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Matthew 6 verse 9, ìAfter this
manner therefore pray ye our Father which art in heaven, hallowed
be thy name.î We are in the middle of a series called Lord Teach
Us to Pray. And this pattern of prayer is
given by the Lord to His disciples and He is telling us this is
how I want you to pray. Now we understand there is a distinct distinction
between when Christ was speaking to the disciples, it was before
His death, burial, and resurrection, and yet this pattern can still
be used because of the elements that are in it, and the Lord
is showing us how He expected the Israelites to pray, and I
believe how He expects those of us who are now of the household
of God, the Gentiles and the Israelites, in one body, the
church. and uh... the lord's going back
to work with israel after the rapture he's gonna start working
with them again bring them to the tribulation until they are
they'd look at him and say you are our messiah we love you and
we accept you we want you and we worship you that's coming
and uh... you can see all the things going
on people say well what's happening over there in the middle east
uh... well the truth is prophecy is is on the uh... kind of a cold storage right
now. The Lord deals in prophecy with the nation of Israel. There's
nothing in the Scripture about America, or really very many
other countries other than places like Rome, and you understand
that's in the book of Revelation and Daniel. But really, as far
as prophecy is concerned, it's almost like the Lord said, you
don't need to worry about all the things that are coming, you
just need to have a relationship with Me and bring forth fruit.
And I I'll return when it's time. And so that's why I don't get
to, is this the Magog War? Is this Ezekiel 38 coming up? I'm not worried about that. That's
on the Lord's timetable. I'm focused on reaching Jew and
Gentile with the gospel of Jesus Christ. And what a privilege
it is that we have. I mean, you ever, you ever think,
man, time goes by so quick and it does. So let's get busy. Let's
get busy. We'll be done. We'll be dead.
I mean, you already feel half dead, don't you? right? We'll
be dead soon enough. And we'll be standing around
going, man, she was a good woman. She really was. You know what?
If you're a child of God, you're not going to be sad. You're going
to be overjoyed. But maybe you'll say, I wish
I had given him more when you get there. So, you know, this
truncated time we have, it's a fleeting moment. Let's do something
for the Lord. And that's why there's nothing
more important that we do than communicating with our Father.
And so he said, we talked last week about how, what a privilege
it is to be able to say, our Father, which art in heaven.
Our Father, we're now in the family of God. And then the next
phrase is, hallowed be thy name. Hallowed be thy name. What is
a name? A name is a word by which a person or thing is denoted.
A word, now we know this, this is so simple, but let me give
you some names. How about George Washington?
the first president of the United States. How about the name Abraham
Lincoln? Or Thomas Jefferson? Or Benjamin
Franklin? Or Theodore Roosevelt? Or George
Washington Carver? Immediately when you hear that
name, your mind goes to all the things that they accomplished,
the reputation that they had. We can talk about business names,
very famous ones, like Steve Jobs. You could talk about Bill
Gates Warren Buffett How about the name Oprah Winfrey? Right
all these names immediately they come in your mind. They come
what they stand for what they've accomplished what they've done
Walt Disney There's a name a lot of people love. He's up, you
know, in some case, he's almost like, I don't know what you'd
say, a prophet, priest, and king in America. I mean, he's like,
he's everything. People almost worship him. Jeff
Bezos, thank God for Jeff. Man, he's made our lives a lot
better, a lot busier. All those packages from Amazon,
he's the guy that's responsible for that. Elon Musk is a big
name today. About years and years ago, it
would have been people like Andrew Carnegie or John D. Rockefeller. These men and women
who have accomplished something to the point where their name
is known. How about Estee Lauder? Estee
Lauder. Anybody know that name? I remember
that from when I was a kid. My sisters were into that. Estee
Lauder. Or Mary Kay Ash. She's the one
that's responsible for all the junk in your home that you don't
need, right? Now there's the founder of Tupperware,
and I didn't remember to write her name down. Maybe you know
who she was, but man, she really took over, didn't she? Mark Zuckerberg,
Sam Walton. How about Milton Hershey? Isn't
that interesting? When you think of Milton Hershey,
I can't help but think of chocolate. But he didn't grow up with a
chocolate bar in his hand. His family wasn't chocolate barons. He's the one that developed the
chocolate company, the Hershey Company, that is in the town
of Hershey, Pennsylvania. Isn't that interesting? And whenever
I think of that name, I just think of they've got to have
a river of chocolate in that town that just flows. It's just
interesting how that name. How about Charles Pillsbury?
