A New Name | Jerry Harris

Well, good morning Crossing Church.

How are you doing today? It is so good to see all of you

today. So I dress myself.

And when I, when I put this on this particular shirt, just

doesn't lay it's a long, it doesn't lay right.

So I decided to tuck it in. I know I'm breaking a lot of

rules, so I took it in. I thought, you know what?

I'll do, I'll just wear a jacket over it.

So I went down my to daughter-in-laws were down,

there I go. So how do I look in?

This should never ask that question to anybody but they

went you look great that I think that works.

Yeah that I think it's good. So Allison was in the driveway.

So I walked out to the driveway and I go she goes take that off

right now. So I took it off and put it back

upstairs. I'm looking at myself in the

mirror and I went Welcome to Target.

Can I help you find anything? And so I share this on Thursday

night. The camera people said, no your

Jake from State Farm. That's who you are.

Yeah. What are you wearing khakis?

All right, so Just just saying, I want to welcome all of our

locations that are joining all over this region.

So thankful for each and every one of you and if you're inside

her online, we're thankful for you that we get to do life

together and experience the presence of the Lord together is

nothing quite like it. You know, we all deal with

self-esteem issues, all of us do at some level, like with what

you're wearing. And I've noticed that there's a

big difference in my generation and how I was raised and the

Racing that's coming up. Now, I watch this with my kids

as they're raising my five grandchildren and I don't care

what it is, that my grandchildren do, whether they

make a poopy diaper or they turn off the light in the bathroom,

or they pick something up that, they've dropped the two favorite

words that all of my kids say is they're raising their kids are

these two words could job. Everything is good job.

Good job, get. Do you do that?

Good job and it occurred to me. I looked, I thought back on my

life and my parents, and I can't remember a single time that my

mother and, father, ever looked at me and said, good job.

So if I really want to get out, get under Allison skin, she's

doing something, I'll look at her, I'll go, good job and I

don't want to tell you what she does after that, but I'll just

tell you that that I do that and I think that It's kind of born

out of this desire to want to build self-esteem, to want to

build, self-esteem in your children, and in your

grandchildren. And I think that's a good thing.

And we're in a series called weeds in my garden, and we're

talking about different kinds of challenges mental illness

issues, mental illnesses, that we might be dealing with.

And I know this one might seem like, it's on the surface, but

that's what I'm going to be talking about today.

I'm going to be talking about self-esteem, particularly low

self-esteem. And how that can move into

actual self-loathing and I'm going to start in a really

unlikely place because that's just kind of me.

And I want to see a show of hands here at our location, all

locations. How many of you either were

raised up with, or have now a nickname or a shortened name?

How many of you have that? Yeah, most of you and your

called that, right? And the people in from a

familiar way? They they call you that.

Do you have have any idea where that came from?

Have you ever asked? And most of you maybe have that

maybe someone people in your family don't Know why you have

that particular name? And I think that would be a

great conversation starter after the service today?

If you're with family to say, so where did you get that name or

why do I call you that? Well, my name is one of those.

It's an odd name. And I'm going to, I'm going to

say something here. That you probably won't believe

it first, but then you will later.

And that, is that my name comes from a very strange, maybe even

completely unique origin from from any of you. so, when my mom

and dad were dating, They had pet names for each other.

Do you have pet names for each other?

Those of you that are couples right pet names for each other

and they really needed them. I mean I'm like a lot of

families. My parents really needed that

because my dad's name is Arlo Ellsworth.

And, you know, I just can't see my mom going.

Arlo, hey, Arlo. My mother's name was Bernice

Lodge so they have some weird names right and my mother wanted

a familiar name to call my father.

So instead of calling him Arlo he called him Larry.

He just she just took the A and the L and kind of mixed it all

up and came up with Larry. So that was her pet name for my

dad. Well, my dad wanted to rhyme.

