One of the formative influences in my life took place on the eve of my 23rd birthday. I was overseas, a student in England, interning at the St. David's Broomhouse Church in Edinburgh, Scotland. And on a Saturday, the senior minister took ill, and that left me responsible for leading both services, morning and evening, and preaching both sermons, which I had never done before. I'd never, in fact, led an entire service before. And they had a custom of gathering those who were willing half an hour before the start of the service for prayer, and they arranged their chairs in a circle. And on cue, they would stand up, kneel, and face their chairs, and begin to pray. The prayers that I heard there were prayers unlike any others I had ever heard before. And this despite the fact that this was a working class neighborhood. Most of them had maybe a high school education, some not even that. But when they prayed, their prayers were urgent, moving, powerful, God-centered in ways that I had never before heard. And by the time the prayer meeting was over, I was completely out of balance because I realized how superficial I was. So I managed to get through the two services, but I left Scotland shattered by the whole experience, went back, finished the quarter at the Theological College, went home, told my college pastor that I didn't want to lead anything or teach anything for the summer because I was really not prepared to do that, understanding how shallow my soul actually was. We've introduced the idea of Lex Orendi, Lex Vivendi. We pray as we live. We live as we pray. The problem that I uncovered when I was interning that month in Scotland was I prayed superficially. My prayers were all of the just really variety. Lord, we just really this. Lord, we just really that. Lord, we just really... In other words, it was all petitions. I was a superficial person, and that's why I prayed superficially. And that's why I sensed my unworthiness to be leading people who were of such spiritual depth that they prayed as they did, and they prayed as they did because they lived as they did. So this is what we're seeing here from the preface of the Lord's Prayer. Father, simply in Luke's version, our Father heaven in Matthew's version. What we have argued is that this is an introduction of praise. We're meant to praise God for his attributes and for his works and for his word and for his offices, so that our prayers begin with God and God's concerns and God's agendas. Our prayers are full of God, particularly at the outset. But then as we move on to the petitions, We find that the same theme continues as we move into the petitions. It's significant that Jesus is teaching us to continue to be absorbed with God's concerns. So the first petition is, hallowed be your name. Then the second petition is, your kingdom come. In Matthew's version, your will be done on earth as it is in heaven. See, we're still talking about God, we're still praying about God and about God's agenda, God's concerns, God's interests are being placed far before our own. In other words, there's a focus on that which will glorify God that is identified and praised and called upon. we pray as God's people, and then and only then do we begin to address God with the concerns that we have for ourselves. So let's look then at these petitions. The first is that God's name would be hallowed. Well, what's it mean to hallow God's name? Well, it's to set it apart as holy, to understand that his name is holy, and so it's to be respected, and so it's to be revered, it's to be set apart and treated with respect. It's to recognize that holiness, as many authors have said over the centuries, is the attribute of attributes. It's the central attribute of God. It is the defining attribute of God. So that His justice is a holy justice. His righteousness is a holy righteousness. His love is a holy love. His grace is a holy grace. It defines all of the other attributes. When the seraphim in Isaiah 6 single out an attribute by which to praise God, what is that attribute that provides the content for their threefold praise? It is of the holiness of God. Holy, holy, holy. They cry out. Because that is the essence of the glory of God. So hallowed be thy name. The name is not a label the way it is often for us. A name is significant. It indicates the person. It connects with the qualities of the person and the character of the person. And so it speaks beyond just a name per se, but extends to God's titles and his attributes and his word and his works. Oh Lord, our Lord, the psalmate one, how majestic is your what? Your name. In other words, you are majestic. To say that the name of God is majestic is to say that God is the majestic one. He is the excellent one. His name is said throughout the Bible to be great and glorious and exalted and honorable and feared. There's only ten commandments written by the finger of God on stone, and one of them is in connection with his name. Do not take the name of the Lord your God in vain. In other words, it's only ever to be treated with reverence and respect. In Ezekiel, God says repeatedly that he will act both in judgment as