Please Erase Jesus From Your Profile

00:00 - Speaker 1 Real Life presents the Jack Hibbs Podcast with intention and boldness to proclaim truth, equip the saints and impact our culture. 00:09 - Speaker 2 The Third Commandment, taking the Lord's name in vain. What could it possibly mean? Something that you may not have thought of? Let's take a listen. 00:20 - Speaker 1 You can get the outlines of this podcast by going to jackhibbs.com/podcast today. If this podcast lifts you up and encourages you to live a more fulfilled life in Christ, then make sure you leave us one of those five-star ratings. To us that's like saying amen or yes. Then that rating will encourage others to listen Now open your hearts to what God's Word has to say to you. Here is Jack Hibbs. 00:49 - Speaker 2 Well, hey, welcome to our podcast today. And this podcast is one that is going to be something that you and I actually encounter all the time, way more than you might think. And I'm going to be talking today about what is technically really found in the book of Exodus, chapter 20, and it is the 10 commandments, but a very particular commandment. Let me explain. There are so many people today, especially on their social media posts, their social media presence, that are literally not only incriminating themselves I'll explain in this podcast but they're actually creating an environment whereby they're damaging the witness of Christ, the witness of the gospel, and what it is to be a Bible-believing, God-loving, God-worshiping follower of Christ, a disciple of Jesus. You see, jack, what in the world are you talking about? 01:53 Listen, the third commandment says you shall not take the name of the Lord in vain. We've all heard this before right, heard this before right For the Lord, your God, will not hold him guiltless. Who makes his name or takes his name, I should say, in vain. You shall not take the name of the Lord in vain. The Lord will not hold you guiltless if you take his name in vain. What does it mean to take his name in vain? Well, first of all, the word vain in English simply means in the area of pride and arrogance. It can mean that the word has multiple meanings, but that's not the meaning for this particular usage of the word. You shall not take the name of the Lord in vain. It means that you are to not declare his name in an empty manner Empty. Think of the word empty. Empty, an empty cup, an empty bucket, an empty pot. An empty bucket, pot or cup is void or it is a cup in vain. Does that make sense? It's a cup, but the cup is actually useless because there's nothing in the cup. You can have a beautiful mug, like one of our podcast mugs, which are beautiful mugs, beautiful mug, but if there's nothing inside of the mug, what good is the mug? But to be a display, it is to be what Put pencils in it. So that would be the use of the mug in vain. If I were to use this bottle of water and use it for any other purpose than what it was created to be used for, it would be used in vain. I hope this is starting to make sense. If I were to use this cup to pour out the water and then burn the plastic to cook my food. That would be to use the cup or use the plastic excuse me in vain. You got that. 04:02 So you shall not use the name of the Lord in vain. You shall not invoke, you shall not call upon, you shall not say the name of the Lord and the name that you're using his name. You're using his name, you're saying his name, you, the vessel, you can I say it this way you and I, the cup or the pot or the bucket, are stating his name. In other words, we have the label on the outside of us. We have said, hey, I know the Lord or hey, I represent God. 04:40 And the Bible is saying you cannot use the name of the Lord in vain. It has nothing to do with cussing, isn't that interesting? Somebody will cuss. And oh, you're not to use the Lord's name in vain. We understand what you mean by that and we agree with that. It is blasphemous to curse in his name. But the technical meaning of the third commandment? But the technical meaning of the third commandment means you are not to mention the Lord's name in vain, as though you know him when you don't. 05:17 And why am I bringing this up in this podcast with you? Because how many people friends, listen, I'm going to be blunt, and yet you'll have to agree how many people do you know? Or I should say that you've congressman, congresswoman, pole vault, track and field football player, whatever, okay, office manager, it doesn't matter, but I'm this person and they and they, they, they, they say I'm a Christian and I'm this person and they say I'm a Christian and I'm this and I'm this. And you look at that on the surface, on the label. You remember what I'm talking about? Label. Here's the label, okay, and the outside says I'm a Christian. But how do we know what's on the inside? Well, we can find out and we go on the inside, and we go to the inside of their social media presence, as an example in this day and age, and you begin to look and you begin to see what's their conversation like. So, for example, I'm a Christian and I'm an influencer and I'm this and this. And then, as you go through there, there is, there's a picture of them very scantily dressed or very provocatively dressed or barely dressed, and but they're a Christian, right, they're a Christian right, but they're half naked on their social media or they're using words that are definitely not becoming of the Lord or a Christian Right, or here I am. You know, here I am at the concert and we had a great time and you know feeling the buzz as they're holding either beer or their, their wine or whatever it is, and they're