almost the same, but it says and Jabez was more honorable than his brethren. And his mother called him called his name, Jabez, saying, because I bore him with sorrow.

And Jabez called out on the God of Israel, saying, oh, that thou wouldest bless me indeed and enlarge my clothes and that thine hand might be with me and that thou wouldest keep me from evil and that it may not grieve me.

And God granted him that which he requested. And in another version, I don't remember which version it is. It says that I might not cause pain. That's what it says. And Jabez had to. He had to be redeemed from.

The name. That his mother gave him. And so my question today that we're going to be looking at a little bit later is whose name in you? Whose name in you? Let's pray. Father, we just thank and praise you, Lord, for this opportunity to share your word.

I pray today, Lord, for clarity. I pray, Lord, that as we share your word, that our ears, our eyes, our hearts are open to hear your voice. Father, we want a word from you that breaks chains and sets people free.

In Jesus name. Amen. Well, it's good to be here with you all this morning. Well, thank you. Thank you. Yeah. Yeah. First service was kind of quiet, you know. So let's let's let's let's let's let's let's do this.

Let the church say, man, let the church say, man, again. Good. Now, if y 'all don't say, amen, no more. The quotas, the quotas been filled. But if you feel like it, say, amen. You know, I like talking about I like talking about names.

One of the reasons I love talking about names is I was raised in a family. I had five brothers and four sisters. I've had a brother and a sister to pass since then. But I had five brothers and four sisters.

And one of the things we knew growing up, I knew anyway that we was poor. I mean, we didn't have a whole lot. And my dad worked like three and four jobs at a time. My mother, she never she worked one day in her life.

She just kept after my father. She wanted to work. And so she went to work. She worked one day and when she got home and my daddy got home and his dinner wasn't ready, that was the end of that. And so he told her she wasn't working no more.

And he said, I'll get another job if I have to. But but, you know, we did everything we could to make ends meet. But meet and we had everything we wanted. I mean, we even had that that that collection of the crystal, you know, what do you call it?

Jelly glasses. You remember the little jars that jelly came in? And if you save the set, you'd have a whole set of ghetto crystal. We called it, you know, it was like it was jelly glasses and we had those, you know, but one thing that my dad gave us was the name.

Brown.

I mean, we were Browns. We didn't steal. We didn't cheat. We didn't lie. We didn't. There was a whole lot of stuff we didn't do because we were Browns. Now, I remember my mother, my grandmother rather, caught me one day and she told me, she said, I saw you smoking.

And I said, no, Grandma, it wasn't me. Well, it was me. You know, I have been smoking. I've been busted and it hurt my grandmother because she knew what stock we came from. We knew we didn't smoke. You know what I mean?

We didn't drink. We didn't do none of that. So when I grew up and lost my mind and went out there in the street and was drinking and drugging and all that kind of stuff, it went totally against who we were.

You know, Christians live like that all the time. We live lives that go totally against who we are and oftentimes it's because of the names that we've taken on. Whether it be a name that somebody in your family put on you or a name that you picked up just in relationships that you had.

Now, Jabez, Jabez gets this name from his mother and she called him Jabez. And the interesting thing about this is your name. See, people don't know what names mean anymore. They don't. I was telling them in first service about a young lady who, she was pregnant at the mission.

She had a baby over in Battle Creek and when I asked her what she named the baby, she said Desunique. Well, my first thing is, okay, what does that mean? You know, because I want to know what the name mean.

I know what Michael mean, you know, and most of you all know what your names mean, I would think, you know, but what does Desunique mean? I mean, how do you spell it? And she said, yeah, she said, I named her Desunique because I carried her for days and she's unique.

I said, boy, if that ain't the dumbest thing ever. I mean, and now this kid got to grow up. With that name. But anyway, anyway, sometimes we have names, you know, and why parents name their children names?

We don't know. I don't know why J-Bez's mother called him J-Bez. I mean, she said I bore him with pain. What does that mean? I mean, every woman that has a child has it in pain. Women, can I get an amen?

You know, I mean, every, you know, childbirth brings with it pain. So what was unique about hers? Was, I don't know. Was it the relationship or lack of relationship that she had with his.

Father?

