1. What does it mean to hallow his name?
1.1. Introduction
1.1.1. ILLUSTRATION: In his book, "the prayer of the Lord", RC Sproul relays this great game he would play with his seminary students. Sproul would say "If you had a chance to rewrite the US COnstituion, what would you chose for our foundation precepts?" Would you include the protection for human life? Would you build in a protection for private party? And then he would ask, how about mandating in the country that parents are obeyed? Would you pass a law that prohibited coveting? Then he would ask "How many of you, in shaping a nation, would put at the top of your list of laws and precepts the regulation of using God's name.
1.1.2. His point was to help students understand how drastic God is about the protection of his own name.
1.1.2.1. "You shall not take the name of the Lord your God in vain." (Ex 20:7a)
1.1.3. Archbishop William Temple says your religion is what you do with your solitude. He’s really saying the same thing Jesus is saying here. He says the way you find out what your ultimate concern is, the thing you really adore, the thing that really makes your life go, is to see what you do in secret. When you’re alone, when there’s nothing you have to do, what do you think about? Keller, T. J. (2013). The Timothy Keller Sermon Archive. New York City: Redeemer Presbyterian Church.
1.1.3.1. And nothing is more secret than what yo upray for
1.1.4. You will always pray when the thing that is your greatest treasure is at stake. Jesus says the consistency of your prayer life will tell you who your God is. Keller, T. J. (2013). The Timothy Keller Sermon Archive. New York City: Redeemer Presbyterian Church.
1.1.5. Jesus is saying the most unmistakable way to tell that your Christianity is real, that it’s not just a matter of external forces, that it has really come because you’ve been touched by God himself, is to look at your secret prayer life. Keller, T. J. (2013). The Timothy Keller Sermon Archive. New York City: Redeemer Presbyterian Church.
1.2. 1st - recognize it's a prayer request and not just a proclaimation
1.2.1. Explain the difference and why the subtley might matter.
1.3. DEF
1.3.1. It’s an Old English word. It’s virtually never used anymore in everyday English, but it’s interesting to see that the 1984 New International Version, though it tries very hard to be up to date, still uses that old word. I think it’s a great idea, because we don’t quite have an equivalent. Keller, T. J. (2013). The Timothy Keller Sermon Archive. New York City: Redeemer Presbyterian Church.
1.3.2. To hallow something means to treat it as sacred and ultimate. We don’t really have anything. Can you think of some other word, a single word? To hallow something is to treat it as absolutely sacred and ultimate Keller, T. J. (2013). The Timothy Keller Sermon Archive. New York City: Redeemer Presbyterian Church.
1.3.3. t means to make something your ultimate concern, to make it the most important thing, to make it the most crucial thing, to make it the most sacred thing, the ultimate thing of your life, to make it the supreme beauty, the supreme aim of your life, to hallow something. That’s why we have to use the word. Keller, T. J. (2013). The Timothy Keller Sermon Archive. New York City: Redeemer Presbyterian Church.
1.3.4. What does it mean to “hallow” His name? The word “hallow” is the Greek word hagios which is the word for holy, “Hallow” means “to set apart as holy, to consider holy , to treat as holy.” The best modern word perhaps is reverence. When you pray “hallowed be your name” you are saying, “let your name be holy and reverence on earth as it already is in heaven. May your name be given the unique reverence that is due your character and nature as the Heavenly Father.”
1.3.5. What do you hallow? Well what do you think and consume of the most?
1.3.5.1. sustanance?
1.3.5.2. Relationships?
1.3.5.3. GUillt, religion?
1.3.5.4. “Give us this day our daily bread.” Now, what is bread? Bread is what you have to have. It doesn’t say, “Give us this day our daily dessert.” He doesn’t say, “Apple crisp.” He says, “Bread.” He doesn’t say, “Cappuccino.” He says, “Bread.” All right? Keller, T. J. (2013). The Timothy Keller Sermon Archive. New York City: Redeemer Presbyterian Church.
1.3.6. “I can’t forgive myself,” what they mean is, “I hallow something more than God, and it won’t forgive me. I’ve violated it, and it is more important than God. I know God forgives me, but it won’t forgive me.” Keller, T. J. (2013). The Timothy Keller Sermon Archive. New York City: Redeemer Presbyterian Church.
1.4. 2nd - recognize that hallow means to make something holy or sanctified, seperate or dedicated. All the same idea
1.4.1. God is uncreated while everything is created
1.4.2. God defines what it means to be right and good while everything else is defined by God's defintiion
1.4.3. God controls or commands or rules over all things that happen while everything elese lives under God's control or command or ruling.