like you get what I'm saying. There are so many people out there that are saying this stuff and I have to tell you that one of the things that someone pointed out to me on one of my social media platforms I don't remember which one it was, but it was exactly what we're talking about, and this is actually using the Lord's name in vain it's this A young woman had said on one of my social media posts oh I love Pastor Jack, I go to his, I've been going to his church for years and just love it. 08:02 And then the next couple of posts, down or up, I don't remember which way it went Um, there was, she was. She was in this, uh, in this Halloween outfit, which was not good looking right in the way of a very, very provocative, and she had commented and said I am one sexed up kitten ready to go, and she's holding her drink. This is the same one who said oh, I just love Pastor Jack and I go to his church. I've gone to his church for years. Well, obviously she's not learning anything, and boy does that send a mixed signal. But let's remove Jack from the equation. Let's remove the church that I pastor from the equation. 08:52 Just to say I know Jesus and I'm one sexed up kitten, ready to go, is using the Lord's name in vain. And there are a lot of people who have their Christian witness air quotes. Here you go, christian witness, but their lifestyle completely betrays their confession. And guess what that is? It's using the Lord's name in vain. It's what it means. It means that on the outside, you are labeled as a believer, but on the inside, where your heart is pumping, the blood is flowing, the thoughts are dreaming and the real part of you is the inside of you, not what you label yourself as. And the church has suffered greatly over the centuries regarding this very thing where everyone's—listen. 09:45 I was in some state recently I'm sorry, I don't forget, I can't remember what state it was in and I said gosh, you guys have a church on every corner. It's kind of weird, though it was a Sunday. There's churches on every corner, but there's like 10 cars in each parking lot of these churches that are around every corner and and oh, yeah, yeah, and you know, yeah, that's right, christian, you know we're a red state or whatever they said. And I found this amazing. But the guy went on to tell me that all the liquor stores are closed on Sundays until one o'clock. And I said what is that One o'clock? That's funny. Why do they? They're open you mean, they're open up at 9am every day of the week, yep, but they don't open up till Sundays, uh, until one. Why is that? And the guy said, oh, that's because that's when church is over. I said what he said yeah, yeah, that's when church is over. 10:44 You know, the liquor store shop guy could be at church, or the people buying liquor could be at church. And I just thought, wow, that's interesting. That's interesting because the picture has been presented so many times that for them it it's normal. Oh yeah, the liquor stores, people don't buy their booze until after one o'clock on Sundays because we're at church on Sunday morning. Wow, okay, well, when you have that kind of outward display, but the first chance you get, the first listen, the first hint of freedom you get, is freedom from who, freedom from what? We went to church, we did our God stuff. Now we're free to do what we want to do, and I got to tell you that is not Christianity, that's deception. And you want to be very careful about that. Because, oh, I just posted my Christian verse on my social media. Oh, I just posted my Christian verse on my social media, but if you look at all of my posts, there's many of my posts it's got me doing this or doing that, or I'm with my girlfriends and we're all at this club and we're half naked praising the Lord. Oh really, I don't think so. That's using the Lord's name in vain. You might say well, jack, that's so legalistic. You're judging me, man. No, I'm not judging you at all at all. The word of God is judging you. You shouldn't Listen. You got to pick a side. Pick a side that you're going to represent, but you can't represent both, represent both. 12:24 Years ago, my goodness, 1993, we were in Moscow, Russia, and we were speaking to the crowds. It was beautiful, the wall had just come down and we were going in and out of Russia preaching the gospel and we were starting churches. And we had someone on our mission team and she was a young high school girl, very mature though for her age and she was speaking to a bunch of young people and I was listening to what she had to say to make sure, you know, is she, you know, legit, you know what's going on? And she said you know, there are people who want to live in the world and live in church at the same time. She said imagine a picket fence, you know a picket fence like this picket fence. And she said a picket fence. And she said imagine trying to live with one foot in the world on one side and one foot in the church on the other side. She said if you live like that, it's going to be very painful to be on either side. And I thought wow, that is so good. She's right. Think of a fence with spikes on it and you're trying to live in the church on Sundays but in the world from Monday to Saturday. You're going to be very, very sore, you're going to be very, very pained by that kind of relationship, and so you should. 