True Knowledge of Self

Traps of the Enemy - What's in a Name?

Three Angels Broadcasting Network

Program transcript

Participants: Dwayne Lemon, Lance Wilbur

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Series Code: TKS

Program Code: TKS000017


00:29 Hello, I'm Lance Wilbur. And I'm Dwayne Lemon.
00:31 And we like to welcome you
00:33 to another edition of TKS a True Knowledge of Self,
00:36 where we get to know ourselves from a biblical perspective.
00:39 Now, as we been going through this series,
00:42 we've been touching various subjects,
00:44 and in our last discussion
00:46 we talked about the origin of false education,
00:50 and we saw that origin was there
00:53 right in the very beginning in the Garden of Eden.
00:55 And we saw that the tree of the knowledge
00:57 of good and evil,
00:59 the mingling of truth with error
01:01 and the subtle lies of the serpent
01:05 which we identified as Satan according to Revelation 12:9.
01:11 And the rationalization
01:12 that Eve used in her mind to say that
01:15 "Maybe this would benefit me
01:16 and put me in a better position and make me happy.
01:19 And maybe this would be better than what God offered
01:22 and maybe God was not right
01:23 when He said we shall surely die."
01:25 She rationalized in her mind
01:26 and through her feelings and senses,
01:28 she chose self over God and the tree of life
01:32 and the wisdom and the peace and happiness
01:35 that only God could provide.
01:37 And we're doing this all in the backdrop of Babylon.
01:40 We saw that Daniel took a stand for God
01:43 and God honored him for that.
01:45 And we saw that Nebuchadnezzar even though he was,
01:50 it was revealed to him
01:51 that God, the God of heaven was the true God
01:54 that he began to trust in himself once again
01:58 and he had this experience with God,
02:00 but it did not translate into right living
02:04 and God had to humble him.
02:06 Now there were also some other things
02:08 and as, Dwayne, you begin to help us understand,
02:11 there were some other things that took place
02:14 when those Hebrew boys were taken captive into Babylon
02:19 outside of just in educational aspect
02:21 whether their education was changed
02:24 to try to get them away
02:27 from their upbringing in the truth
02:29 and kind of mingled the error with that,
02:32 there was something else that was changed as well.
02:34 Can you please elaborate on that?
02:36 Oh, yeah, definitely.
02:37 And remember, we're always looking for the parallels
02:40 because truth that only pertains to the past
02:43 and has no bearing upon our present
02:45 is not really a beneficial truth
02:47 in most cases.
02:48 And therefore, we always want to find out
02:50 where is the practical application?
02:52 Where do I find a parallelism
02:54 between what has been done in times pass
02:56 and where do I see myself today in the same experience?
02:59 Do I see myself there?
03:00 Now Daniel Chapter 1, I'm gonna go back there
03:02 because once again we find ourselves
03:05 in a situation where it was not just Nebuchadnezzar
03:08 trying to change the educational system
03:11 and to try to take away that true education
03:13 from the minds of Daniel and his associates
03:16 but there was also another attack that he did.
03:18 It's a very subtle one but nevertheless
03:19 it's worthy of recognition.
03:21 The Bible says in Daniel the 1 Chapter.
03:24 We're gonna look at Daniel 1
03:25 and we're gonna go to verses 6 and 7.
03:27 Daniel 1:6, 7
03:30 and we're gonna notice what the Bible says here
03:32 as it is very, very powerful as we unfold this.
03:35 Daniel 1:6, 7, here's what it says.
03:40 "Now among these were of the children of Judah,
03:42 Daniel, Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah,
03:48 unto whom the prince of the eunuchs gave names,
03:52 for he gave unto Daniel the name of Belteshazzar,
03:56 and to Hananiah, of Shadrach, and to Mishael, of Meshach,
04:01 and to Azariah, of Abednego."
04:05 We find that it was not just in Nebuchadnezzar's plan
04:08 to take away the education
04:10 that the children of Israel received,
04:12 but he also wanted to take away even their names,
04:15 because Nebuchadnezzar understood something
04:17 that is revealed all throughout the Bible
04:19 and that is that names
04:21 were not just simply given to people randomly.