1.4.4. ILL: Tim Keller - God doesn't tell Moses, "Tell them, 'I am what you want.'" He says, "Tell them, 'I am what I am.’"
1.5. 3rd - so to "hallow God's name" means to make God's name holy. And this is the prayer - that we are asking God to make his name holy, not in the essence of it, for it already is, but in the display of it, or more precise, in the recognition of it's display
1.5.1. He is teaching us to ask that God's name would be regarded as sacred, that it would be treated with reverence, and that it would be seen as holy. R.C. Sproul. The Prayer of the Lord (Kindle Locations 300-301). Kindle Edition.
1.5.2. The word "hallow" means sanctify. The same Greek word stands behind both English words. Jesus tells us to pray, "Let your name be sanctified." Sanctify can mean make holy or treat as holy. When God sanctifies us, it means that he makes us holy. But when we sanctify God, it means that we treat him as holy.
1.5.3. What does it mean to treat God as holy?
1.5.3.1. Num 20:12
1.5.3.1.1. sanctify = to bleieve
1.5.3.1.2. 1 John 5:10 = opposite of sanctify = unbelief = make God a liar
1.5.3.1.3. See, unbelief is not neutral, already a sin.
1.5.3.2. Ia 8:12-13 (1 peter 3:14-15)
1.5.3.2.1. Fear God rather than man, that's how we hallow his name
1.5.3.3. Lev 22:31-32
1.5.3.3.1. hallow = keep his cmmandments
1.5.3.4. Lev 10:3
1.5.3.4.1. "holy" here = "hallowed" === glorify your name
1.5.4. This then is what we are praying for
1.5.4.1. Cause your word to be believed
1.5.4.2. Cause your displearue t be feared
1.5.4.3. cause your commandments to be obeyed
1.5.4.4. cause yourself to be glorified
1.6. 4th - note God is already inclined to do this and Jesus says so pray it
1.6.1. BTW - this is at the heart of prayer, not that we give Gd ideas, but that God is choses to work through the means of prayer
1.6.1.1. So prayer never changes God, but it is the means by which God puts his will into action.
1.7. Application:
1.7.1. So this is a personal devotional prayer
1.7.1.1. Prayer is a mechanism for God being glorified in our personal lives
1.7.1.1.1. last week was saw that prayer is part of joy making in our life. but here, we discover it not only makes joy fo rus, but brings God glory
1.7.1.1.2. Whatever you ask in my name, this I will do, that the Father may be glorified in the Son - John 14:3
1.7.1.1.3. how? When God answers our prayers, we recognize we are loved. We love we are loved. Nothing more, nothing less. God is our hope. Our rock. Our sheild. Our worth. Our identity. Our inheritance. And through that, people see - people wonder - what is this God like that you would find such deep - unearthly joy in? And the point is they glorify God (i.e wow, this god must be great)
1.7.1.2. Psalm 9:10 And those who know your name put their trust in you, for you, O LORD, have not forsaken those who seek you.
1.7.2. And this is a global missional prayer
1.7.2.1. BTW all the first 3 prayers that are God-ward have a personal devitional bent while at the same time having a global missional bent
1.7.2.2. When we pray "hallowed be your name" - we are praying and asking that God would do all that it takes to make his name known to be holy in this world - known and then reverenced is the key. his name is already holy. But this is to pray it's known as holy! Hallowed.
1.7.2.3. In many ways this means we are praying that God is glorified. That He is honored.
2. What is your name?
2.1. What is the idea of a name
2.1.1. What does that even mean? Explain the idea that names are more than arbritary identifiers in the bible.
2.1.1.1. Bible
2.1.1.1.1. The reason knowing the names of God will help us trust him with our daily affairs and with our eternal destinies is that in Scripture a person’s name often signifies his character or ability or mission — especially when the name is given by God. Adam names his wife Eve, because she is mother of all the living (Genesis 3:20). God changes Abram’s name to Abraham to show that he had made him the father of many nations (Genesis 17:5). God changed Sarai’s name to Sarah (Genesis 17:15). He changed Jacob’s name to Israel (Genesis 32:28). And when the Son of God came into the world, his name was not left to chance: “You shall call his name Jesus, for he will save his people from their sins” (Matthew 1:21).