13:53 So it's vitally important that when we look at the 10 commandments, when we look at that third commandment, you shall not take the Lord's name in vain, for the Lord will not hold you guiltless. It's because you are representing him. So we would rather have you change your social media presence and go one way or the other. But you can't do both because you're doing damage. To listen the witness of Jesus, which apparently you're either not aware of or you don't care about, or you're hearing this now for the first time. You're being convicted and you're thinking I need to go back and clean up my social media. I'm just going to kill my page and start all over. Hey, that would be better than sending a message of confusion. 14:38 But how many people today, especially young people, are being damaged because they want to be changed. They want to have a new life, they want to start all over again, they want to be forgiven, they want to not be like the world anymore. They want the ultimate alternative. Give me a reason, give me an answer as to why my life should be changed. Because I don't like my life, I can't stand my life, I'm guilt-ridden. There's no meaning and purpose. I'm sick of what this world offers. Give me a reason to live when we give them the alternative, which is everlasting life in Christ. That he transforms our lives, he actually gives us a new life. That when we say that and then we portray a life that's no different than the world. Do you understand the robbery we're committing? We are robbing people from the hope of knowing Christ because of our bad witness. We are taking the Lord's name in vain and we want to avoid that at all costs. 15:44 So I'm sure you know this right, that if you apply for anything even if it's summer vacation lifeguard down at the public pool at the city, you know there's going to be people, are going to get your name. So you're Billy and you signed up because you like to swim and you want to be a, you know, a safety person, and so you signed up to be the lifeguard at the community pool. As soon as they get your name, they're going to do a social media search on you. Everybody does this. I hope this is not news to you. 16:21 Look, as a church, if somebody applies to our church for employment, we first of all vet their social media to extreme degrees. Why, why would we do that? Now, here's what's funny. We actually had someone say before hey, that's my private page, man, it's private. What does that have to do with anything? Ah, you want to come and work for a church, even if it's a volunteer. You want to volunteer to work with our youth at camp, but your social media is all about you drinking and smoking and innuendo and images that are definitely questionable and all this kind of stuff that if a youth, if a junior higher, was to look you up and find that out, they would be stumbled by that, they would be grieved by that, and we're not to do that as believers. Now, look, there are many of you that are watching this right now and you're not a believer and you're saying you're an idiot, jack. There are many of you that are watching this right now and you're not a believer and you're saying you're an idiot, jack, for even saying such things. That's ridiculous. Now, listen, I understand that you don't understand, and when I was not a Christian I didn't understand. But I'm talking to the Christian right now, and the Christian is someone who is not to stumble anybody else, and especially young people. That carries with it a very severe penalty from God if we stumble or hurt a young person. 17:51 That said someone's reality and truth actually comes from them and it's posted or declared or said. When the so to speak hair is let down, when they're alone and they're making their post. That's the real them. You say well, wait a minute, jack. I know people who post things that's not true about themselves, because they don't really own that house or drive that car. It's all fake. Listen, watch out. They are revealing who they are. That's the real them. The real them is they're liars. 18:31 You see, when somebody says I'm one sexed up kitten ready to go, what is she saying? I mean, I can only interpret that to mean here I am, come and get me. If you say, oh, that's really crude, no, it's not. It's perfectly in line with what she said. That's why she said it. No, no, she meant to say it this way, that way. That's why she said it no. No, she meant to say it this way, that way. Listen, she said it. It's out there, it cannot be rescinded and it's done its damage. 19:14 You want to be wise and careful in this day and age that when you post something, it's out there for ever, forever, and so even to the point where somebody might say well, I erased all that stuff, I threw it in my trash can on my computer and I erased it. I think the trash can Guess what. I was told this, by the way, by an FBI agent. I happen to have been involved in an FBI investigation as they were going after somebody and I learned this from them that there's something that is called this guy said I assume it's true, I don't know, I don't work in that world. 