04:23 Today when an individual chooses a name,
04:25 they like something that sounds cute,
04:26 maybe reflects a favorite celebrity
04:29 or what have you.
04:31 You know, one time I even looked at my name,
04:32 you know, because I, you know, grown up a hip-hop culture,
04:34 you know how it is.
04:35 In hip-hop culture names are crucial.
04:37 That's right. We know that.
04:39 So, you know, I obviously grown up in this culture
04:42 I said, "Well, I want to know what my name represents."
04:45 So I had to start looking around
04:46 and as I started to look around,
04:48 true story, I did find out what the name Dwayne means.
04:52 My name is spelled differently from some other.
04:54 Some do D-U-A-N-E, mine is D-W-A-Y-N-E,
04:58 and both names can have a different meaning.
05:00 So I looked up D-W-A-Y-N-E, Dwayne.
05:03 You know what it meant? What?
05:04 Little dark one.
05:06 Oh, matches you perfectly.
05:07 Oh, it matched me perfectly.
05:09 My mother saw this little black child
05:10 coming out of her and she said,
05:11 "Let's call him Dwayne, you know."
05:13 And I can't trace myself
05:14 back to anything really special.
05:16 I know I'm dark,
05:18 it's pretty much nothing I can do about that,
05:19 but nevertheless in the Bible it was different.
05:22 It wasn't just about a complexion.
05:24 It wasn't just about, you know,
05:26 some favorite actor or actress that I wanted--
05:29 I mean, I had a boy that his daughter was born
05:31 and he names her Alize.
05:33 Alize. After alcoholic beverage.
05:36 You see what I'm saying? Yes.
05:37 So, you know, people have the strangest reasons
05:40 why they give a person a name.
05:42 But in Bible times when God gave a name to someone,
05:45 God always wanted that name to represent a character.
05:50 That was very important to God.
05:52 And this is why you will notice that,
05:54 you know, as we put up on the screen here,
05:55 you're gonna notice that there is a comparative
05:57 between the names that were represented
05:58 in Daniel 1:6, 7
06:01 and then also the new names that were given to them.
06:04 And here's an example.
06:05 You will notice on the screen
06:07 that when Daniel's name comes up,
06:08 it says God is my judge.
06:10 That's what the name Daniel means,
06:12 God is my judge.
06:13 But when he was given the name of Belteshazzar,
06:17 Belteshazzar and, you know,
06:18 some of these names that were given,
06:20 they were given from the Chaldean dialect
06:23 so as a result of that,
06:24 there is not a full understanding
06:26 of what these words actually meant,
06:28 but nevertheless there is enough information
06:30 that we're gonna go ahead and present this
06:32 knowing that there could be some more to unfold.
06:34 But again, Daniel meant God is my judge.
06:38 But then when you looked at Belteshazzar,
06:40 it meant that Bel would protect my life
06:42 which of course is dealing with a false God,
06:45 you know, an idol.
06:46 Then you had Hananiah.
06:48 Hananiah, his name meant God has shown favor.
06:52 So God has shown favor unto this individual,
06:55 therefore the name was Hananiah,
06:56 one whom God has shown favor to.
06:59 And their lives were supposed to demonstrate a life
07:01 that God has shown favor.
07:02 But then his name was changed to Shadrack.
07:05 And the name Shadrack comes out
07:07 as a commander of Aku which was actually a moon god.
07:11 So again we see that
07:12 a name that represents the true and living God,
07:15 but then there was pagan name that was associated with them
07:18 to try to take away the power of that name.
07:20 Then there was Mishael.
07:22 Mishael today many people say Michael.
07:24 And Mishael was one who was like God.
07:28 And Michael anybody who is gifted or blessed
07:31 with that name Michael, that's a powerful name.
07:33 It meant Mike is one who is like, El means God.
07:36 So it was--
07:38 When a person's name is Michael,
07:39 it was God's expectation
07:41 that person should reflect God's character.
07:44 But of course, Mishael's name was changed to Meshack
07:48 which meant the shadow of the prince.
07:50 And again because Nebuchadnezzar
07:52 was giving these names, we know that
07:54 again this would have to associate
07:55 to some false prince, false god or to shadow someone else
08:00 who clearly was not representing God.
08:02 So in all cases thus far,
08:03 we see that negativity connected to new names.