He wanted to have a name that rhymes with Larry, so he called

my mother Jerry, which has nothing to do with Bernice

Lodge. so, when my brother was born, my older brother, they

named him Larry I think I'm the only person at the Crossing that

was named after my mother. I don't know if any of you are

named after your mother but I was actually named after my

mother and and you know it wasn't a Bible name, it wasn't

something that that came from, you know, earlier person that

was named at in my family and as I reflect on it I really like

that name. I liked it because it was based

on my mom and dad's love for each other. so, you know, you

all know that names mean things, right?

They they mean things to us and that's just as an ancient thing

is it is a contemporary thing, right?

So like ancient Bible names, all have meanings.

Every one of them has a meeting we interpreted into English and

we go okay in English I think that's a really good message or

I think that's a really good thing to say.

And so I'm going to name my child this because it has this

particular meeting might change the word of the The way it's

spelled, we kind of like that meeting.

And I'm sure that if you've used a Bible name, for one of your

children, when you named your children, you know what that

name means? When I named my oldest Benjamin

David. I knew that that meant in Hebrew

it meant beloved Son of my right hand.

And all my other children have meanings for their names as

well. Jesse means the Lord is real.

Joseph means the Lord will add and Abigail means a father's

Joy. Now, I'm sure that even though

they have those names, they haven't always lived up or down

to those names you. And, I mean, that they haven't

always felt like that, whatever their name was or the meaning of

that name. That that was like a description

of their life. And I would imagine that goes

for you too. That you may struggle with your

life and maybe you have one of those kinds of names, but it

just doesn't fit sometimes. And you know why that is It's

because life just happens. Doesn't it either life runs into

you or you run into life? But when that happens, there is

an impact. There's a collision, whether

it's things that other people did or things that you did

choices that you made or choices that other people made for you.

Or it's just maybe just life in general when those things slam

into one another and they can slam into one another, at a high

rate of speed. It can create enough impact that

will leave fractures in your life.

You might have cracks in your life because of those

circumstances and those impacts that happen.

So I'm reflecting on this as I'm preparing to preach.

And of course, first person that came to my mind was Naomi in the

Old Testament. Yuri, you can read her story in

the Book of Ruth. It's actually a very short Bible

book in the Old Testament. You can read it in, probably 30,

45 minutes but her name in Hebrew Naomi is the way you

would say. My sweetness or sweetie.

That was her name. But her life, endured some

incredible impacts. They were hard impacts.

You see, she was married, she had two boys, they were living

in Israel, and a famine. Came had nothing to do with her.

Had nothing to do with anybody else's Choice.

It just had to do with there wasn't enough rain, and there

was a famine and people were starving, and they had to figure

out what to do. And so they decided to leave

their home country and move down in the South to Moab where there

was food. And then had to be incredibly

hard for her to leave family, and extended family, and

culture, and language. And so many other things to go

into this other Pagan country, a country, that worshipped idols.

That would have been a hard impact on her and after they had

been there, some time and her two sons had gotten married her

husband dies leaves her a widow bam, that's another impact in

her life. And no sooner does her husband

died that not one but both of her sons die.

Leaves her in a foreign country without a husband.

Without either one of her son's she has two daughters in law and

it it just becomes more it fractured her.

It left cracks in her life so much.

So that she said, I don't want anyone to call me Naomi anymore

from now on, I want you to call me Mara.

Mara in Hebrew means my bitterness the exact opposite of

the name. She was born with from my

sweetness to my bitterness. She actually told her

daughters-in-law to leave her to her bitterness and to go back to

their people and start life over again.

One of them refused to do it. Her name was Ruth and that's

what the Book of Ruth is about. But understand this about Naomi,

she was low. I mean that's low self-esteem

maybe to the point where we might call it self-hating or

self-loathing and you know what, I think.

I think that there are many of us that can relate to that.

That there's something that's happened.

In your life may be multiple things that have happened in

your life and they have fractured you in some way. and

when your life and your heart and your soul gets fractured,

There's something that can happen that can be very

destructive and it's referred to in Hebrews chapter 12, verse 15.

Hebrews 12:15

It says see to it. That no one falls short of the

grace of God, that no. This is it right here.