2.1.1.2. ILL: Son timothy - maning
2.1.1.3. ILL: KK - meaning
2.1.1.4. ILL: Josiah
2.1.2. So this is an idiom - "declare your name" - means to show me you! I want to know you
2.1.2.1. Ex. When we get personal with someone we want to know their name.
2.1.3. Important to note that God is always the one to name names in the bible, but He himself no one names and he declares his name and then he protects it
2.1.4. The reason knowing the names of God will help us trust him with our daily affairs and with our eternal destinies is that in Scripture a person’s name often signifies his character or ability or mission — especially when the name is given by God
2.2. God has many names
2.2.1. Elohim – the mighty Creator (Gen 1:1) Adonai – master or Lord ( Gen 15 – Abraham) El Shaddai – Almighty (Gen 17 – Abraham) El-Elyon- Most High (Gen 14 – Abraham) El Roi - The Strong one that Sees (Gen 16 – Hagar) El Olam - Everlasting God
2.3. What name is most often seen
2.3.1. Most important name is Yahweh
2.3.1.1. LORD = YHWH (4 letters) - pronounced Yah-weh. Jews revered that so much they would never pronounce it, never take it upon their lips lest they take it in vain. So when they came to that in their scriptures, they pronounced it "adonai" - which means "my lord". The english version came and just took that ... so instead of Yah-weh, we have LORD.
2.3.1.2. 6,828 times in OT - compared to 2,6000 Elohim = "God" or El - 238
2.3.1.2.1. ** God wants t be known not as a generic diety, but a specific person with a name that carries his unique character and mission.
2.3.1.3. BTW - "Jehovah" came from those that tried to pronounhce YHWH with the vowels from the word Adonai.
2.3.2. God has many names, but the cleareest is YHWH and the clearest revealing f it is in Exodus
2.4. Where is it first seen
2.4.1. Exodus 3:13-15
2.4.1.1. God gives two names "I AM" and "The Lord" or YHWH
2.4.1.2. I AM
2.4.1.2.1. God exists and has ever existed and never changes!
2.4.1.2.2. Moses ... I AM --- all that is the hope of these people, in what they received in Abramham and isaac and jacob... I am he, that one, unchanged for them and now for these.
2.4.1.2.3. Self defining
2.4.1.2.4. Jesus is IAM
2.4.1.3. YHWH
2.4.1.3.1. Oh, but more ... because if God was just that, jus tpower, just existent, just covenantal
2.4.1.3.2. Tied to his glory!
2.4.1.3.3. Self determining, but now not in isolation, but in relationship
2.4.2. Exodus 6:2-7
2.4.2.1. God is omnipotent.
2.4.2.2. God Almighty - El Shaddai
2.4.2.3. Not revealed to Abraham
2.4.2.4. he cannot be stopped from accomplishing his purposes
2.4.2.5. He does whatever he pleases - Psalm 15:3, Isa 46:9-10
2.4.2.6. His power is superior to all other s
2.4.3. Exo 34:6-10
2.4.3.1. Background
2.4.3.1.1. The sheer fact that Exodus 34 exists is proof that God is a God of mercy. This is the second time God has met Moses on the mountain to make a covenant with the people of Israel. When Moses came down from the mountain the first time, the people had fallen in love with the works of their own hands. They were worshiping a golden calf.
2.4.3.1.2. They failed - "If you will obey my voice and keep my covenant, you shall be my own possession among all peoples; for all the earth is mine, and you shall be to me a kingdom of priests and a holy nation" (Exodus 19:5–6).
2.4.3.2. verse 5 - proclaimed the name of the Lord and here's what it means
2.4.3.2.1. So they exchanged the glory of the invisible God for the image of their own glory—a golden cow.
2.4.3.3. note the problem - he forgives in verse 7 but also "will by no means clear the guilty"
2.4.3.3.1. How can he forgive the guilty and not forgive?
2.4.3.4. Joel uses this in Joel 2:12-13
2.4.3.5. Jonah references this Jonah 3:10-4:2
2.4.3.6. There are two kinds of people who are hard to help in pastoral counseling. One thinks he is too far gone to be forgiven. The other thinks forgiveness is a snap. One thinks he is utterly disqualified for the kingdom. The other thinks he is a shoe-in. The one thinks God is unbendingly wrathful. The other thinks God is a pushover. One is blind to the magnificence of God's mercy. The other is blind to the magnitude of his own misery.
2.4.3.7. 1 - a god merciful and gracious
2.4.3.8. 2 - slow to anger
2.4.3.9. 3- abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness
2.4.3.9.1. abounding = Two images come to my mind. The heart of God is like an inexhaustible spring of water that bubbles up love and faithfulness at the top of the mountain. Or the heart of God is like a volcano that burns so hot with love that it blasts the top off the mountain and flows year after year with the lava of love and faithfulness.