well as in mercy, let me quote it, to vindicate the holiness of my great name. We find that in one form or another four times in Ezekiel chapter 20, seven times in Ezekiel 36 through 39. This petition For the honor of God's name should be at the top of our agenda. In fact, I would say many of us were propelled into the ministry by a vision for the glory of God. Certainly we went into the ministry because we wanted to see sinners saved, and certainly we went into the ministry because we wanted to see the saints sanctified, but the thing above all else that we wanted to see was God to get the glory of which he is due and of which he is worthy. And it's that concern that animates the beginning of this prayer and most of the great prayers that you would find throughout the Bible. At the same time, conversely, The people of God are grieved when that name is dishonored, degraded, or cursed, or blasphemed. So what specifically are we asking for when we pray, hallowed be your name? Number one, we are asking for God to act on behalf of his holiness, to act in such a way that his holiness His glory will be recognized and honored. So we find Jesus praying in John 12, 27, a verse that we'll come back to in a moment. Father, glorify your name. Jesus' prayer, that's the same prayer that we're praying here. We want God to glorify his name, hallow his name. Do those things, oh Lord, that you need to do so that your name is recognized, so you are recognized as the Holy One, so that your glory is known throughout all of the earth. Psalm 138.3. God himself has exalted above all things his name and his word. God himself, he does that, that work of hallowing his name. Ezekiel 38, 23. God there says, so I will show my greatness and my holiness and make myself known in the eyes of many nations. And then they will know that I am the Lord. So I will show, he says, I will make myself known. I'm going to act. I'm going to be the one that does it. I'm going to take the necessary steps to see that my honor is recognized, my glory is recognized. Psalm 79.9, help us, O God of our salvation. For the glory of your name, deliver us and atone for us. Why? For your name's sake. See, that's a God-centered prayer. Yes, we want to be delivered. Yes, we want to be saved. Yes, we want to be rescued. Ultimately, is that for our good or for your good? Well, in the terms of that psalm, that's for God's good, for the glory of his name, for his honor. Intervene, rescue, save, deliver. God hallows his name both by judging and by saving. When he judges and brings destruction upon evil, he's showing that he is a holy God. When he saves, he saves through a cross where there is atonement made, where there is a price, a debt that is paid, which again is a vindication of his holiness whereby he shows himself to be both just and justifier. In the terms of the Apostle Paul in Romans chapter 3. Psalm 76 10, He causes even the wrath of man to praise Him. and one day every knee will bow and every tongue will confess that Jesus is Lord." Now that may be willingly and that may be coercively, that may be by choice or by will, but the fact of the matter is God will glorify His name. The day will come where every knee will bow and every tongue will confess that Jesus Christ is Lord to what end? To the glory of God the Father, to the glory of God. That holiness will come to be recognized. So when we pray, hallowed be thy name, we are praying something for God to do, and then we're praying for something for us to do. This is implicit. We don't pray for something and then not do anything about it. That's fatalism. We don't pray and then do nothing. The implication of a prayer for a thing is that we're going to then act on that behalf. We're going to work to that end. We're going to do what we can to see, too, that happening, that aspiration that we express in prayer be fully realized. So we are to pursue and promote that for which we pray. And we are to make the recognition of the holiness of God's name, we're to make his glory our chief work, our chief aim in life. So that would include in our thoughts, what do we think about God? 1 Peter 3.15, in your hearts honor Christ the Lord as holy. We think holy thoughts about God. We ponder his holiness, we think about his holiness. Having to do with our speech, it means that we would always reverence his name. We wouldn't allow it ever to become just an exclamation point. moments of astonishment where we would say, oh my, and then God fills in the blank, that would be disrespectful of his name. We wouldn't refer to him as the, you know, the big guy or the man upstairs. It's irreverent. It's not respectful. It's not honoring God in a fashion that is appropriate to the Almighty One of heaven and earth. Our evangelism is prompted and motivated by the desire to see God's name hallowed among unbelievers. We want to see an end of all that that dishonors God in terms of human behavior and all that being brought together under the lordship of Christ so that God is getting the honor from the unbelieving, that he is not getting in our world at this time. would motivate our conduct. We are to be holy, this is 1st