I mean, was his father not in the picture? Was J-Bez his father? Did he run out on him? Did he treat her bad? I don't know why she felt that she needed to name this baby J-Bez. I think about that when I look at some of the ladies around the mission and the way that they treat their children.

Here you got a child that's maybe one and a half, two, three years old and mama's cussing him out. The baby don't understand what you saying. I mean, they don't know what a curse word is from anything else.

And here you cussing at this child.

Why?

The child ain't lived long enough to do nothing to you. I mean, so are you angry with the father? Are you angry with your parent? Who are you mad at that you got to call this child all of these names and put all these tags on this child and they haven't done anything?

So I don't know why she named him J-Bez. But the name J-Bez means born in pain. It literally means that when you call J-Bez, it literally means that pain is coming. He's, I mean, come here, pain. Come here, pain.

Pain, go over there. Pain, come here. I mean, when somebody calls Michael, everything I've ever said, Michael means he was like God, one who is like God, you know, and I understand my name and I try to live up to my name.

But how would you feel if your name was pain? And every time somebody said, come here, pain. How you doing, pain? You know, you having a good day, pain, you know, but that's what it's like. You have a name.

Every time somebody calls you, you hear that name and J-Bez is probably thinking, how do I get out from under this name? Well, you know, he can't go to his mother. She's not going to change it. You know, if she could, she wouldn't change the tag that has been placed in his life.

So he went to God. And he said, God, regardless of the tag that I'm living under, regardless of the name that's been placed on me, I want you to bless me anyhow. Now, what he's saying is, even though my name means will cause pain, he's saying, God, I want you to turn that around as it pertains to me.

He said, when people call me, I want them to be calling a blessing. I want them to be calling peace. I want them to be calling wisdom. I want them to be calling an anointing. God bless me in spite of my name.

That's what he's saying. He said, help me to work my way out from under this tag that I've been saddled with. God, I didn't have nothing to do with being called that. So why should I have to grow up? And every time I show up, there's pain or people expect pain.

So J-Bez, being more honorable than his brother, knowing that his name literally meant he would cause pain, wants to get out from under that. And he said, bless me indeed. Give me favor, wisdom, power, and anointing.

His request was that God would bless him indeed. It's a request that that declaration, that negative declaration associated with his name, would be reversed. What he's saying is, I want your hand to be with me.

I want your presence. I want your covering. Keep me from evil. I want your protection, that I may not cause pain. Lord, give me your guidance. See, he wants to live a life that's disassociated with pain.

How many of y 'all would like to hear that? Now see, when I grew up being from a big family, and I don't know what it is about families, that the relationships that we have, I didn't grow up in one of those families where we was all lovey-dovey.

I mean, we was family, and how do I say this? And you better not mess with none of us. Nobody else come in and mess with a brown. But we was fighting all the time. I mean, we would fight each other. You know, we was always at each other.

You know, my dad's favorite saying for me, and I was real sickly when I grew up. When I was growing up, I had epilepsy as a child. I had learning disability. I mean, I had just a whole bunch of mess going on.

I was anemic. I mean, you know, my grandfather would pick me up on Saturday and take me to the drugstore and get me some Geritol. I think that's where my drinking problem came from, you know? So, no granddaddy, I'm just kidding.

But he would get me Geritol, you know, because I had iron poor blood, you know? But I had all these problems, and my father's favorite saying for me was, Lord, I sure hope I live to take care of that boy.

I heard him say it over and over and over again. I sure hope I live to take care of that boy. Like that. My family's middle name for me was dummy. Come here, dummy. Come here, stupid. I mean, and I was the dumbest thing.

I grew up being the dumbest thing I ever knew. Really. I wouldn't raise my hand in a class because I knew that whatever I had to say was dumber than anything anybody else was going to say. And even the kids that was my age could identify it as stupid.

I mean, if I opened my mouth, it was dumb. I mean, anything. My brother used to tell me, he said, boy, if I want anything out of you, I'd screw your head off and dip it out. Feel the love, you know? But you're living in a family of people that you know they love you.

But you're getting all these tags. And because they love you, the stuff that they say about you has got to be true. You know, because they wouldn't lie to you. You know, so they're hitting you with all this stuff.

So I know I'm stupid. I mean, I know that. You know, I know that I don't qualify for anything. I know I'm not good enough for nothing. And I know that if I'm in a whole crowd of people and anybody deserves anything, I know it ain't me.