2.4.3.9.2. I AM THAT I AM - allows him to do this --- The sheer magnificence of God means that he does not need us to fill up any deficiency in himself. Instead his infinite self-sufficiency spills over in love to us who need him. We can bank on his love precisely because we believe in the absoluteness of his existence, the sovereignty of his freedom, and the limitlessness of his power.
2.4.3.10. 4 - keeping steadfast love for thousands
2.4.3.10.1. he is steadfast cause he is slow to anger
2.4.3.10.2. Love cannot last where anger has a hair trigger. If God's anger had a hair trigger, his love would not last one day in my life. If rockets of wrath shot out from God's eyes every time I sinned, I would be blown to smithereens before I got out of bed in the morning. But he shouts on Mount Sinai, "I am slow to anger!" He holds back his wrath by the reigns of his love. He is long-suffering. He is extraordinarily patient. And so he keeps steadfast love. He guards it and preserves it by being slow to anger.
2.4.3.11. 5 - forgivine inquity
2.4.3.11.1. *** The reason God is slow to anger is not that he doesn't notice our sin but that he forgives it
2.4.3.11.2. Every word for sin is used here - why? So we never think there are any sins outside the character of God to forgive!!!
2.4.3.11.3. There are no categories of unforgivable sins.
2.4.3.12. 6 - will never clear it
2.4.3.12.1. How then forgive? By judging it and satisfying it.
2.4.4. Exo 34:14 - WHOSE NAME IS jealous!
2.4.4.1. Oh remember tha twhen we answer the next question of hwat does it mean to pray for the ahllowing of God's name. Why? Cause he is jealous
2.4.4.2. "For you shall worship no other god, for the LORD, whose name is Jealous, is a jealous God."
2.4.4.3. God is not petty. He is loving - and so the image should not be of me jealous of my neighbor that their AC works and mine doesn't. That's petty.
2.4.4.4. The image is of a husband who sees a man competing for the love of his wife.
2.4.4.4.1. This picture is confirmed by verses 15 and 16 which warn Israel against playing the harlot with other gods. The demand of the covenant is: don't be a harlot. Don't commit adultery against God. Don't let your heart turn from him and go after other things. For your God, your husband, whose name is Jealous, is a jealous God.
3. Why is this important? Why does this matter? Bring it back to the idea of the "meaning of life"
3.1. This is the first petition, and right away Jesus gets to what He is most passionate about - the glory of His father.
3.1.1. Expound on this ....
3.2. Another way to ask this is - what does my life look like if I am not razor focused on the hallowing of his name
3.3. Another way to ask this is - what invitation is Jesus giving me to experience that he experiences by putting at the top of priorities in petitioning - "hallowed be your hame"
3.4. Bring it back to the meaning of life
3.4.1. ILL: Catechism #1
3.4.2. Expound on this is the meaning of life
3.4.3. Perhaps demonstrate how the hollowing of God's name is the point of redemptive history and tie it into the glorification of the son
3.5. ALL THESE THINGS ARE SHOWN IN UR LIVES PRIMARLIY!!!
3.6. It's neccessariy
3.7. It's primary
4. Connection
4.1. Today was start in on the first of 6 petitions in the Lords prayer
4.2. BTW - you should note the general structure of the Lords prayer
4.2.1. The proclaimation - "our father in heaven" - last week, thsi is the basis for the whole prayer.
4.2.2. The petitions - 6 of them
4.2.2.1. It is a split between looking to God and looking to ourselves
4.2.2.1.1. The 1st 3 are about
4.2.2.1.2. 2nd 3 are about
4.2.3. High contrast between the eternal and the temperal, between God and us
4.2.3.1. *** But these big things sets up hnesty with the little things.
4.2.3.1.1. So we ask for daily bread and not a whole mansin
4.2.3.1.2. So we seek frgivenss and relational healing and not just winning the world
4.2.3.1.3. So we ask for persnal victory over temptatin (things like lying, lust, greed, heart) and not just winning the world or taking down sex trafficking or decimating the abortion industry (all thse are needed, but so easy too only think big) but yu stand before a big God and yu are forced to see your own issues
4.2.4. This prayer is first about God's greatness and then our need
4.2.5. "That’s the way life is. And that’s the way this prayer is—iridescent with eternity and woven into ordinary life." - Piper
5. Conclusion
5.1. A positive exhortation towards the hallowing of God's name in prayer and in life
5.2. A exhortation away from those things that debase and dengrate the hallowing of God's name
5.2.1. What is our posture towards God?
5.2.1.1. So the very beginning of godliness, the very beginning of transformation mation in our lives and in our society, begins with our posture before the character of God. R.C. Sproul. The Prayer of the Lord (Kindle Locations 317-318). Kindle Edition.
