BAD WORDS: OMG
Pastor Steven Osborne
Transcribed by PulpitAI (with edits)
We are busy with a series called “Bad Words,” and last week we talked about just the power of words, and this morning we’re going to continue. I want to share with you a little story. It says:
There’s a story of a boy trying to sell a broken-down lawnmower. The local pastor walked up and he was able to persuade him to buy it. The pastor pulled on the rope several times, but the mower wouldn’t start. The boy told the preacher that he would have to kick the mower and say a few cuss words before it would crank. The preacher said, “Son, it’s been years since I heard a cuss word.” The boy said, “Just keep pulling and it will come back to you.”
So bad words. It’s not exactly what we’re gonna look at cursing this morning, maybe, and in context of our sermon series, we’re looking at discipleship. Now discipleship is really vital to the church. It is vital to every believer. And so just to give you again a definition for discipleship—we looked at this last week:
Christian discipleship is the process by which individuals are guided and nurtured in their faith and spiritual growth within the Christian tradition. This involves learning to follow Jesus Christ more closely through study, prayer, and living out the teachings of the Bible. Discipleship is not merely about acquiring knowledge but is fundamentally about transformation and commitment to living a life that reflects Christian values and principles.
And so that is what it means to be in discipleship, and that’s ultimately what we saw in the life of the disciples with Jesus Christ, and we’re doing the same thing in our lives. A quote from Eugene Peterson:
Christian discipleship is a decision to walk in his ways steadily and firmly, and then finding the way integrates all our interests, passions, and gifts, our human needs and eternal aspirations. It is the way of life we were created for.
Names
Well as we look at names, names—maybe not as important in our culture today as we think about the biblical context and in Jewish culture. You know, names was very powerful, a lot of meaning behind it. It described a person’s character, right? And so when we discovered that Venessa was pregnant and about Hailey, that was probably one of the toughest things, right? That was the toughest thing for me as we were trying to come up with a name, right? Venessa really had the tough things about delivering and, you know, a baby, and changing diapers and all of those, but at least the time period as we’re trying to figure out a name, right? And so we didn’t want to just go and give her any name. We really thought about it, we prayed about it, we looked at different meanings, and it was our prayer that, as we were reflecting on her name, that her character and that her life will reflect that name as well.
And so we see that, even in Scripture, how God comes and change people’s names as their lives change and as they discover a godly purpose in their lives. We see that in Genesis, Abram to Abraham, Simon to Peter, and Saul to Paul. And then we think about all of the different names for God. There’s all kinds of names for God. So we have Elohim (means Creator), Adonai (Lord, master), El Shaddai (God Almighty), and we can go on and on and on. There is so much meaning around the names of God that it’s impossible for one name to really describe who God is, right, and his worthiness.
The Holiness of God’s Name
Now this week, as I was driving, there was a moment—I can’t remember, I think it was maybe Wednesday somewhere—I called Christo. I was driving, and suddenly there’s a song that was playing in the car—you’ll hear that in a little bit during Communion—and in that moment I just sensed this aweness, this worthiness of God, and it was just so beautiful. I got so emotional as I was reflecting on God’s name and his sovereignty and how holy he is, and just his presence, it overwhelmed me in that moment.
And a lot of times, if we’re honest, we don’t always experience that in our Christian walk. Life is so busy. You know, we do life, we have to prepare meals, we have all kinds of activities for the kids and driving up and down, and just things and meetings, things that keep us busy, and a lot of times we lose sight of God’s holiness, and we don’t create that space to really reflect on that. And then even our church experience, our worship experience, might be lacking because we don’t have a clear vision of who God is. And that is why even these names are so powerful, as we are reminded of all who God is and that should really motivate us to worship Him and as we reflect again on His holiness and who this God is that we worship.
Psalm 8:1 reminds us, it says:
Lord, our Lord, how majestic is your name in all the earth!
You have set up your glory in the heavens.
Now, as I was driving and experiencing just this moment in God’s presence—you know, I was sharing, I called Christo and I said, “Man, we got to just do this song,” and even as we think about Communion, because a lot of times life is so busy, and even in church we don’t always have time to reflect on God’s aweness. And that’s my prayer this morning for us, that you will experience the aweness of God again in this place, because it will change the way that we worship. And so just this morning, as we think about his name, it says, “Lord, our Lord, how majestic is your name in all the earth.”