08:06 Finally there was Azariah.
08:08 Azariah meant God has helped.
08:11 It's powerful when a man can remember
08:13 that every time his name is mentioned
08:15 that thought will come into his mind
08:16 that God has helped me.
08:18 And therefore it would be reciprocated to God
08:20 in our devotion to Him, our lives to Him.
08:22 But Azariah's name was changed to Abednego,
08:26 a servant of Nego
08:28 which again was dealing with the false God.
08:30 And now were these just any false gods
08:32 or was Nebuchadnezzar,
08:34 the Nebuchadnezzar have some ulterior motive
08:36 or some agenda here?
08:37 Well, there was definitely an agenda
08:38 because Nebuchadnezzar knew
08:40 that if I can take them away from their gods
08:42 and get them to acknowledge the gods
08:43 that are represented through us here in Babylon,
08:46 then obviously I can create
08:48 better more faithful servants because he knew it.
08:50 And to make them Babylonian essentially.
08:52 Absolutely to make them Babylonians.
08:54 That's the goal.
08:55 So we find that, you know,
08:57 these were things that were taking place
08:58 and in the days of captivity of the children of Israel
09:02 and the children of the tribe of Judah
09:04 and we find that as a result of this effort
09:07 that Nebuchadnezzar was making,
09:09 there was a seeking to steal away this truth
09:12 about what a name was supposed to represent.
09:15 Now again in hip-hop culture this is huge.
09:17 Because in hip-hop culture,
09:19 we know that there are many people today
09:21 who go by different names.
09:22 I'm sure that Afrika Bambaataa
09:24 did not grow up with the name Afrika Bambaataa.
09:26 You know, he came to his level of consciousness
09:29 and therefore he realized, "Hey, you know what,
09:31 I need to make a change to my name
09:32 to associate it more with my roots and my heritage."
09:35 Yeah. So it is.
09:37 We know the story of even
09:38 a man who is very great in this world
09:40 and did many great things
09:41 even though we know that we cannot agree with him
09:43 when it comes to certain religious principles.
09:45 Malcolm X, you know, we know
09:47 he was born in this world as Malcolm Little
09:49 but nevertheless because of again
09:51 looking and reviewing over the issues of slavery
09:53 and slave masters and so on, he got to a point to say,
09:57 "I don't even know if this is really my last name."
09:58 Therefore he just eliminated the little
10:00 and put the "X" there instead.
10:02 And of course, you have scores and scores of individuals today
10:06 in the hip-hop and R&B community
10:08 that go by different names that are more Afro-Asiatic
10:12 and so on that's designed to bring them back.
10:14 And it's not just that idea
10:16 that all people are loosely doing it.
10:17 Some people do that but some of these groups,
10:22 you know, some of these
10:24 religious groups that we call them
10:25 that they wouldn't admit that they are religion
10:28 but the Nuwaubian, the Five Percenters,
10:30 the Noy is actually part of the initiation.
10:34 That's right. Yeah.
10:35 So therefore, it's imperative
10:37 that you are willing to recognize
10:39 that the names that have been given to you are false names.
10:42 They will connect it back to the "Right man"
10:45 and try to paint a evil picture of that in many respects
10:48 and therefore if a person like myself
10:51 or yourself Lance Wilbur or Dwayne Lemon
10:53 if I would have said,
10:55 "Well, I'm gonna hold on to that name"
10:56 it could be viewed by some in hip-hop culture
10:59 especially those who are deeply rooted in it
11:01 as almost an apostasy,
11:02 like, you know, you're not really following the truth
11:06 of what this culture was designed to teach
11:08 and coming back to your roots and these type of things.
11:10 Sacrilegious, blasphemy.
11:11 That's right. That's right.
11:13 Now as an example of names,
11:15 you know, representing character,
11:17 you know, I say that but I think it's good
11:19 to demonstrate that in the Bible.
11:20 You know, coming from a Pentecostal background,
11:23 in a charismatic background
11:25 you will hear a lot about giving God glory.
11:29 You will hear that a lot.
11:30 You know, it's time to praise the Lord,
11:31 it's time to give God glory
11:33 and all of these different things.