You ever heard of him? The Pillsbury Company and the
Pillsbury Doughboy, right? The name Henry Hines, known for
what? He's known for ketchup and also
for other things that they used to pickle. You know, they'd pickle
all the little things, different vegetables. Levi Strauss, he's
the guy who invented what? Blue jeans. And, you know, you
think about Levi's. I mean, that's just the first
name of the guy. and how popular he is james cash jc penny uh... boy they've fallen on hard times
haven't they feel like i'm going to a yard sale whenever i go
in there but back in the day when they were doing what james
cash penny told them to do uh... they were really rolling weren't
they i mean they were some of the the greatest department stores
in america there's a guy named william wrigley and he founded
the Wrigley Chewing Gum Company. John Deere, hello, invented the
steel plow. He's very popular. How about
William Proctor and James Gamble? They started out with candles
and soap, and then expanded. And now I think they run just
about everything else. William Boeing, he's the guy
who pioneered aircraft manufacturing. You know what they said about
that? He said he wasn't in love with developing a new airplane,
he was in love with flying. And because of that, the innovations
just kept coming. And that's the kind of guy now,
they've fallen on hard times as well. Charles Kraft. And you could hardly go to school
without invoking his name. You've got to put that Kraft
single on your sandwich, right? How about Henry Ford, Walter
Chrysler, Richard Sears, and Alva Roebuck. Did you know their
first names? I didn't know. Sears and Roebuck. Now, for those
that don't know, that's a company that used to be here in America,
a big department store on the way of the dodo bird. Now, let
me give you some names. that maybe go the other direction.
Bernie Madoff. Largest Ponzi scheme in history,
remember him? How about the company Enron? Kenneth Lay and Jeffrey
Skilling. The 37th president that resigned
due to the Watergate scandal? What was his name? Richard Nixon,
right? That's right. Who's the guy that
switched sides in the Revolutionary War? and betrayed George Washington. Anybody remember? Benedict Arnold. And his name went down in infamy. The great gangster during the
Prohibition era, Al Capone. He stayed in, I think,
every hotel in America, according to hotels. They say, yeah, Capone
was here 100 years ago. Here's someone a little closer
to our timeframe, Harvey Weinstein. Boy, what a bad name he has.
And then connected with him, Jeffrey Epstein as well. These
names, when you hear them, they're just nasty in your mind. You think of darkness, you think
of corrosion, corruption, of really satanic influencing that
they've done. How about the name Lance Armstrong? Do you remember what Lance Armstrong
used to stand for? Just hard work. They used to
ask him, they would ask him, because he won the Tour de France
over and over and over again. And they would ask him, what
are you on? What are you on? And Lance Armstrong had this
great comeback. He said, what am I on? I'm on
my bicycle, exercising and riding all the time. Well, come to find
out, he was also on some other types of things, some drugs.
Right? And now you look at that great
reputation that Lance Armstrong had, and now there's an asterisk.
Just like next to Mark McGuire, right? There's an asterisk. And
it's like, that name does not mean the same as it used to mean.
It's taken a hit. How about the name John Wilkes
Booth? The assassin of President Abraham
Lincoln. And then Charles Ponzi, that's
another name. How'd you like to have that name?
Ponzi, what's your last name, Ponzi? Man, you know, you're
connected forever. It's like, it might as well be
Toilet. My name is Toilet. It's terrible. You know, the
scripture says in Proverbs 22, a good name is rather to be chosen
than great riches. You know, if you had to do anything
that would mess your name up, your reputation up, go ahead
and do without anything that you might benefit from it. Get
rid of all your stuff if you can just hang on to a good name. If you can do that, you will
find it's much more valuable. When you lose a good name, you
can't earn enough money to buy it back. You just can't, why? People are people, they don't
forget. I'm thankful for the forgiveness of God, but it's
interesting, when you're talking about the name of the Father,
He said, hallowed be thy name. Hallowed. We're talking about
a name that is above every name. As we mentioned prayer earlier
in the first couple of weeks, the context of prayer is asking. And if I'm asking, my prayer
is all about asking, then it's very important whom I'm asking. Who is it that I'm asking? I could ask you for something.
It's interesting, a lot of Christians would rather talk to other people
about their problems, and maybe good people. But can you talk
to anyone like God? There's only one God. And so
when you're talking to God, you're talking to the greatest name.
We're praying to a God with a hallowed name. Now what does hallowed
mean? Hallowed to hallow is to make holy. to sanctify, to honor
as holy, to consecrate, to ordain. We talked about sanctification
on Sunday. It's to be set apart. A hallowed name is one that is
a special name. It is not your run-of-the-mill
name. Interestingly enough, coming
up here at the end of this month is Halloween, and that refers
to all hallows evening or even and so they take that that uh...