Now there’s a great, powerful passage—Exodus 20, it’s part of the Ten Commandments—it says:
You shall not misuse the name of the Lord your God, for the Lord will not hold anyone guiltless who misuses his name.
Now there’s a moment where, as God was leading the Jewish people out of Egypt, he called Moses up to the mountain, and he gave Moses the Ten Commandments. And this was really important, not in a sense to just give people all these rules, right, and regulations to make their life hard, but this whole new experience of dwelling and having a relationship with God was brand new. They have been slaves, they’ve been under Egypt’s rule for 400+ years, right, and now God is calling them out and says, “I want to establish a new relationship with you. And so, to be able to do that, here is some rules. This is how we’re gonna do this so that this relationship can actually work out.” And so number three on that list is this, it says, “You shall not misuse the name of the Lord your God.”
Now again, here’s the key piece into discipleship. It is not something that we talk about a lot in the church, right? And so when we value God’s name, when we again understand how sovereign and how powerful God is, who he is—he’s the Creator of the heavens and the earth; he’s the one that created us—we have no clear understanding of what it’s gonna look like that moment when we are face-to-face with God, right, and so God is giving us a picture and saying, “I don’t want you to misuse my name because my name is powerful,” right? There’s a little bit more to it in context that we will talk about what actually this means for us as disciples of Christ.
Now, when we look at the world, right, it seems like this passage is actually not in the Bible, because people are misusing God’s name all the time. You cannot go and watch any movie where this is not happening anymore, which is really frustrating, and I have been surprised over the years to even seeing followers of Christ as we think about some of the language that is coming out of their mouth.
Now again, I am not trying to bring condemnation on you this morning—maybe some conviction. I pray that the Holy Spirit will convict us all so that we can become better disciples, healthier disciples, especially in this area, because a lot of times in the church it seems like we want to come up with ideas to get around some of these important principles in the Bible. And so a lot of times people will say, “Well, this is not a big deal anymore.” But as believers, I want you to know this morning that this is a big deal. God expects us to have healthy and whole words to come out of our mouths, right? Can I hear an amen?
Now, kind of a definition here, as we look at crossway.org, it says:
The word vain (as it’s rendered in the ESV) can mean “empty,” “nothing,” “worthless,” or “to no good purpose.” We are forbidden, therefore, from taking the name of God (or taking up the name or bearing the name, as the phrase could be translated) in a manner that is wicked, worthless, or for wrong purposes.
So when we look at the bigger idea and what God was trying to communicate with Moses and with his people and with his church today, when we’re looking at taking God’s name in vain, it is not just saying, “OMG,” right, or cursing God, using his name in a curse word. It’s part of it, but it’s even bigger than that. So the idea and the principle is this, to say we don’t want to do anything in our lives that will devalue the worthiness of God. Now this becomes really powerful in our lives. So again, it’s not just using this curse word, right, or using God’s name in vain, but it’s actually to say—God is trying to communicate to the Jewish people to say, “I have called you out, and you got to walk differently.” In the same way, he has called us out, he has called the church out to walk differently, to speak differently, and not to do anything that is gonna devalue God’s worthiness, his sovereignty, how beautiful his name is in our lives.
Trivial Use
And so, as we look at some ways that we might see how people are using it in our culture or even in our lives, is trivial use, and we’ve all maybe been guilty of this. It says, “This happens when people use God’s name in everyday phrases without thinking about its sacredness. Saying things like, ‘Oh my God,’” right? And again, we have become so accustomed to this in our culture where, unfortunately, this is not even a big thing anymore. But for the believer, this should be a really big deal. This should be a big deal because this is our God, and he is sacred. He is the one that is worthy of our praise. So then why do we use his name in vain? And so, in a sense, as believers, we should and can call each other out in love, right? And just to remind people, it’s like, “Man, this is my God. This is your God.” And I’m not even talking this morning to non-believers. If you are somebody that really haven’t put your trust and faith in Jesus Christ—he’s not your Savior, you’re not seeing yourself as a disciple of Jesus Christ—I’m not even talking to you this morning, okay, so kind of that heat is off you for a little bit. But this is for every believer. If you acknowledge Jesus Christ as your Savior, you need to know that we cannot use God’s name in this way. We have to pay attention to the words that are coming out of our mouth, especially when it comes to God. So no more trivial use in our lives.