11:34 Now, where I came from, I understood giving God glory
11:38 to mean the more that to clap your hands,
11:40 the more you stomp your feet, wave side to side,
11:42 you know, this all meant, I'm giving God glory.
11:44 Or money.
11:46 And certainly giving money, definitely.
11:47 In many respects giving money.
11:49 All of this was giving God glory.
11:51 But one day I really sat down and thought about it
11:53 and again, you know, you observe hypocrisies.
11:56 When you start to see individuals
11:57 who one minute are clapping their hands
11:59 and waving side to side shouting and giving money,
12:01 but then you also see these same individuals
12:03 smoking and drinking and beating their wives
12:06 and cussing and swearing and just demonstrating a life
12:09 that is clearly testifying that there is no connection
12:12 between themselves and their Savior.
12:14 You get to a point to say,
12:15 "Well, is there more to giving God glory
12:18 than simply what the external activities make it to be?"
12:22 And here's what happened.
12:24 As I was reading Revelation 14,
12:26 you remember we talked about which gospel.
12:28 We were looking at which gospel.
12:29 And we saw that in Revelation 14:6-12
12:34 we saw the three angels' messages
12:36 which is defined by John the Revelator
12:38 in verse 6 as the everlasting gospel.
12:41 In verse 7, the first angels' message says,
12:45 "Fear God, and give glory to him,
12:47 for the hour of his judgment is come,
12:50 and worship him that made heaven and earth."
12:52 So we find that the first angels' message
12:55 which is the gospel message
12:56 is to call individuals to give God glory.
13:00 So one day I began to think about it.
13:01 I said, "Well, how do you give God glory?"
13:03 I mean, really, is there a Bible definition
13:06 or do I have to keep going
13:08 with individuals' interpretations.
13:10 So the more that I started to think about it,
13:12 I started to look at the Word of God.
13:13 I pulled out my little concordance,
13:14 started looking at the word glory, glory, glory.
13:17 And one of the areas that I found in the Bible
13:19 that was powerful that led me to an understanding
13:22 better than I've ever had before
13:23 on what is the glory of God?
13:25 It was an Exodus the 33 Chapter.
13:28 In Exodus Chapter 33,
13:30 you will find that Moses is having a dialog with God.
13:34 And as Moses is having this dialog with God,
13:37 he says in Exodus 33:18.
13:40 Watch this, Exodus 33:18,
13:44 it says, "And he said,
13:46 I beseech thee, shew me thy glory."
13:51 So Moses wants to see God's glory.
13:55 That was on his mind.
13:56 Now what I like is notice how God responds to him.
14:00 It says in verse 19, "And he said,
14:04 I will make all my goodness pass before thee,
14:07 and I will proclaim the name of the Lord before thee,
14:12 and will be gracious to whom I will be gracious,
14:14 and will shew mercy on whom I will shew mercy."
14:18 Now I learned a lesson from this.
14:20 According to verse 18, what did Moses want to see?
14:23 God's glory.
14:24 God answers him in verse 19 by saying,
14:26 "I'll show you My goodness and I will proclaim My name."
14:31 Now, if you and I are having a dialog and--
14:35 Let's say you were asking me, "Dwayne, what time is it?"
14:39 And then if I answered you and said,
14:40 "Did you know that there is coffee in China?"
14:43 You will probably look at me strange, wouldn't you?
14:44 Because you are saying
14:46 "What does that statement have to do with anything
14:48 that I just asked him about the time, right?"
14:50 So in other words, when people have conversation
14:52 there should be a flow.
14:53 You are talking to me and I'm responding to you
14:55 in light of the conversation and the question you asked.
14:58 So God, He is answering Moses
15:01 but He is using different words.
15:02 But God is in full harmony with Moses' question.
15:05 Moses says, "Lord, show me Your glory."
15:07 And God is saying "No, problem,
15:09 I'll show you My goodness and proclaim My name."
15:12 So the lesson we learnt just from verses 18 and 19
15:15 is that the glory of God, the goodness of God
15:19 and the name of God are synonymous.
15:22 So we find that now.
15:24 So when the angel says give God glory,
15:27 we can also faithfully say biblically
15:30 that the angel is calling us to reflect the name of God.
15:33 Now, how did God proclaim His name?
15:37 It's found in the next chapter in Exodus 34.