v out of it and they just put a little apostrophe halloween
halloween right it's talking about saints a hollow in the
old days was a saint a person who was holy And that's why Halloween,
which of course, there's nothing about that nowadays. Nothing
at all. Halloween is just getting darker
and darker, and the weird mummies are getting taller and bigger,
and, you know, the zombies and everything. What is this infatuation
with death? In the Latin American culture, you have Dia de los
Muertes, and it's the Day of the Dead, but in that case, at
least you're honoring your forebears, your ancestors. and halloween
is just let's see who can have the darkest nastiest smoke satanic
emphasis on their front lawn as possible and uh... it's ridiculous
isn't it uh... what what are we doing what are
we doing the guy down the street from us used to have a hearse
out in front of his house and uh... you know did people swinging
in the wind decapitated all that and uh... you know what i would
say is is uh... If I was really, really serious
about being mad, I would overcome evil with good and I would put
something good in my lawn. But it's easier for me to just
complain about it. So I do that. Amen. Exodus chapter 20. Let's take
our Bibles to Exodus 20. If you haven't understood very
much, I believe in the best of our ability doing something,
not just talking about it. I get tired of watching Fox News
because it's the same old commentators, the same old people, the resources
that just keep whatever. Put a mic in front of them, what
do you think? And they just keep talking and talking and talking
and talking and talking. At some point we need to do something
about it. actually do something. And that's why we're talking
about prayer. We want to actually pray and understand what the
words actually mean so that when we pray it's not just vain repetitions
as the heathen do. Exodus 20 verse 7, He said, Thou
shalt not take the name of the Lord thy God in vain, for the
Lord will not hold him guiltless that taketh his name in vain.
Now, we've heard this all our lives. If you've been in church
or been around the things of God at all, you've seen this
idea, don't take God's name in vain, which is don't blaspheme
God. Don't use God's name as a cuss
word. And certainly that is true. But I want you to hold your place
in Exodus and look at Proverbs chapter 30. Proverbs chapter
30, gives us an example of what it means to take the name of
God in vain. It is not simply saying God's
name as a substitute for a cuss word. It is using the name of
God in such a way that it represents
God in an evil way, in a wrong way. I'll say it better in just
a moment. Look at Proverbs chapter 30, look at verse 9. He's talking
about, give me neither poverty nor riches, feed me with food
convenient. He said, lest I be full and deny thee and say, who
is the Lord? Or lest I be poor and steal and
take the name of my God in vain. Notice, he doesn't say, lest
I be poor and steal and curse the name. Just the fact that
he stole would mean that he had taken the name of God in vain.
So, to take God's name in vain is not just limited to blasphemy. Just as a woman takes the name
of her husband at marriage, So a Jew was to take the name of
Jehovah as his identity and North Star. Now, when I take God's
name, I am saying I represent God. So if I were to tell you,
my last name is Washington and I'm related to George Washington,
one of the most common jokes would probably be, you're nothing
like George Washington. Why? Because when you have the
name, you're supposed to also have some of the fame. But a
lot of people want to have the fame without ever living up to
the name. So to have the name of God is
to have God's identity as mine. When I'm saying, Lord, hallowed
be thy name, who is his name? Our Father. Our Father. which art in heaven, hallowed
be thy name." Guess what? I have his name too, if he's
my father. And so he's supposed to have
a name that is high and lifted up in my own heart. I'm supposed
to reverence him. To hallow God's name is to accurately
represent who he is to others. to accurately represent who God
is to others. Now, I think you probably held
your place in Exodus. Look at Exodus 23. Exodus 23. Don't take the name of God in
vain. It's interesting how we could say, and I can say this,
I don't think in my life of 47 years, I don't think I've ever
used God's name as a curse word. So I followed that commandment
to a T. But I don't think I could say
that in my life I have never lived in such a way that didn't
represent God. In fact, most of my life, I don't
think I've accurately represented who God is from the heart. You
see why the Lord was after the Pharisees? Because the Pharisees
would say, I never did that. And yet he said, I'm raising
the bar higher. Do you remind other people of
me? That's what it means to take
the name of our God. To not accurately represent God
is to take the name of God in vain. Why would I call you my
son? You don't look anything like
me. now you would never say about your kids nowadays week nobody
ever pushes their kids out nobody ever stiff arms are kids nobody
ever says sorry we're not doing that in this house now we just
change our rules we just change everything but you know the reason
why you might take a a kid out of your house is because they
do not represent what you stand for They may have your name,
but if they were to walk out and say, yeah, I'm a marshal,
people would say, there's something that doesn't fit between you
and your dad, you and your mom. When we say, hallowed be thy
name, we're not saying, God, you are so awesome. You are so
wonderful. You are the best. And at the
same time, I'm nothing. I'm nobody. I'm not even here.
God, you're, no, I am connected with my father's name. And I
need to accurately represent. So when I say, hallowed be thy
name, there should be a little alarm that goes off in my heart
that says, ding, ding, ding, ding, ding. You're supposed to
be representing your father. How hallowed are you? You follow what I'm saying? So
he said, I don't even want you to say those names. Don't even
say them. Praying for God's name to be
hallowed means that I am setting His name above everything that
I value. I would rather your name be held
hallowed in my heart than for me to get to do what I want to
do if there is a conflict. I'd rather your name be hallowed.
He said, hallowed be thy name. Now, when we're talking about
how God used Israel now, God chose Israel to represent His
name to the earth. Did you notice in Exodus 23 He
said, make no mention of the name of other gods. Well, Hebrew
tradition developed. And you've heard of the Tetragrammaton,
right? The Y-H-W-H in Hebrew. Four letters, no consonants.