It's all the rest of them. See, because I'm dumb. I'm stupid. You know, I don't know anything. You know, and I grew up like that. How many? Don't raise your hands. Don't raise your hands. But I know that I'm not the only person that grew up like that.

I know I'm not. I wonder how old J-Biz was when he realized, can't I do something different than this? I mean, can't it be that my name would call something different? Lord, I mean, is that what I'm resigned to for the rest of my life?

No, I mean, to be a nobody, to not be worth anything, not qualify for anything, don't deserve nothing. You know, and I know that there's people in this room that when you were growing up, people were putting those labels on you.

Just putting those tags on you. I talked to a young lady last week who said that there was a job opening and she knew she didn't qualify for it. She said, but I feel in my spirit that God wants me to have that job.

And I told her, you claim that job. You claim that job. She claimed it, applied for it, and got it. And no, she was not qualified for it. But she can do the job. I believe God assigned her that job. But had it been God's heart for her to have that job and she sit back saying, well, you know, I know I don't qualify.

I shouldn't go there. She never would have got the job. She would have missed the place that God had for her. And a lot of us do that. We listen to everything that everybody else is saying. And when that voice of God speaks up and tell you to step into a particular place, you give them a whole litany of reasons why you don't qualify.

We deal with it every day. People at the mission show up. They don't deserve nothing if you ask them. They'll tell you they don't deserve nothing. You know, they've had it drilled into them, just like J-Bears did.

But J-Bears wanted to turn that around. He wanted to get it all turned around. The name J-Bears, to be born in pain, everywhere he went, he was reminded that he was the one who caused the pain. And isn't that something?

Not only do you have pain, but everywhere you go, you're the one causing the pain. If anything is wrong, you're the one, you're the cause of it. See, that's what I enjoy. My dad, my dad was a man. I don't care, you know, about the things that he said about me, but and the things that my mother said about me and things like that.

But there was enough balance in our lives that I knew they loved me. And there was enough protection in our lives that my dad was present enough that he put some things in my brothers and I. It's one thing I'll tell you about a brown boy, Raymond, Reggie, Ronnie, Michael, Buddy and Bobby.

You do not want a piece of them. You just don't want a piece of them because of what Emerson taught him. One of the things my dad taught us was that when you show up, you're a man, you're a man, you call yourself a man.

When you show up, if something's wrong, it's about to change. You better bring about some change. When you show up, if people are being mistreated, they need to back up now because you showed up. My dad drilled that in us.

You do not mess with one of my sisters or anybody else's sister. You do not. You just don't do that because we don't stand for that. You know, that's the kind of stuff my dad drilled in us that I wish men today had.

Rather than looking at situations that are going on and men shaking their head, saying ain't that a shame? No, the shame is you not doing nothing about it. That's what the shame is. Don't get me started in here.

I'll get up, start throwing. The pastor would preach and started throwing stuff. Jesus wants to take you out of the prison that those spiritual labels have put on you. He wants to set you free. And this is a message that's for young and old because I don't care how young you are.

The sooner you learn what God wants for you, the sooner you can start walking free. And I don't care how old you are because you can. It doesn't matter how old you are. If you still breathing, God still has a plan for your life.

And by the way, one of the lies that the enemy has told people is you too old. You too old. You ain't no need to go in there. You too old. They don't want to hear you. You out of touch. You might be out of touch with the mess that's going on and in touch with what God is doing.

We need some people that's out of touch with all this mess that's going on in society today. So if you out of touch, get involved and start turning stuff around, helping turn things around. Jesus wants to give you life giving labels.

God's got a destiny for you, a purpose and a plan for your life. Jeremiah 29 11 says, for I know the thoughts that I think toward you said the Lord thoughts of peace and not of evil to give you an expected end and another version says a future and a hope because a future devoid of hope is no future at all.

God wants us to break free from the negative negative labels in our lives and in our hearts. He wants to show us new labels. He wants to give us life giving labels that give us permission to do great things.

Ephesians 3 and 20 says now unto him that is able to do exceedingly abundantly above all that we ask or think according to the power that works in us. Don't think that because you don't feel power that you're not qualified because it's not your power.