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.
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.
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
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.