False Oaths
How about false oaths, right? It says, “This refers to when someone swears by God’s name but doesn’t mean what they say or doesn’t plan to keep their promises.” And so scripture tells us this, it says we should be men and women of integrity so that when we say “Yes,” our yes will be yes. When we say “No,” our no will be no. We don’t have to go and say, “Oh, I promise you on the name of God,” right? And it’s just—we need to be men and women of integrity, and this is so lacking again today in our culture, and unfortunately it is lacking in the church culture as well, and sometimes even worse so. So it’s like, where are we missing it, church? Right? It is frustrating. I’ve been amazed over the years—and again, I’m with you, because we do fall short and we do mess up—but I’ve been amazed at, over the years in being a pastor, how many people have left the church because of this principle, where Christian men and women are not keeping their promises, where we’re not walking this out with integrity, and where we are cheating and stealing from each other, and we’re saying one thing and then we act or do the other. And so God is really calling his church again to integrity. How can we change the world if we look the same and if we act the same, if we’re using God’s name in the same way as in the secular culture? We can’t do that. There needs to be a change that happens.
Thoughtless Prayer
Even when we think about thoughtless prayer, maybe just with showing up, maybe different denominations and churches, and it’s just a ritual. We don’t even think again about God’s name. It’s just repeating God’s name carelessly or without genuine devotion during prayer rituals or public religious ceremonies, and this can reduce those sacred moments to mere formalities. And so we have to be careful. Our prayer time is a sacred time where we are interacting with God, and it’s not just a mere religious tradition that we are doing that we are doing.
Why is God Worthy?
So why, then, is God worthy of our worship and adoration? Like, so as we think about God’s name and who he is and why we are even here this morning—why are we worshiping God? You had the opportunity this morning to stay in bed, right? You maybe had the opportunity to work in the garden. We finally have some sunshine, you don’t need your canoe or your kayak, right? And so why are you here? Why did we give up our time to actually come and worship? And this is really important. This is things that we need to settle in our hearts to say, “Why does God need my worship?” So a couple of things. One—this morning I want to just show you several points on why he’s worthy.
God is the creator of everything that exists—both seen and unseen.
His mercy and grace for us. Despite our failures and sins, he offers forgiveness and new beginnings, which makes him deserving of our love and adoration.
Do you realize this morning—church, listen to me. Look at me, don’t be distracted. We deserved Hell. We deserved eternity without God. And because of his goodness, because of his grace, he gave his one and only son, Jesus Christ, to die on that cross for us so that you and I can experience eternity and everlasting life with him. That is so beautiful. If you forget everything else that I have preached this morning and every other point about why we need to worship and adore God, remember this point, because this is key. This is why we gather on a Sunday morning, because we just realize that we are sinners, that we are broken, and that our works will fall short every time. Nothing that we can do will get us into heaven. It is only because of what Jesus Christ did on the cross for us.
God’s decisions are made with perfect wisdom. His ways and thoughts are higher than ours, guiding creation towards his ultimate good purposes.
We have such an amazing God that he’s got wisdom, that he knows how our life is coming together, he knows our future, he planned a beautiful purpose for our lives. That’s the God that we worship this morning, and to realize that there’s nothing good—we don’t deserve anything good; it is only because of God’s goodness that you and I are sitting here this morning and that we get to experience this country and all of the blessings that is in our lives, right? Health, if you got health this morning, and you got a house this morning, and you got kids and food and money and—you know, I was looking at some images of what is happening in Nairobi. Now, again, it is messy and it is sad to see all of the floods and destruction that happens with tornadoes and things in our country, right, when we see those images. It is a whole ‘nother level, even when you see that in third world countries, like, you know, Kenya and South Africa or India, when there is devastation that happens in their lives, because they don’t have the support that we have, right? There’s not always a government that’s gonna step in. There’s not always that type of money that’s gonna step in. And so you already have little, and then nature comes in and destroys all of that. And so for us to be in this place this morning to just realize again all of the blessings that we have.
Venessa and I, you know, at some point this week we kind of just got frustrated with all of the rain, right, and no sunshine, and it’s so easy to complain. It’s like, “Lord, another rainy day,” right?” It’s like, “Man, I want to just be on my deck and drink a cup of coffee and enjoy the sunshine and the birds and look at the squirrels,” right, all the blessings of living in Duluth, and then I was listening to my own words. It’s like “Man, Steven, you are a spoiled brat,” right? “You are a spoiled brat.” Or we complain, right? It’s like, “Man, if I only had this. If I, you know, then my life is gonna be better.” But we have so many good things and blessings in our lives, and God is good, and to be able to be in that place to even say “Man, if we never see sunshine again…” right? I mean, most of us are gonna probably then move to Florida, but to even be in that place to say, “God, I’m gonna praise you in the good, the bad, and the ugly, because you are good. You are good, and you are worthy of my praise.”