No Bitter. Root grows up to cause trouble

and to defile many. Low self-esteem is rooted in

bitterness a particular kind of bitterness self bitterness.

It's like bitterness throws off the seeds.

And those seeds find their way into the fractures and the

cracks of your life. And that's where they germinate

and that's what the Hebrew writers talking about when he

says Bitterroot. It's like they get down inside

those cracks, they germinate and they start to grow and

bitterness starts to grow out of that.

It can take over your whole life, it can Define your

personality, it can do all sorts of negative things.

So if you are struggling with low self-esteem, I am struggling

with low self-esteem. Maybe it's even going further

than that to self-hating or loathing or self-harm, what kind

of Hope does the bible give us. What can we find in there that

we can pull out of that? And what do we do with it?

How do we incorporate that into our lives?

So that we won't be in this circumstance, that can lead us

to even worse circumstances. I was thinking about that and

there are so many Bible characters that I could call

your attention to today. But I want to share with you.

It's kind of like me. I want to share with you the

story of someone that many of you.

Most of you have never heard of before.

Because he's an obscure character in The Bible, but I

think that even in the obscurity of his character, he could

really really help you today. His story could really help you

today and his name is mephibosheth.

I want you to say that with me. It's mephibosheth.

Ready? Mephibosheth?

Yeah. Mephibosheth was the son of

Jonathan. You may have heard of Jonathan.

He is a pretty famous character in The Bible because he was best

friends with David. Who later became king.

He was also a prince because his father was King Saul, so he was

part of royalty. And mephibosheth was Jonathan's

son. Only that wasn't his name when

he was born. When mephibosheth was born, he

was born to the highest privilege that anyone could have

had. I mean, he was the son of a

prince, who was the son of a king?

He was in the royal family, he would live in the Royal Palace,

right? But his name at Birth wasn't

mephibosheth. It was Mera.

Baal. Now, if you read that in your

Bible, you might pronounce it Maribel.

And you may hit remember the term bail in the Old Testament

because the bail was the name of an idol.

His the name of this Idol was actually not pronounced bail,

it's pronounced but all And here this little boy, that is born to

Jonathan and his wife, they named him Mirabal, which kind of

at first goes, you're naming your kid after an idol.

Actually, it means it's a great name and it means one who

opposes blah. So, you looked at his son, when

he was born thinking of what to name him, and he saw him as a

hero, who would pull down altars and Idols, so that people would

worship the one true God instead of these false gods, these Idols

that were raised up, right? And that was an idol.

That was worshipped at that time, it Israel.

And I think to myself for his name to be meribah, all what a

great start. What a great start to life

Jonathan is his father's a great man, a mighty man in the Old

Testament and kind of like Uncle David you know kind of his his

dad's best friend and then to live in the palace and all of

that. But you know what?

The fracture came. Like it comes to all of us.

Whether life runs into you or you run into life, the impact

happens and fractures form and cracks begin to show themselves

and it came to him little meribah all when he was 5 years

old. His grandfather Saul had

betrayed God over and over again to the point that God said to

him that he was going to lose control of the throne that the

throne was going to be torn away from him.

And then to the point where he continued to be this way to the

point where he said, I'm not going to protect you, you're

going to go out there and you're going to have to live with the

consequences of those mistakes and one of those mistakes was Go

to battle. But he went to battle anyway.

And he died in that battle. And because Jonathan was a good

son and stayed next to his father.

Even though his father was doing things that were against God, he

too died in that battle and they desecrated their bodies and they

hung them on the outside wall of their city, like a trophy.

And the word went out to all of Israel that the King was dead

and that his son was dead. And then, of course, you know,

it's going to be upheaval. Like who's going to get control

of the throne, who's going to get control of the country,

what's going to happen? And people kind of went berserk.

And one of those people that went berserk was the nurse who

was taking care of little meribah.

She had him in her arms and she was running with him afraid that

something bad would happen to him, wanting to protect him.

And while she was running overwhelmed with grief holding

him, and she hears this because she heard this news, she tripped

and fell. Meribah all was thrown out of

her arms and fractured both of his feet in the fall.