And that's where everybody, that's where people get the idea of
Yahweh. It's actually the word Jehovah, but people take it and
they use it Yahweh. It's like, I say Yahweh, and
we could go into that Yeshua and all. We won't take the time
to go into that. The personal name of God. People
began using Adonai as a substitute for Jehovah in conversations. And then they actually had a
practice of not pronouncing God's name. Over time this practice
developed. Why? They said that it was out
of extreme reverence for God. We're not even going to say God's
name. And today, you'll see, maybe if you ever see someone
commenting or maybe a blog post or an article, and you'll see
G-D, even in English. Jews will not type out the whole
name of God. They will just put G-D. And the
idea is we have so much reverence for God that we will not even
say His name. But that was never something God told them to do.
In fact, he told them not to say the names of other gods.
But you know, God's name, he wants his name to be glorified,
to be exalted. He wants his name to be made
great in our hearts. We find that God's name served
as a rallying point for the Israelites. It distinguished their monotheistic
faith from polytheistic cultures. It took a long time for the Jews
to get this idea of one God. They had to go all the way to
Babylon and to Assyria to the captivity, the exile, and before
they actually learned the lessons. When God sent them kind of out
in the back 40 to live with real heathens where it wasn't their
land, it was the heathen land and the heathen culture, they
were around the polytheistic culture and they were like, you
know what? This is not as good. See, the grass was always greener
on the other side when they were in the promised land. They said,
we want to be like the other nations. But they never learned their
lesson about one God until they actually were chained up in Babylon
and Assyria. And then when they came back,
it's interesting, the Jews never had a problem again with worshiping
false gods. They finally got it. because
they were actually able to say, God is my God. There's only one God. And so
that's why I say sometimes in church you'll see people who
are like, I just can't, young people, can't wait to get out
of here. And then you've got in the same pew somebody going,
what are you talking about? I've been out there and I've
seen all kinds of junk and there's nothing like Jesus. So here's
what you do. If you're a person in church
looking over the fence, you ask God to help you have the spirit
of prophecy, testimony of Jesus Christ. To be able to see down
the road, if I follow that, you gotta know your heart and be
honest with your heart. Say, I know what I would be. I'm not
gonna tell you, but I'm pretty sure I know what my besetting
sin is, and I think I know what I would be if I weren't saved.
I would be in big trouble. I didn't have to go out there
and do it. I was honest with myself and say, if I'm moving
this direction and this direction, if I wasn't saved, I'd be right
over there. It's not hard to follow the trajectory.
You just have to be honest with yourself. And a lot of second,
third generation Christians are not honest. All they do is look
around at other people and say, I'm not as bad as they are. They're
not looking at their own trajectory where they know they have gone
and thus where they would go. But the point is that the name
of God to the Israelites became valuable to them when they finally
realized that all the other gods did not hold a candle. When we
pray, hallowed be thy name, what are we saying? We're saying,
God, we don't need anyone else. We don't have to have anybody
else. We just need you. In fact, when Moses in Exodus
chapter 3, remember? He said, I'm going down here
to Pharaoh, and the Israelites are going to ask me, what's the
name of the God that told you to come and get us out of here?
And the Lord said, here's what you tell him. Tell him, I am
that I am. That's my name. I am that I am. Well, who are you? I am that
I am. What can you do? I am that I
am. Will you be powerful enough when Pharaoh starts chasing us? I am that I am. That's the name
that God told Israel, I want you to know this name. And he
told them actually, Jehovah as well, which we won't go into
that, but when he revealed that, he was revealing himself, God
wanted to have a personal, covenantal relationship with the Israelites.
I want to sign a contract with you is what God was saying to
the Israelites. Take your Bibles to Deuteronomy chapter 28. Exodus,
Leviticus, Deuteronomy. Go over to your right. Exodus,
Leviticus, number, sorry, Deuteronomy. Deuteronomy 28, we're looking
at verse number 9. God chose Israel to represent
His name to the earth. All right, look at 28.9. The
people of the earth are going to see that you're called by the name
of the Lord. Notice, the Lord shall establish
the unholy people unto himself. God was never trying to just
get people away from bad things and situations. He was trying
to get his people to himself. Sanctification is always about
getting closer to God. It's not about getting away from
sin. Because if you make it getting away from sin, what typically
happens is you go from one sin to another sin. If it's all about
getting rid of sin in your life. I hate myself. I'm tired of cussing.
I'm not going to cuss anymore. I'm just going to smoke three
packs a day. And thank God I don't cuss anymore.