Peter chapter 1, we are to be holy because God is holy. You shall be holy as I am holy. That's an Old Testament principles repeated in the New Testament. We're called to be a holy people. We are to pursue holiness. We are to hunger and thirst after righteousness. so that we are a reflection of the holiness of God. People can see something of the holiness of God and the holiness of the people of God as they live out holy lives. The world is to have a glimpse of the holy God whom we serve. And consequently, we are to flee immorality. The Apostle Paul warns that, talking about the Jewish unbelief that the name of God in ancient Israel had been blasphemed among the Gentiles because of their disobedience. other words, where people can become cynical about our religion when we don't live in a manner that's consistent with what we profess, and if people are to believe that God is holy and to express what they know about him in a way that is reverential and respectful, which our culture is not doing, and surely Some of the blame must be left at our door, because we are not living in a way that demonstrates the character of God, that He is the Holy One of Israel. And then our worship. Psalm 30, verse 4, saying, Praise to the Lord, you saints of His, and give thanks at the remembrance of His holy name. So that our worship, when we gather, when we assemble as the people of God, We are to highlight and celebrate the holiness of God, the holy name of God. We worship God in the language of Psalm 96, 9. We worship the Lord in the beauty of holiness. That tells us something about the reverential nature of our worship, the respectful nature of it, the content of our worship service. We are to be clothed with holiness as we gather to praise the thrice holy God of heaven and earth. tells us everything we need to know about life more generally. Psalm 115.1, non nobis domini. Not to us, repeat it again, not to us, but to your name be the glory. And the Apostle Paul says, 1 Corinthians 10, 31, whether we eat or drink, whatever we do, we're to do all to the glory of God. That pushes us into every realm and every sphere of life. Whatever we're doing, whether it is at home, whether it's at work, or on the playground, or wherever we are, whether we eat or drink, or how inconsequential our activity might be, all of that is to have it as its aim, as its goal, as its intention, as the priority that God would get the glory of which he is worthy and of which he is due. All of that is wrapped up in this prayer, hallowed be thy name. So shorter catechism number one, what is The chief end of man, man's chief end. Here's our aim, here's what we're created to do, is to glorify God and to enjoy him forever. Even our suffering and even our deaths have wrapped up in them the hallowing of God's name or the honoring of God's name. Jesus prays in John 12, 27 to 28, now is my soul troubled. He's troubled on the eve of his crucifixion. He's troubled at the suffering he's going to face and the death that he's going to enter into. And so he prays, Father, shall I say, Father, save me from this hour? But for this purpose, I have come to this hour. Father, glorify your name." Then a voice came from heaven, I have glorified it and I will glorify it again. What's Jesus saying there? He's saying there, if it's going to glorify God, I'm willing to die. I'm willing to suffer. I'm willing to be nailed on a cross. I'm willing to be humiliated and disgraced in the eyes of my countrymen. If it means the glory of God, I'm troubled, he says. spare me? No, glorify yourself. If that means my suffering, so be it." We find the same thing from the Apostle Paul. The Apostle Paul in Philippians chapter 1, he too is pondering his demise, he knows that he won't be living all that much longer, he's in prison, he doesn't know if he's going to be let out or he's going to be kept in bondage, but he says this, It's my eager expectation and hope that I will not at all be ashamed, hopeful of being released, but that with full courage, now as always, Christ will be honored in my body. And get this, whether by life or by death. The Apostle Paul, he understands what life is all about. If I live, that's to the glory of God. If I die, well that's to the glory of God. Which is it going to be? Well, whichever one it is, just so that's the end. Just so that's what the result is. Then I'm willing to live, I'm willing to die. To live is Christ, to die is gain. I'm willing to do whatever is necessary. Some of the extremes of this know, Moses prayed, Lord blot out my name from your book, if that's what it's going to take for you to not judge but rescue this people. The Apostle Paul, Romans 9, says that he would rather himself be accursed, if that would mean that his fellow countrymen would be saved. That's what it is to have in view the hallowing of the name of God, the glory of God being the chief end and purpose of life and all of life and all of our activity. And then again, conversely, to be grieved by and oppose all that by which God is dishonored. We're told in 2 Peter 2, 7 and 8, that righteous lot, that righteous man was greatly distressed by the sensual conduct