15:41 In Exodus 34:5-7
15:43 watch how God proclaims His name
15:45 and you tell me if you see what I see.
15:47 The Bible says in Exodus 34:5-7.
15:51 It says, "And the Lord descended in the cloud,
15:55 and stood with him there,
15:56 and proclaimed the name of the Lord.
15:58 And the Lord passed by before him, and proclaimed,
16:00 The Lord, The Lord God, merciful and gracious,
16:04 longsuffering, and abundant in goodness and truth,
16:08 keeping mercy for thousands,
16:10 forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin,
16:12 and that will by no means clear the guilty,
16:15 visiting of the fathers upon the children,
16:17 and upon the children's children,
16:18 unto the third and to the fourth generation."
16:21 Question. Yeah.
16:22 What did God show Moses?
16:25 To me it sounds like character.
16:26 That's exactly is.
16:28 Because God says, "I'm gonna go ahead
16:29 and answer your request.
16:31 Your request was show me Your glory.
16:33 I respond by saying,
16:34 "I'll show you My goodness and proclaim My name."
16:37 God then proclaims His name and what does He do?
16:40 He reveals His character.
16:42 You want to know My name?
16:43 He says, "I'm gracious."
16:44 You want to know My name?
16:46 He says, "I'm longsuffering."
16:47 You want to know My name?
16:49 And He starts going down this list,
16:50 gracious, merciful, longsuffering,
16:52 abundant and truth and goodness and the list goes on.
16:55 So therefore the glory of God, the name of God,
16:58 the goodness of God, it reveals His character
17:01 and this is why even in Matthew 1:21
17:05 the Bible says
17:07 "And they shall call His name Jesus,
17:09 name, for He shall save His people
17:12 from their sins, character."
17:14 So the name Jesus
17:16 is directly connected to Savior.
17:19 And therefore, these are the ways
17:21 that God function
17:22 and this is what the Bible demonstrates
17:24 as it relates to an individual's name.
17:26 This is why it was so important
17:28 that Daniel, Hananiah, Azariah and Mishael,
17:31 they held to their names, where we see Nebuchadnezzar,
17:34 he wanted to steal away those names.
17:37 It was a deliberate diabolical plan of Satan
17:40 to try to change their names.
17:42 So the removal of the name
17:45 was almost like removing the character.
17:47 Trying to remove the character, change the character.
17:50 That's correct. That's correct.
17:51 That's exactly what was happening.
17:53 There is a trying to steal away from the character.
17:56 Now here's the thing.
17:58 In hip-hop culture today we know that,
18:01 you know, names again,
18:02 they carry a lot of weight a lot of weight.
18:05 And what would typically happen is someone who is heavily into
18:08 or influenced by hip-hop culture will say,
18:11 "Well, Brother Dwayne, based on everything you said
18:13 that's exactly why I changed my name
18:16 and that's exactly why you should change yours.
18:18 Why do you still go by Dwayne Lemon
18:20 when clearly you know that names represents character
18:22 and the list goes on.
18:24 Why do you do that?" I mean, that's a good question.
18:25 It's a legit question, I can't deny that.
18:27 That's a very legitimate question
18:29 but it deserves a legitimate answer.
18:31 The key is understanding that there is something,
18:34 if we carefully look at the scriptures,
18:36 there's something more important than the name
18:40 because the name was to carry a purpose.
18:43 What's the purpose?
18:45 Character.
18:46 So therefore, it's the name that is given
18:50 but what's more important is the character.
18:53 I'll give you an example.
18:54 In the beginning remember we studied this,
18:56 we looked at Isaiah 14:12-14.
18:59 We also saw compared with that, we saw Ezekiel 28:13-17.
19:05 We know that in the beginning
19:07 before even mankind was on earth,
19:09 there were angels in heaven.
19:11 The chief angel, his name was Lucifer.
19:13 Now Lucifer was a right name
19:16 because Lucifer meant light bearer.
19:18 So therefore God is light,
19:20 so therefore Lucifer was supposed to take from God
19:22 and bear that light.
19:24 So Lucifer had a right name
19:27 and for a time he demonstrated
19:29 a right character with that name.
19:31 But then what happened was
19:33 as Lucifer began to focus on self
19:36 and as he began to build upon himself
19:39 we found that Lucifer's character
19:42 was now flawed.