Right? You know what sanctification
is? It's separation to God. And if you're separating to God,
guess what you're leaving behind? You're leaving behind your cussing,
and you're leaving behind your smoking eventually. Now you know
what I think about smoking? I don't think it's the worst
sin that ever happened. I really don't. I think it's harmful to
you. I think drinking is a what much worse sin because you actually
ruin people's lives when you get drunk. Smoking, I mean, you
just smell bad. And maybe you make other people
smell bad. But isn't it interesting how
in America we have certain sins that we think are horrible. Smoking,
oh, so bad. But drinking, we got like 1,700
aisles of just booze in our grocery stores. No big deal. Oh, but
we keep the cigarettes locked up to make sure no one can get
to them. Isn't that stupid? It's stupid, right? You know
what's really hurting America? Booze is hurting America. I'm
not saying cigarette smoking is healthy. Don't get me wrong.
I'm saying if I had to choose between one, I'd say everybody
just smoke as much as you want. Just don't touch booze. Amen. But what happens in that is that
we choose our favorite sins. Separation is separation to God. It's not about, well, at least
I don't drink. I may smoke. Well, what does
God want? What does God want? Not what
people think is bad or what you think is okay. What does God
want? You say, well, I don't listen to that kind of music.
I like this. I just like this. What does God want? Does God
like that kind of music? Right? See, that's what separation
is. And the Lord said, I'm calling a nation to me of people, and
I want those people to represent my name. So when you say, hi,
what's your name? I'm Joe Israelite. Joe Israelite. So you worship the God of heaven.
That's what God wanted. All right, now, take your Bibles,
if you would, and go to Deuteronomy chapter 18. Flip back to chapter
18, we're going to look at how God chose within that group of
people another smaller group of people that would still represent
His name. Deuteronomy 18, verse 1, the
priests, the Levites, and all the tribe of Levi shall have
no part nor inheritance with Israel. This is one of the tribes
of Israel, the tribe of Levi. They're just as Israelite as
anybody else, but they don't get an inheritance. Why? Verse 5, for the Lord thy God
hath chosen him out of all thy tribes to stand to minister in
the name of the Lord him and his sons forever. So the Lord
is choosing the Levites to represent his name to his people. The Lord values his name more
than just, I want to tell all those heathen out there who I
am. I want some people in my nation to tell other people in
my nation who I am. Because the Lord is dialing this
thing down. You can go even further, and there's a high priest among
the priests. And he is the one who offers
that propitiatory offering on the Day of Atonement once a year.
What is he doing? He is representing God to the
people, and he is representing the people to God. He is that
bridge. Look at chapter, take your Bibles,
if you would, back to Leviticus, Leviticus chapter 21. Leviticus
21, we're looking at what it means when God says, Hallowed
be thy name, when He wants us to say that to Him. 21.1, And
the Lord said unto Moses, Speak unto the priests, the sons of
Aaron, and say unto them, There shall none be defiled for the
dead among his people. He begins to talk about what
is allowed and not allowed as a priest. Verse 6, They shall
be holy unto their God, and not profane the name of their God. For the offering of the Lord
made by fire, and the bread of their God they do offer. Therefore
they shall be holy notice. There's two there's two opposite
possibilities There's holiness unto the Lord and there's profanity
There's holy and profane Why does that matter because they're
making offerings to God and when you make your offering to God
what you're saying is God this is what you deserve and That's why God was so intent
and so particular about what was offered, because when you're
offering something to God, you're telling God what he's worth.
You're saying, God, you can have this. The Lord says, if you're
going to value me or you're going to show my value by what you
offer, you better offer the very best. Why? Because I'm the very
best. So you have to offer the very
best. And he is saying when you offer, it's not just you offer
the very best, you better be at your best when you offer the
very best. That's what he's saying. Do you
see verse number six? They shall be holy for the offerings
of the Lord made by fire and the bread of their God they do
offer. Verse 7, they shall not take a wife that is a whore or
profane, neither shall they take a woman put away from her husband,
for he is holy unto his God. Thou shalt sanctify him therefore,
for he offereth the bread of thy God. He shall be holy unto
thee, for I the Lord which sanctify you am holy. He doesn't want
his name to be muddied, so it's very important who is working
on his behalf. That's what the name of the Lord
is. The name of the Lord is his reputation. It is the character
of God. Just as much as George Washington
Carver has a reputation in our minds versus Charles Ponzi, the
name of God has a reputation as well. And the people who take
the name of the Lord their God and walk around with the name
of God need to look like God. So when I'm praying, hallowed
be thy name, I am doing two things. I am saying, Lord, your name
is above every name, and I have been reserved for
you. I am reserved for the use of my Father. Look at chapter
22, Leviticus 22. The Lord spake unto Moses, verse
1, saying, Speak unto Aaron and to his sons, that they separate
themselves from the holy things of the children of Israel, and
that they profane not my holy name in those things which they
hallow unto me. I am the Lord. that appears 1,
2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7 times in this passage. I am the