of the wicked. He wasn't entertained by it. He didn't laugh at it. He didn't enjoy seeing the decadence and the immorality. He saw that God was being dishonored. Peter says he was righteous soul was tormented over the lawless deeds that he saw and heard. And you know the dishonoring of God's name, the blasphemy and the profanity that just is throughout the media in a continual dark stream is a thing that ought to grieve every one of us. The anti-God agenda that has become a regular feature of public life in our country, it ought to grieve us, we ought to mourn for the dishonor that comes to the name of God throughout our civilization. The psalmist says, my eyes shed streams of tears because people do not obey your law. I don't find it funny. I don't find pleasure in that. I don't enjoy that. I'm not entertained by that. The apostle Paul, when he went to Athens and looked out at the city full of idols, Luke records that he was provoked. by what he saw. Again, the Apostle Paul in Romans 9 speaks of his great sorrow and unceasing grief at the unbelief that he saw all around him. Twice a year, this house of worship is full. That would be, can you guess, Easter and Christmas Eve. I find it very difficult every year to sing the opening lines on Easter morning and on Christmas Eve. Typically, on Easter morning, it's Christ the Lord is risen today. Christmas Eve, typically, that's a great Charles Wesley hymn. Christmas Eve, it's the Latin hymn, O come all ye faithful. And when you've got 800 to 900 voices being lifted in praise, it just seems to me that that reflects The reality that we all pray for and hope for, when God is finally getting the praise that he's due, all seems to be right in the world to me in those moments. So much so, I can't hardly choke out the opening lines when this place is filled loudly with the praises of God. So that's what we're praying for when we pray that God's name would be hallowed. And then the second petition won't be able to spend as much time on this as that his kingdom would come. God is a king, and he does rule. And the older theologians helpfully distinguish between his providential kingdom His sovereign rule over all, Psalm 103, 19, He rules over all. 1 Timothy 6, 16, He's the King of kings and Lord of lords. They distinguish that between His mediatorial kingdom. His sovereign kingdom, God is ruling. In other words, His decrees are being executed. He is doing His will among the hosts of heaven and the inhabitants of earth as It says in Daniel, there's no one who restrains him, there's no one who stops him. So he cannot but rule in that sense. That's not what we're praying for. We're praying for the completion of, the coming of, the completion of, the consummation of the kingdom of Christ in this world, where his rule is established and all evil and wickedness and sin is overcome and destroyed. That's what we're praying for in the kingdom, when we pray for his kingdom to come. So remember, Jesus' ministry was all about the kingdom of God. The opening lines of his ministry was, repent for the kingdom of God is at hand. Matthew 5 through 7, we have the ethics of the kingdom. Matthew 13, we have the parables of the Lord. kingdom. His miracles are what? They are demonstrations of the power of the kingdom. Jesus says, if I cast out demons by the finger of God, know that the kingdom of God is among you. So there's a sense in which that was the point of his whole ministry, was to bring the rule of God. And there it would be in seed, like the mustard seed, but eventually it would grow as the kingdom of God grows to be the dominant feature of the garden. It's like the leaven. It will leaven the whole loaf, permeate every sphere of existence, bringing the rule of God to completion. So that's what we're praying for, the rule of God to be established in individual hearts and families and churches now and then worldwide over time so that the The additional phrase that we find in Matthew's gospel, your kingdom come, your will be done on earth as it is in heaven. That's another way of saying your kingdom come. Where and when has God's kingdom come? Well, it's come wherever his rule is established and his will is being done. Where's his kingdom? When his will is being carried out. Is that being carried out now? Well, partially, but not completely. And so what we're praying for is the consummation of the kingdom, the completion of the kingdom in which God's will and God's will alone is being done. So what are we praying exactly then? Again, that God would act. How is the kingdom of God to come? It's only gonna come by the power of God. So we recall the language of the apostle Paul, who is sufficient for these things? To which he gives the answer, that our sufficiency is from God. Look, we don't have the ability, we don't have the capacity. We don't have a way to bring in the kingdom of God. God has to bring in his kingdom. Jesus said, apart from me, you can do nothing. We have no ability to do the work of God. Jesus said that no one can come to him unless the Father draw him. Unless the Father is actively at working, those who are born again are born of the Spirit. We