19:43 In other words, Lucifer right name,
19:47 character was in harmony with that name for a time,
19:50 but eventually a time came that as a result of self-exaltation,
19:54 his character changed.
19:56 And as a result of his character changing,
19:58 he was no longer worthy of the name Lucifer.
20:01 He was now called Satan.
20:03 All right, so just walk us down again.
20:06 Oh, yeah.
20:07 So the name match the character initially.
20:10 That's correct.
20:11 But the character changed,
20:13 although he still held the name.
20:16 And after the character became deformed
20:19 or depraved or corrupted,
20:21 the name was changed to reflect the change in character.
20:24 That's correct. All right.
20:26 Very powerful.
20:27 So Lucifer good name, his character
20:29 was in harmony with that name so all was good.
20:32 But then when his character became corrupted,
20:34 his name changed.
20:36 Now let's look at it on the flip side.
20:39 Jacob, we know that the Bible tells us
20:41 in Genesis 32, it talks about Jacob.
20:43 And the name Jacob was not a good name.
20:46 Jacob meant supplanter, deceiver, or liar.
20:50 Jacob bad name but at the same time
20:54 Jacob's character matched that name.
20:57 So therefore we find that Jacob bad name,
21:00 then his character matched that name.
21:02 And how did his character
21:04 matched the name at the beginning?
21:05 Well, what happened was
21:07 Jacob wanted to deceive or deceived his own father
21:10 by stealing the birthright
21:12 that belonged to his brother Esau.
21:14 So we find that Jacob was fulfilling the name.
21:17 He was a deceiver.
21:19 He was dishonest and as a result of that,
21:21 you have Jacob dealing with a bad name,
21:24 but then you have his character
21:26 that was matching that bad name.
21:27 Well, we know the story that as Esau was pursuing him,
21:30 Jacob found himself in a state of repentance.
21:32 And as Jacob repented for his sins
21:35 and he found himself now wrestling with the angel.
21:38 Here it is that when the angel was talking to Jacob,
21:40 the angel asked him, "Well, what is your name?"
21:42 And he said, "Well, my name is Jacob"
21:44 but the angel then told him not anymore.
21:47 Your name is no longer Jacob, you name is now Israel
21:51 because you have overcome
21:52 and you have prevailed with God and with men.
21:55 And therefore we find that once again Jacob, bad name,
21:59 his character, bad character.
22:01 But it was through a change in character for the good
22:05 that he received a new name.
22:07 And so you will find that we have it in the vice versa.
22:10 Lucifer, good name, good character,
22:12 but then eventually, bad character, name change.
22:16 Jacob, bad name, bad character,
22:20 but through a conversion experience,
22:22 his name was changed.
22:24 God has a people in the last days
22:27 and God's people in the last days,
22:29 He refers to them inflicted by a disease,
22:32 a condition that is called Laodicea
22:35 in Revelation 3:14-17.
22:38 And God is letting His people know
22:41 that even though Laodicea, that's a serious name.
22:45 Laodicea deals with the people of the judgment
22:48 but the problem is, is that
22:49 Laodicea even though right now our characters are corrupt,
22:54 we are wretched, we are miserable,
22:55 we are poor, we are blind and we are naked.
22:58 So therefore, while we have a bad character right now,
23:02 through a conversion,
23:03 experience through Jesus Christ,
23:06 the Bible tells us
23:07 that as our characters become like Him
23:10 and we give Him glory and reflect His image
23:13 and His character in a sinful world,
23:15 the Bible makes a promise in Revelation 3:12,
23:18 here's what it says.
23:20 The Bible says in Revelation 3:12.
23:23 Yes, we are going through the battle of sin
23:25 and we are definitely going through trials right now
23:27 and our characters are being tested.
23:29 But as we hold on and if we experience
23:31 what the Bible calls overcoming,
23:33 notice what God says He will do.
23:35 The Bible says in Revelation 3:12,
23:38 it says, "Him that overcometh will I make a pillar
23:43 in the temple of my God, and he shall go no more out,
23:47 and I will write upon him the name of my God,
23:52 and the name of the city of my God,
23:56 which is new Jerusalem,
23:57 which cometh down out of heaven from my God,
23:59 and I will write upon him my new name."