Lord. Why does that matter? It matters
because God is holy and He wants me to be holy. So my prayer life
Amen. It's not just God. I got a bunch
of stuff you need to do. I need to start with the fact
that God is holy. Hallowed be thy name. By the way, is God's name holy? Yes it is. So why do I need to
ask God to hallow it? He's not talking about, God,
I want you to be holy now in heaven. I want you to be holy. He is saying, hallowed be thy
name in my life. Our Father, which art in heaven,
hallowed be thy name. It's already hallowed, but on
earth it's not. And that's what we see as we
go through the Lord's Prayer, the template there, that the Lord
is saying, what's happening in heaven, I'm asking my Father
that it would happen here on earth. and if you would say that
i can't wait for jesus christ to come back and i'm telling
you when he comes and he takes over they've got a kick some
people's tale it's going to be finally it's gonna and that's
true i'm thankful that's true it is going to happen but wouldn't
be hypocritical for me to say i can't wait for jesus to come
back when i'm not living like jesus is in me today I'm saying, Lord, you know, come
back in a minute. I got a little more sinning to
do. I can't wait till you come back and change everything. And
we say, holy, holy, holy is the Lord God of hosts. I can't wait
for that day. But for now, for now, I got some
other stuff I need to get done. I can't possibly say, hallowed
be thy name right now. But I'm praying, Lord, please,
do it someday, right? Look at chapter 22, verse 3,
say unto them, whosoever he be of all your seed among your generations
that goeth unto the holy things which the children of Israel
hallow unto the Lord, having his uncleanness upon him, that
soul shall be cut off from my presence. I am the Lord. Verse 31, therefore shall you
keep my commandments and do them. I am the Lord. Neither shall
you profane my holy name, but I will be hallowed. Where? among the children of israel
I will be hallowed among the children of Israel. I am the
Lord which hallowed you, that brought you out of the land of
Egypt to be your God. I am the Lord." God is choosing
people to represent Him, and how is He doing that? He's not
just saying, all right, who wants to be saved? Okay, good. You're
saved. Now, okay, you're good. I'll
talk to you when you get to heaven. Who else wants to be saved? You
want to be saved? Okay, good. Now, just chill, have fun, enjoy.
That's not what the Lord's doing. And one of these days, we're
gonna have a big get together. You guys are all invited up to my house.
He is calling you to himself because he wants you to look
like Jesus on your street. He wants you to be hallowed in
your workplace, in your home. He wants your kids to look at
you and see Jesus. That's what it is. He said, I'm
the one. I am in the midst of you, in
the midst of this house. Yeah. In the midst of our family? Yeah. Oh, and by the way, I am
the Lord which hallow you. I'm the one that makes you holy.
I don't have to worry about being made holy. All I have to do is
draw an eye to God and say, Lord, what's in my life and heart that's
not holy unto the Lord? So it won't take long, once you
start praying, our Father which art in heaven, hallowed be thy
name. If you really mean that, hallowed be thy name, the Holy
Spirit's gonna say, what's this doing in here? What's that doing
in here? That's not very holy. Well, Lord,
I mean, I heard a message on that years ago and the preacher
told me I don't have to worry about that. Or there's a bunch
of Christians I was reading on Facebook the other day, and they're
just like, that's old, we don't have to do that anymore. And
a lot of people fight about that. I don't really know what it is.
I mean, the curse of our culture is there is no truth. There's
no truth. Nobody's really ever right about
anything, except this is one thing that is true, nothing's
true. It's absolutely self-defeating when you look at it from that
angle. But a lot of Christians have that mindset. The idea is,
well, I mean, I heard a preacher say that, but you know, we don't
have to be. The problem is not what some preachers said back
in 1975. The problem is that's still gonna bug you if you let
it. What did God say to you in his eternal word that shall not
pass away? The Holy Spirit stopped being
holy in 1975. I'm sorry, 2019. Oh, I'm sorry,
during COVID, he kind of lost his power. The Bible no longer applies,
COVID. Well, that makes sense, yeah. Everything else, you can
just say COVID. Oh, oh yes, right? Hey, listen,
God still wants to hallow you. He's gonna do that in your life.
He's gonna hallow what you watch. He's gonna hallow what you listen
to. Well, I kind of just like that stuff. Well, your flesh
and my flesh, we have all our little idiosyncrasies and things
that we like, yes? People make money on saying, what do you
like this, this, this, this, this, and then with that algorithm,
we're gonna provide you other options. The question we have
to ask ourselves is what does the Holy Spirit like? What is
he like? Amen. This is Bible study, guys. I'm not really serious about
this. I'm just like, we're just playing around, okay. You didn't come to get preached
at, amen. Now, we won't take the time to
go there, but in 1 Kings 9, we preached about this a little
while ago about Solomon and how the Lord said, I have hallowed
this house. So God chose the temple to place
his name there. Okay, God chose the temple. We were in New Mexico in the
Yucatan Peninsula. And you know what they said?
They said, is it safe? Oh yeah, it's modern, it's great.
They have a Costco. And you know what that says immediately?
The name Costco, in your mind, you think of a very large warehouse
with lots of stuff, very well organized, priced somewhat affordably
in large quantities, you could take it with you. You immediately
know what they're talking about. Why? Because of the name, Costco. And that's what God was saying.