were just discussing in the new members class how that, you know, as a ministry of the Church of Jesus Christ, we water and plant, so we plant, we water. Do we cause the growth? No, God causes the growth. We don't have the ability to make the plant grow. We don't have the ability to make the kingdom of God grow. We don't have that capacity. So when we're praying, your kingdom come, we're praying, we're crying out to God, you make your kingdom come. You pour out your spirit and bring about a worldwide revival and bring that about fully and permanently and with certainty. The empires of the world, the great kingdoms, they've all come and gone. So you can go back to the Assyrians then the Babylonians and then the Persians and then the Greeks, Alexander, the Romans, the British, the American Empire. It's not inappropriate to speak in those terms given American dominance. That will one day end. The kingdom of God, however, that kingdom is permanent. Hebrews In the book of Hebrews, it speaks there of how the kingdom of Christ, Hebrews 12, 28, cannot be shaken. Daniel 6, 26, it will never be destroyed. Jesus says the gates of hell will not prevail against the kingdom of God. And by the way, remember, the gates are a defensive fortification. What he's saying is that through the power of the gospel, the gates of hell will be battered down by the people of God. So we're praying that God would act and build his kingdom, build it in such a way that there will be in heaven, as the book of Revelation promises, a multitude that no one can number from every nation, tongue, and tribe, and the kingdoms of this world will have become the kingdoms of our Lord and of his Christ. Praying that God would act, and then we're praying as well that we would act. Because God delights in working through us. He delights in using us as his agents to bring about the kingdom. So the prayer is that we as a church, that we be faithful and fruitful. Yes, the gospel is the power of God, Romans 1, 16, but it needs to be rightly divided, rightly handled, 2 Timothy 2, 15. So this would be a prayer for the leadership of the church and the pastors and teachers of the church, that they would lay the foundation that is necessary for the healthy growth of the church in terms of Ephesians 4, 11 through 16. Prayer for the church's unity, that we would preserve the unity of the spirit and the bond of peace. This was the theme of Jesus' high priestly prayer, that we would be one and not wracked by conflict and division, which weakens the church and brings dishonor to the church and Christ, whose church it is, when we weaken ourselves through disunity. It's a prayer for the purity of the church. The Apostle Paul warns that a little leaven leavens the whole loaf, 1 Corinthians 5, so church discipline is necessary. You need to remove the wicked man from among you. In Matthew 11, Jesus describes the steps by which the church preserves its purity. It's a prayer for doctrinal soundness. Jude 1.3 says that we are to contend for the faith once delivered unto the saints. There's that finality to the teachings of the scripture that have been professed and cherished and guarded all through the century that the form of sound words the Apostle Paul calls it in the pastoral epistles. We'd be praying for our filling and empowering by the Holy Spirit. We'd be praying for all impediments to the growth of the kingdom of God would be removed. And again, we pursue that for which we pray, that we would mortify our own sins, that we would be disciplined in our approach to public and private worship, that we would evangelize the lost, that we would reach out to the unbelieving, that we would promote missions around the world. Why? So that the kingdom will grow, the kingdom will come, the rule of God and the honor of God would be established all throughout the world. That's what we're praying for. We want to see the kingdom established. We want to see God honored. We want to see him get the glory that he is due, to see his lordship recognized, his law obeyed, his name honored, his kingdom entered into and established, and all that is dark and evil destructive and hurtful and harmful, banished forever and ever. There is a utopian vision in the Bible, and it is when the kingdom of God is fully come, and all things are then right in the world, not just on Easter Sunday and Christmas Eve and the first stanza, the first line of the first hymn, but permanently and forever. And then all things will be as they should be. Then all things will be right in the world. Then the suffering will be over, the tears will be dried. No more afflictions, no more conflict. But to Christ will reign forever and ever and ever and ever. Amen. As we pray together. Our Father in heaven, we pray that we would be chief among those who hallow your name and seek and promote and pursue the establishment of your kingdom. And oh Lord, we pray that throughout our entire civilization, that the holiness of your name would be recognized. that you would be honored, that your rule would be established, that Christ would be exalted, and your law would be obeyed. In Jesus' name we pray, amen.