They were not able to be set correctly or heal properly and

for the rest of his life. Mephibosheth at that time known

as Mera. Baal was unable to walk.

Five years old. You can't really blame him for

any of this, right? Had to do with some decisions,

his grandfather made it had to do with a battle, he was

supposed to go into had to do with the decision that his dad

made to honor, his father, had to do with, you know, a nurse

that wasn't doing what she was does.

It doesn't really matter if it was him or somebody else or just

life in general the the reality of his life was that he lost

everything. Before I even knew what it meant

to have everything, he lost everything, he wasn't, he wasn't

the son of a prince and a palace anymore.

And none of it was his fault. But it became his reality.

And after Saul died, eventually David became king.

And David mourned, the death of Saul and he especially mourned,

the death of his best friend. Jonathan.

And I want to pick that story up in second, Samuel chapter 9

verses 1 through 8. David asked, is there anyone

still left in the house of Saul to whom I can show kindness for

Jonathan sake. Now, there was a servant of

Saul's household name ziba, and they summoned him to appear

before David and the King said to him, are you ziba at your

service? He replied the king asked.

Is there no one still alive from the house of Saul to whom I can

show God's kindness Ziva answered the king.

There is still a son of Jonathan he is lame in both feet.

Where is he? The king asked ziba answered.

He is at the house of machir. Son of a meal in Lo debar.

So King David had him brought from Lo debar, from the House of

machir, Son of a meal. When mephibosheth son of

Jonathan, the son of Saul came to David.

He bowed down and paid him honor, David said, mephibosheth

At Your Service, he replied, Don't Be Afraid.

Now he had a reason to be afraid because as the grandson of the

previous king and the prince being dead, David could see him

as a threat to the throne, right?

But this is not how David responded, that's why he said

don't be afraid. David said to him for, I will

surely show you kindness for the sake of your father.

Jonathan, I will restore to you all the land that belonged to

your grandfather, Saul and you will always eat at my table.

This is the part. I really want you to see.

Mephibosheth bowed down and said, what is your servant that

you should notice a dead dog like me?

I don't think that was hyperbole.

I think that's exactly how mephibosheth felt about himself.

Because of what had happened in his life because of the

fractures in his faith, in his heart and his soul.

And I think you would agree with me, that that is showing some

pretty low self-esteem, if that's how he views himself.

And you know what, that's the problem with self-esteem.

It's based in self. You see a steam is what you and

I need but it's the self part of it.

That is the problem and I'll explain that you see a steam,

the definition of a steam means to have respect for or

admiration for but it's kind of hard to have that for yourself

to respect yourself or admire yourself when, you know what

nobody else knows about you. And if they knew what you knew,

what you know about you, they might not have very much esteem

for you. And so, what do we do?

We put on these fronts, we put on these plastic Coatings.

We try to make everybody think that we're something that we're

not, you know what, we're good actors when it comes to this

kind of thing, or maybe we just the opposite, you know?

We just want everybody to pity us for some reason we say,

certain things like that, that that to get some of that energy

from I'm them, right? All of those things start to

happen because we're struggling with idea of respect or

admiration for self, you know, you Now, if you would go to a

counselor, they can give you some great advice.

And I think that this advice is all good.

They would say things like overcome low, self-esteem by

learning to accept compliments. That's a good thing, right?

Have you ever noticed that when you're struggling with low

self-esteem? You want to prove everybody

wrong when they compliment you. How about give yourself a Break

by using positive? Self-talk, that's a good idea.

How about love yourself Flaws and All not the idea of what you

want yourself to be, but who you are right now, love yourself,

flossing. On value, the person that you

are, that's good advice. Recognize that high self-esteem

is an important thing. That is good for you, that you

need to have a higher view of yourself seek support.

It, it's always good to have people around you to encourage

you to lift you up when you feel low, right?

How about this started? Gratitude Journal, start writing

things down, showing you the things that you can be grateful

for that God has done in your life or the other people have

done in your life. Try to squash - thinking they

might say, think of yourself as a friend, they Might say just

keep working on it they might say.