I want my name to be at that temple. So when someone walks
into that temple, they know what it is. They know who I am. And every time they think of
that temple, they think of me. So what does it mean? Let's take
our Bibles now. We're going to go to, as you're going into the
New Testament, I want you to stop by Psalm 22. Psalm 22. Because I want to show you this
verse very quickly, and then we're going to go to the book
of Romans. And we got so much, we can't go through it all. Psalm
22, but that's never stopped us before, amen? Psalm 22. Look
at verse three. But thou art holy, O thou that
inhabitest the praises of Israel." The praises of Israel. You see,
hollowing God's name is more than just saying, I never use
his name as a cuss word. It is representing God, including
my speech and my praise is an indication that I live differently. Have you ever praised God verbally?
A lot of Christians, they say,
well, I'm Midwestern, I'm quiet. And there's different levels,
there's different personalities and so forth. But may I point
you to the Bible over and over and over again, it talks about
how, let the redeemed of the Lord say so. I noticed this,
the Cleveland Browns, the Detroit Lions, the Cincinnati Bengals,
they have tens and scores of thousands of people, and they're
all Midwesterners, and I've never seen a game where everyone was
like, nicely done. He's on my fantasy football team.
He does well, he does very well. You know what they do? They scream.
They yell. They emote. You know why? Because it matters to them. Now,
I will say this, to be fair to church members and churchgoers,
we do a lot of mental processing that they don't do. Okay, what
do they do? They're drunk, they think it,
they say it. Right? We do a lot of mental
processing. But you know, at some point that
mental processing should get to the point where, you know
what? God for... You know what? God is great. He's just great. And we're able to say, praise
God! Glory to God. When's the last
time you felt so filled with the goodness of God that you
verbalized it? You actually said, praise the
Lord. Now, you know what? I can get up here and I can pump
you and I can guilt you into doing that. And this is probably
not the time. If you're a normal amener and
a praise Godder, then keep going, amen? But what I'm saying is,
there ought to become a time in your life, there ought to
come a time where you realize how wonderful and good God is,
and how holy and how different he is from every other person
you ever met, and how kind and gracious and long-suffering and
powerful he's been in your life, that you just say it. God, you're
amazing. You're amazing. One of the times
we have opportunity to do that all the time is when we sing
to praise God. And so many times we don't take
advantage of it. You know where we're looking?
We're thinking about everything but. We're thinking, I don't know this song.
Ain't nobody here know this song. Right? If you did know the song,
that would mean what? You would be able to sing it
without thinking. And that's not good either. You see, God
wants, He inhabits the praise of His people. What is praise?
Praise is this, you'll never believe the deal that I just
got. We had the best steak dinner last night. It was awesome. I
don't know what it was with their staff, but they're unique. You
know what that is? That's praise. I found the coolest
little thing at the mall. You're praising. You are saying
this thing is valuable. How much more the God who inhabits
eternity? God for who He is. And He never
runs out. He never tires. He never changes. He never goes obsolete. He never
expires. He is the God of eternity. So
the pattern of prayer is this, hallowing God's name is to exalt
His glory and to thank Him. to exalt His glory and to thank
Him. I'm going to read a bunch of scriptures for you from the
Pauline epistles, but let me give this to you. The pattern
of prayer is God first, you next. Praise to God is offered before
personal requests are made. If you find it hard to praise,
then you're really not thinking much about God. And if you're finding it hard
to praise, then you're thinking of God as maybe a slot machine. You feed it in, pull it, sometimes,
you know, you get all sevens, sometimes God answers your prayer,
but you know, hey, there's a chance, right? You gotta keep praying.
That's not, you know what, what do you think about the slot machine?
Nothing, it's a machine. If that's the way you treat God,
are you really hollowing His name? Are you really saying,
God, you are unique and special? You are unusual. Let me read
some verses. Romans 15, Now the God of patience
and consolation grant you that you be like-minded one toward
another according to Christ Jesus, that ye may with one mind and
one mouth glorify God, even the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ.
Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ who
has blessed us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places
in Christ. Ephesians 3, for this cause I bow my knees unto the
Father of our Lord Jesus Christ of whom the whole family in heaven
and earth is named. Ephesians 5, giving thanks always
for all things unto God and the Father in the name of our Lord
Jesus Christ. Philippians 2, and that every
tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of
who? God the Father. Hallowed be thy
name. We're glorifying him. Philippians
chapter 4. Now, unto God and our Father
be glory forever and ever. Amen. Colossians 1. We give thanks
to God and the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. Colossians
1.12. Giving thanks unto the Father which hath made us meet
to be partakers of the inheritance of the saints in light. In Colossians
3, and whatsoever you do in word or deed, do all in the name of
the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God and the Father by him.