God holds supreme power and authority over the universe. He reigns over heaven and earth. It means that all things are under his control, which makes him worthy of our submission and worship.
God’s plan for redemption for Jesus Christ—saving us from sin and reconciling us to himself—shows his profound love and justice, making him worthy of all our worship.
The steadfast love of God endures forever.
Praise the Lord, God doesn’t love the way I love, right? Because you’d be in trouble. There’s days, like, “Man, I’m really mad, really frustrated. I don’t want to love you right now,” right? But God’s love stays steadfast and is the same, and we’re so grateful for that.
Honoring God’s Name
So how do we honor God’s name then as we think about all of these reasons why we need to worship him? How do we do that? If you have been a Christian for a long time, this won’t be new to you, but maybe this is all new to you and you’re wondering, “How can I worship God?” Well, a couple of points here.
Engaging in heartfelt worship and praise honors God’s name. This includes participating in church services, singing hymns, and expressing gratitude to God through prayer.
So you’re doing it. As we do this, this will establish again just that praise for God.
Faithfully teaching and sharing the gospel of Jesus Christ honors God’s name by extending his teachings and love to others.
Regular, sincere prayer demonstrates reverence for God and reliance on his guidance.
Living a life of integrity where one’s action in both public and private life are consistent with Christian values. That honors God’s name.
Our Response
I added just several things here, kind of on a practical level, because a lot of times then we might not be taking God’s name in vain, but what about when we are faced with these situations outside of church? Now, a couple of things, because again, we don’t want to be jerks, and we have to realize that nonbelievers will not put the same value on God’s name as we do, right? And so some thoughts. How can we respond?
Most importantly for us is to model respectful language. It’s got to start in-house. It’s got to start with us. We have to model it. You have been called out. Pay attention to your language, and at the end of the day, you got to realize that it starts with the heart. Don’t think that you’re gonna just change your words without a heart change. God needs to impact your heart before it will impact your words, right? You’re gonna try to do this in your own power and it’s not gonna happen.
There’s a place for education, to tell people—if you are in conversation, maybe you’re in the workplace, maybe you’re in the school—to tell people when you have that conversation why is God’s name an important aspect of your faith and why that’s hard for you to hear when they are using his name in vain.
And then I would say speak up when necessary. There has been moments where we’ve been maybe in a restaurant, Hailey and Venessa, and there’s maybe some people that will just, you know, keep swearing and using God’s name in vain. I have asked sometimes people, I’ll say, “Hey, we’re believers. That’s really insulting, and I’ve got my wife and my daughter here and just, we’re not even used to that language,” right? Sometimes we’ve just asked the waitress if we could move our spot, right? That’s sometimes an easy way to do it, because again, we can try and correct people that doesn’t know Jesus Christ, and that’s gonna be hard on them. You know, they won’t get it. It’s gonna be probably a mockery for them, as, you know, where they’re gonna make a mockery of that. So just maybe some things to think through, but again I want to say we need to model it.
And then church, without—again I’m not trying to put this heavy burden on you, but listen to me—I think that it’s time for us to even consider the music that we listen to and the movies that we are watching. Right? It is so easy today, with Netflix and the different movies that we go to, that we can just become so accustomed to hearing how they use God’s name where it means nothing, where it doesn’t impact our hearts anymore. And I want us to move out of that. I want us to pay attention. I want you to read reviews about the stuff that you’re watching online. I want you to pay attention to the stuff that is playing at the movies. And we’re all guilty, we all deal with this, but where is the change gonna happen if the church is not stepping up to this, right? And so if we want to experience again God’s presence in meaningful and powerful ways in our lives, then let’s take his scripture to heart. And then we’re gonna say, “Man, I’m not gonna take God’s name in vain, and if that means I’m not going to the movies, I’m gonna miss that movie.” At the end of the day, it’s all good. That movie is not worth your time if that is how they’re gonna use God’s name.
Let us consider again the God that we worship. Let’s consider just his worthiness and how important his name is to us. Just think about your own name, think about your wife’s name, think about your kids’ name—you don’t want somebody to use their names in vain, right, and to curse them out, right? So how much more as we think about God. And so let’s be that place where we’re gonna say, “I’m gonna value his name.” He is worthy of that. Amen?