5.3. A final invitation to live life with meaning .... (speak pastorally, plead, persuade )
5.4. Don't let the small things of this universe crush you
5.4.1. So often we come upon something in life and it seems huge. Gigantic. It's like Mt. Everest before us, some sickness, sme shortfall in our budget, some dream that is dead and we wish it were alive, or smething so inherently BROKEN IN OUR BODY, OUR MIND, UR EMOTIN that we just are floored. Crushed by hopelessness. And I think what Jesus invites us to here is to put first and foremost in ur pursuit the glory of God, and in so doing, it's like --------
5.4.2. ---- video taken from space that zooms in on mt everest. So big. Can't go through or around or over ... just crush... but then you zom out,, a mtn, then a hill, then just a dot, then lost and all you see is the contentnt, then the world.. .and go back further and yu will see the solar system and then the galaxy and then the universe and ...
5.4.3. ---- Jesus invites us to focus our heart and mind and prayers on the God that holds all that in his hands!
5.4.4. And wehn we live that, when we view all things thrugh this lens, it so often has the effect of lessening the crusshing weight f that mtn that seems so big, because you are caught up in the big of God!
5.4.4.1. Ex. Acts -- persecution and counted it a joy t be considered worthy to suffer for Jesus
5.4.5. God puts on a minor display of his strength and splendor every morning as he brings the sun up over the horizon—865,000 miles thick, 1.3 million times heavier than the earth, blazing on its cool edges at one million degrees Centigrade! Every morning has its opening ceremonies to thrill us with the power and the glory of God and fill us with hope that one day we will enter a land where all the wonders that have inspired us on this little earth will be like blurry dots in comparison with the magnificence of God's eternal closing ceremonies.
5.4.6. And every night God puts out a little puppet show of his majesty in the sky, with Perseus and Andromeda and Hercules and Orion and Leo the Lion and Draco the Dragon sporting about in the local galaxy 100,000 light years across.
5.5. As you pray for the hallowing of God's name, you may find that the shadow of reverecing God may be a refuge to you!
5.5.1. Your name, you rname, may it be knonw... as you pray that, seek that.. you may find your heart finds shelter from so much of the ails in this life!
5.5.2. Eph 1:9
6. Theme
6.1. One of the reasons our lives often struggle is because we live in the smallness of life and try to make it big and it cannot be. That is, we crave things like meaning and purpose and worth and we look for it in things that ultimately only have derived meaning and subservient prupose and associated worth. That is, most of what we chase after in this life, and often reflected reflected in our prayer life therefore, express our longings but misplace their fullfilment.
6.2. The Lord's prayer teaches us to start at the core center of existence and then work outward towards the peripheral - important peripheral but peripheral as they express the core. So bread and even forgivenss and temptations - these all sit under a grander theme, and that theme is God himself.
6.3. And in this prayer Jesus invites us to let our souls long for grandeur to find it in God himself...and he starts it with the prayer - the petition for God's name to be hallowed
6.4. One of the things that is most revealing about our life is what we pray for.
6.5. TITLE: "The Meaning of Life - Hallowed be Your name"
7. What is your meaning of life?
7.1. The deepest way you know that is by what you ask for and what you seek.
7.2. In the church's vancular, ti woudl be what we pray for.
8. Note the context of hypocrisy
8.1. But see, the point jesus has is he cares about not the external but th einternal
8.1.1. I know there are people who come into Christianity because they just want to be included in a supportive group. I know there are people who come into Christianity simply because they love the superiority of feeling like they have the truth and nobody else does. I know there are people who come into Christianity because they feel so emotionally needy they just need something … anything. They never really go underneath and say, “Is this true?” They never really give their heart over. They never really meet God. As a result, they come and they seem very active, all on the basis of externals. They need a supportive group. They need something to cling to. They like superiority, feeling like, “I’m on the inside.” They’ll be there for a while (Jesus talks about it elsewhere), and then they’ll suddenly leave. Something will come up in their life, and their Christianity will all fall apart. Why? It was all a matter of externals. Keller, T. J. (2013). The Timothy Keller Sermon Archive. New York City: Redeemer Presbyterian Church.