And like I said, all of those things are really good good

mechanisms. They're all good ideas, but

there is something missing. Something missing in those ideas

and it's the spiritual problem that we all have with ourselves.

Because I think that down deep We can all feel a lot like

mephibosheth. Maybe not so deep, maybe it's

right up to the surface where we say things like life hasn't been

fair to me. Like life is Left Me Broken.

I am full of fear. I feel helpless and I even feel

shame that you might like mephibosheth want to compare

yourself to like a dead dog. I feel like that.

And I think we need something more than coping mechanisms.

Something more. Than the names that we give

ourselves. You know, failure regret, defeat

perfectionism, disappointment circumstances, being a victim

going unnoticed, you know, the names.

You give yourself. And that's why I started the

sermon with this idea of names. The names.

Other people give us the names that we give ourselves.

Because they kind of signify how we feel or how someone felt

about us. At the time, we need a new name.

We need a new name. I think we need a new name that

signifies a new self. You know, who does that?

God, does that? God gives us a new name and he

gives us a new self. You can go back in the Old

Testament. You remember, Abraham his name

wasn't, he wasn't born Abraham, he was born Abram.

But God changed his name to Abraham.

You know why? Because Abram means exalted,

father. That's pretty good.

Right. But Abraham means, father of a

multitude. You see how God lifted him up?

His wife's named? Sarah, that's not the name.

She was born with, she was born with the name Suri.

I God changed it to Sarah Siri. I means my princess, that's

pretty good. But Sarah means my queen.

God changed Jacob's name to Israel.

Jacob was a twin, he and his brother were both born, breech

his brother was born before him, and when he came out of his

mother's womb, his hand was holding onto the heel of his

brother. The word.

Jacob means one who grasps the heel.

It's also the term for usurper and if you read about Jacob's

life, that's exactly who he was. He did so many things taking

what did not belong to him, he was a usurper.

But when he wrestled with God, God changed his name to Israel.

Which doesn't mean usurper. It means contender.

And he elevated him. Jesus did it too.

One of his closest friends and closest disciples with Simon.

Simon son of John. Right.

And Simon's name means the listener.

That's good. But Jesus, taint changed his

name to Peter which means Rock And you're all saying, well,

that's well and good for Bible, characters and Bible names.

God gives you a new name. You have a new name.

When I was a kid, we used to sing out of the hymnal.

And there was a song in there. And it went, there's a new name

written down in glory and it's mine.

Oh yes, it's mine. Let me show you where he said

that in Revelation 2:17, Whoever has ears.

Revelation 2:17

Let them hear what the spirit says, to the churches, to the

one who is Victorious. God says, I will give some of

the Hidden Manna. I will give that personal white

stone with a new name, written on it known only to the one who

receives it. He has a new name for you.

Every one of you that's in an intimate, personal relationship

with Jesus Christ. And it's not just a new name,

it's not just a title. It's a new self that goes with

it. Paul writes about it in second

2 Corinthians 5:17

Corinthians 5:17. Therefore, if anyone is in

Christ, that means an intimate, personal relationship with Jesus

Christ. The new creation has come that

new self has come the old self, is gone.

The newest here? He gives you a new self and a

new name. That's pretty awesome

mephibosheth. Had his father's land restored

to him. As David did that David invited

him to sit at the Kings Table, not as a guest.

But as one of his own sons and he got a new name, you see, when

this story is told, it's told in Reverse like all this has

happened and then the person is writing about it from the future

to the Past, right? Because in the future, his name

is mephibosheth. That's why begins this way even

though his name actually, was mihrab.

Real first. You see mephibosheth got a new

name and you know what it means. No more shame.

You're not a dead dog anymore. Your something completely new.

We all have a self. You have one, I have one and you

have the fear and the shame that goes with that.

But God can give you something that you can never ever.

Give yourself for all the coping mechanisms, only God has the

ability to give you the victory and he does this by giving you a

new self and a new name and that comes through a relationship

with Jesus Christ. It's the only way God doesn't

want you to cope. He wants you to have victory in.