24:04 You see for the Christian, for the child of God
24:07 we see that there is absolutely no need
24:10 for me to go from Dwayne Lemon to Dwayne X.
24:13 That does not change my character.
24:15 In fact, I say this as respectfully as I can.
24:19 There are individuals who supposedly
24:21 have all these wonderful African-Asiatic names,
24:24 but they are some of the biggest
24:25 promoters of fornication,
24:27 they are some of the biggest promoters
24:28 of drinking Guinness Draught and Hennessy
24:30 and all these other poisonous alcohols
24:32 that are killing people, their own people,
24:34 even the ones who pay money to buy their records.
24:36 There are individuals who are changing their names,
24:40 but they are the ones who'll lift up their hands
24:42 and even lift up a gun
24:43 and they will go ahead and shoot their own brothers
24:45 just because of some point of competition,
24:48 yet they got supposedly righteous name.
24:51 This is ridiculous
24:52 and this is what God wants us to understand
24:55 is that right now the focus is character,
24:57 not the name.
24:58 Jesus says, I got a name and reserved for you
25:00 but first I want to see my character reflected in you.
25:03 So that's my response
25:04 to those into hip-hop culture is that,
25:06 "Dwayne, why is that you haven't changed your name?"
25:08 Is because Jesus already got a name for me.
25:10 And what I want to do
25:11 is I want to enter into an experience with Christ
25:14 that I can overcome as He overcame
25:16 and when I get
25:18 to that new heaven and new earth,
25:19 I'm gonna be rewarded with a new name
25:23 and that name, praise God,
25:24 is gonna also recognize itself with my character.
25:27 And that's what's important right now.
25:29 So how does--
25:32 Again, Daniel is there, he takes the stand,
25:34 but his name is changed.
25:36 Does the name changed
25:38 or the fact that I have a negative name,
25:39 on the flip side,
25:41 does it make me corrupt or can I take the stand
25:44 even if I've gone through the process?
25:46 You know, you definitely can and I'm not here to knock
25:49 if somebody wants to change their name.
25:51 Just because someone changed their name,
25:53 if you want to do that that's fine,
25:55 but when we try to make the changing of our names
25:57 to make a point or standard of righteousness,
26:00 that's false righteousness.
26:01 Isaiah 64:6 tells us
26:03 that "All our righteousness are as filthy rags."
26:07 There is no righteousness that we can offer
26:08 or commend ourselves to God
26:10 wherein He can look upon us as holy people
26:12 just because we have some different name.
26:14 And that's what's very, very key.
26:16 So, God wants us right now, the focus for God's people
26:20 is for us to reflect that character of Christ
26:23 in this very sinful wicked world.
26:25 That's the message right now that God wants to give.
26:28 And that's the core of true education.
26:30 Yes, sir.
26:32 So, there is something very special and very distinct
26:37 that God desires to provide us with.
26:39 He desires us to have a way to escape all of the trappings
26:46 and all of the past errors and failures
26:49 that we've seen and that we've done
26:51 and committed through our lives.
26:53 God wants to give us a transformation of character,
26:58 a complete restoration.
26:59 He wants to give us not only a physical restoration,
27:02 but He wants to give us a mental restoration
27:05 and a spiritual restoration.
27:06 Now understand again as we said many times,
27:09 this restoration does not mean
27:10 that you'll not experience suffering or hardship.
27:13 This is not what we are talking about.
27:15 We are not talking about nirvana.
27:17 We are talking about peace of mind
27:20 that only God can provide
27:22 and the ability to navigate through life
27:25 and not compromise, stand for God
27:27 and God will honor us and reward us
27:29 according to His righteousness and not our own.
27:32 Amen.
27:33 We want to thank you again for joining us at TKS,
27:35 A True Knowledge of Self.
27:37 We want to encourage you to join us again.
27:39 Invite a friend and consider these things
27:42 and study them out for yourself and understand and remember.
27:46 The Bible says in Proverbs 2:6,
27:49 "That it is God who gives wisdom,
27:52 the Lord gives wisdom
27:53 and out of His mouth comes knowledge and understanding."
27:58 God bless you.


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Revised 2016-02-18