20:04 Obviously called this guy said I assume it's true, I don't know, I don't work in that world. Obviously he said no, no, when you erase stuff it actually goes into the well. W-e-l-l goes into the well. I said what is that the well? And he said you cannot sell a computer or a phone or a device in the United States. The FCC works in conjunction with the NSA, national Security Agency, and that is also, of course, connected to the CIA or the FBI or whatever it might be. And when somebody throws something away, the reason why Apple can sell devices in the United States is because national security requires Apple to develop a product same as for Samsung or IBM, anybody else that the authorities can go in and draw up something that you erased seven years ago, they can go get it. It's there and in that investigation I watched them do that. It's quite remarkable. So you might say well, I threw that away, just like the mind of God, it's always there. The only way that you can fix things is not on the FBI side. You'll never be able to fix that. 21:22 Okay, if you became a brand new believer today and your life has a history of very bad things and you decided to throw it all away, you can thank the Lord Almighty that he's gracious and forgiving and that's awesome. But just know this the world is not gracious or forgiving, and what you throw away, the world will always know and the world will always have access to it, though you don't want it to ever be seen again. I get it Glory. Be to God right that when he forgives you, it is erased from his memory, so to speak. God knows all things. He doesn't really erase his memory, but he says this as far as the east is from the West, so far have I removed your sin from you, God, says to us, so that we might better understand. He says I have taken your sin and I've cast it into the depths of the sea. That's beautiful, right? 22:25 Computers don't do that, and what has been posted is posted, and I want to remind you as I wrap this up we need to be wise and careful. You're not always going to be the age that you are right now. You might be 14 years old right now using social media and because you don't have the moral capacity. You don't have the ethical capacity. I'm not knocking you. You just simply don't have it yet. At 14 years of age, you actually don't need it yet, but you don't have the moral rudder or the ethical foundation of a 30 year old. And so you'll post something or you'll say something I love Jesus, he's my, you know, he's my, all in all. And then you're over here on Facebook or our TikTok or Snapchat or whatever, and you're just tearing somebody apart. Oh man, you know what they this and this and I hope they drop dead and blah, blah, blah and they make me sick and blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. That's there forever. 23:42 And you've taken the Lord's name in vain. Please go back to your bio and erase everything about the Lord. Just, please, get, just erase him off of your bio or off of your. If you have a cross around your neck on your profile photo, please get a new photo and have a new photo without the cross. It's so serious. Do not take the Lord's name in vain. Do not misrepresent God and tell people you know who he is and that you love him when your posts, your comments, your actions on the social media platform. 24:20 World betray that statement platform. World betray that statement. Very, very important. Strong, strong things. And the Lord says I will not hold you guiltless, wow. So we want to repent, we want to remove and then we want to rest in what he's provided for us. But you're not going to get that deal, my friends from the world. It's just not going to happen. So I want all of you to be healthy and clean and strong, because there may be a day when you want to run. 25:00 God calls you to run for governor. God calls you to run for president. God calls you to run for mayor. Do you know what they're going to do? Your opponents are going to bring up something. Look, we've already seen this with Supreme Court nominees and congressmen and secretary positions for cabinet members. You posted this post when you were 17 years old. This is for real. You said this when you were 17 years old at a party where you went to, a party that was hosted by some Cornell University students. You were 17 years old and you went and you said this what that was 35 years ago? The world will bring up everything it can to destroy you. 25:50 Walk in wisdom, do not any longer take the name of the Lord in vain. When you post, when you conduct yourself on social media, do it in such a way that honors God. Listen, you can biblically critique. You can biblically criticize as long as it is a righteous exposure. When someone is telling a lie about their political or their conduct or their position, you can say this individual is lying on that, they did not do that or they wound up. Are you hearing me? That's fine. But you cannot just say oh man, you know what Susie did? She stole Karen's boyfriend and man. She's a witch, she's a blah, blah and just off you go. 26:36 Yikes, listen, take it from an old guy who knows very little about social media. I know enough to see that a lot of people are using the Lord's name in vain. Let's stop that now. Let's just put an end to it. So God bless you guys. Listen, this is kind of like a parental thing, right today, right, and more like your dad talking to you. But hey, it's my pleasure and I just want you to do well and so be strong, stand in the word of God and conduct yourself by the grace of God and honor his name forever. 27:06 His name, by the way, is the name above every name. His name is Jesus and he is the Christ and he is Lord. And he died on the cross for you because he paid the price for your sins and mine that we could never pay and that, listen, the price for sin is death. Jesus died for us, he met that demand for us because we couldn't, and then he rose again from the dead on the third day for our justification. In other words, because Christ has risen from the dead, you and I, who trust him, will go to heaven based on the fact that he's risen from the dead. Trust him completely. God bless you, guys. Until next time head. Trust him completely. God bless you guys. 27:49 - Speaker 1 Until next time, this Jack Hibbs podcast, as well as all the broadcast outreach opportunities, are listener supported, will you consider partnering with us through a special gift? Go to jackhibbs.com to learn more and stay connected.