And you can have that victory in life.

Listen your land will be restored.

You will sit at the Kings Table. You will because he's adopted

you into his family, you see? He didn't just give you a new

name, he gave you his name. Amen.

Gave you his name, You Belong with him, you belong in his

family with a new name, and a new purpose, and a new future.

And that only comes That Victory only comes in a relationship

with Jesus Christ. We're moving to a time of

decision. So right now, some of you Have

never come into this relationship.

Some of you have never Stepped into a relationship with Jesus

Christ. And I'm not talking about having

religion, and I'm not talking about being a church member, and

I'm not talking about having a religious family.

I'm talking about, you and Jesus having a relationship with each

other. That's what I'm talking about.

Were you understand him? You see.

Self-esteem is kind of a lie. Right.

Because you know the truth you don't need to have a steam.

From yourself. It's not how you view yourself.

It's how God views, you need to have goddess team.

See you and I we live down our identities, they're down in the

lower story. It's all in the Life

circumstances that we have. We live down in this in this

kind of dark reality. Kind of a locked basement that

we can't get out of right. That's where we are.

But if you could just here for a minute, how God views you?

Not as a servant as a child. Now, someone who doesn't

deserve. But someone who does deserve.

not because of how you view yourself, but because of how he

views you How in the world can a god, almighty God.

Look at someone like me and look at someone like you and go.

I want you to sit at my table. I want you to be called by my

name. You are so valuable to me.

As a matter of fact, your valuable enough that my only son

would die for you. And pay your debt, so that I

could give you eternity in heaven.

This is how God views you, you know, what, why settle why

settle for self-esteem when you can have goddess team because

that's where it all changes, when it's not so much how you

view yourself, but how you know, God views you, because when you

know that God views you that way, it changes how you view

yourself. Some of you need to come into

that relationship. Today, there's going to be

somebody right over there by that baptistry that would love

nothing more than to talk to you about what it means to take

those next steps may be. That next step is today, happens

every week at the Crossing right.

How many do we see today? You see the old self going down

in the water? You see the new stuff coming up

out of the water? Every anybody ever looked like

really sad or like, that was a bad decision when they came up

out of the water. Some of your go out of, I want

to do that because I know me and I'm inconsistent and I'm

hypocritical and I'm gonna blow it, will sure you're gonna blow

it? Do you realize the battle that I

go through? Every time I get up on that

stage? What gives who do you suppose is

talking to me saying, what gives you the right to tell other

people how to live their lives when you're struggling with

yours? Some of you will go.

That's your inner voice. Jerry some of you go, that's a

devil Jerry. I don't care what you call it,

it's not how God views me. The reason I get to stand up on

that stage and talk to you is because God says, son, get up on

that stage and talk to people. Just that simple.

And then I don't have, I don't have to get down to that low

place. I can live up in the upper story

if I choose to and I invite you to today. some of you here

today, you've made that decision, but don't Think, for a

minute. You don't find yourself down in

the shadows of that lower story, I do.

And that's why we have steps at this stage where people can get

down on their knees and they can cry out to God whose their

heavenly father who loves them beyond our even ability to

understand it. In the cry out to him and he

hears our prayers. And he lifts us up.

And unlike mephibosheth nurse, he doesn't drop us.

Ever. Maybe you just need that

encouragement today. Spend some time with the Lord,

turn some stuff over to him. Some of you.

It may not be about you at all. It may be about someone that you

love, you're carrying their burden right now.

You're hurting for them. You're trying to figure out a

way, you can fix them and you can't.

But God can I invite you to bring them up and pray over them

today. There's going to be plenty of

people. This place is going to be full

up here. But there's room.

Would you stand with me? Pray with me.

Heavenly Father and Jesus name, take this moment, your moment

like every moment and I pray, father, that you would break

through where all the cracks are in our heart, all those routes

that have sprouted. Bitterness just another weed in

the garden. I pray, father's, you pull those

weeds men. Those cracks do that by the

love. That came from your son, Jesus

directly to us. In Jesus name, amen.