Sermon Preview: What Is Your Name?

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Preview for Sunday 07/15/18

Genesis 32:27 • “What Is Your Name?”  

As we all know, names are more than ways to identify one another. Names either express our gratitude for special people to us or point to the hopes and dreams we have for those under our care. It’s always been the case from the beginning that our names say as much about us and our background as anything we might say or do.  

Now, research has shown that names also have the power to shape destiny. The technical name is “nominative determinism,” which is a fancy way of saying that a name often directs its owner toward a particular outcome. As the theory goes, our names take root deep within our mental worlds and draw us toward outcomes they embody.  

Though I’m not quite sure about that theory, I do acknowledge how the Bible character Jacob could be a good example of how some people live into their names… for all the wrong reasons. Jacob, whose name means “Trickster,” was the consummate control freak… until he came up against something that was beyond his control. It was then that he began to make room in his life for God, a step of faith that opened the door for a new destiny.  

Sometimes only similar failure and disappointment will turn us from self to God. Sometimes our desire to be in control is so strong that only a catastrophic event can make us look up.  

Of course, it doesn’t have to come to that point. Worship provides us the privilege of looking up to God so that His grace toward us in Jesus Christ might continue to draw us into the good future He has for us to know. So, whether your life seems out of control or is in a reasonably good place, God has an even better place for you to get to. Join us this Sunday as we make our way to where that place is, the place where God would have us to be, so that each of us might come to know the blessing that God earnestly desires to give.