You see, it's okay for you to glorify the Father. Some people
say, oh, you're supposed to pray in Jesus' name. We pray to God,
we pray to the... Listen, don't get too technical
on this stuff. Jesus said, I and my Father are
what? One. When you're praying to Jesus
Christ, you're also praying to the Father. Now, we understand
our access to the Father is through Jesus Christ. But you may ignore
the Father because you're thinking, no, no, no, the Father's mad,
and Jesus made Him accept us. Where are you getting this stuff
from? Jesus said, the Father Himself sent me here. The Father
Himself loveth you. We're on the same page. There
are three that bear record in heaven, the Father, and the Word,
and the Holy Ghost. And these three are what? One. One. When we pray to God the
Father, We can pray to God the Father and the Son and the Holy
Spirit together. Now we understand there are some
distinctions there, but don't be so smart, so technical that
you're just a nerd when it comes to prayer. Because you're more
interested in sometimes we can be so afraid that someone's doing
something wrong instead of actually thanking the Father for who He
is and what He's done. Thanking Jesus Christ. And I
can take you through. Look up God and the Father. or
our great God and our Savior, Jesus Christ. It's just interchanged. Why? Because God is all three. Father, Son, Holy Spirit, when
you're praying to God. And there are distinctions, this
is not the time to go into all those, but don't get so nerdy
that you don't pray. Right? And don't get to this
point, well, I only pray in Jesus' name. I always pray in Jesus'
name. And we should pray in Jesus'
name. But if you're not careful, you can start getting this idea
that God's not gonna answer your prayers unless you pray in Jesus'
name. Now what have you done? You've
separated the Father and the Son. In your mind, are you following
me? Okay, listen, Jesus Christ has
made us worthy, the Father's drawing us, and if you don't
remember to say, in Jesus' name, be careful, that becomes a religious
little tagline that we put on everything. Amen? Now this is where we hit Baptist
hard, so forgive me. Just like closing your eyes when
you pray, right? Not in Scripture. Anywhere, right? Maybe we need to close in prayer.
Don't close your eyes. What I'm saying is we get so
hung up on all these little things, we're afraid to talk to God. We're afraid to ask Him for anything. How will I adore God's name today?
Since God's name is hallowed, it is worthy of praise. Let the
Spirit of God direct you as you praise the Father. Praise Him
for who He is. Praise Him for what He has done
in your life. Praise Him for what He is doing
right now, even the trials, and praise him for what he will do
in the future. Those are just four ideas. You can come up with
more. I'm talking about praising God. Hallowed be thy name. One final place tonight, 1 Peter
chapter three. 1 Peter chapter three. And by the
way, I close my eyes when I pray, in case you're stuck on that.
And not because scripture commands it, but I think it's just a good
habit for me because it shuts the world out. but Jesus lifted
up his eyes to heaven when he prayed. Right, you could do that. That means if you do close your
eyes and you pray, you certainly can't pray when you're driving.
I remember when I was growing up, I remember thinking, how
can my dad pray? He's driving. And then I remember
seeing, I peeked one time, and I saw him driving and praying
with his eyes open. I thought, I don't know if God's
gonna hear him, His eyes aren't closed. That
was taught very early. Close your eyes when you pray.
And it is a good practice, but you understand where I'm coming
from. 1 Peter 3. 1 Peter 3. Likewise, ye wives, be in subjection
to your own husbands." Now we're finally getting to it, amen?
This is the real stuff right here, amen? I know I can get
some amens from guys that don't have their wives with them, amen?
Praise the Lord for that. 1 Peter chapter 3, and he goes
on to talk about obedience and reverence. He talks about in
verse 2, while they behold your chaste conversation, coupled
with what? fear. Whose adorning, let it
not be that outward adorning of plaiting the hair, and of
wearing of gold, and of putting on of a parrot. Let it be that hidden man of
the heart." Hidden man of the heart. And notice in verse number
4 he says, even the ornament of a meek and quiet spirit. Verse
5, for after this manner in the old time the holy women also
who trusted in God adorned themselves, being in subjection unto their
own husbands. What I want you to see here is
the connection with Reverence and fear. Reverence and fear
in connection with prayer. Verse 6, even as Sarah obeyed
Abraham, calling him Lord. Look at verse 7, likewise ye
husbands, dwell with them according to knowledge, giving what? Honor
unto the wife, as unto the weaker vessel, and as being heirs together
of the grace of life. Notice that your prayers be not
hindered. He's referencing through this
passage the Levitical priests who were to offer acceptable
sacrifices and to have a pure heart and appearance. The Lord
dials it in even more here and He's saying, watch your heart.
There's reverence and subjection and there is purity in connection
with your prayers. He goes on to instruct us about
living holy. In verse 8, finally, be all of
one mind, having compassion one of another. And he talks about
not rendering evil for evil, and refrain your tongue from
evil. And then look down at verse number 12. For the eyes of the
Lord are over the righteous, and his ears are open unto their
prayers. But the face of the Lord is against
them that do evil. What's the point? Hallowing God's name is
reverencing His authority in my life. Hallowing God's name. How do I know that? Look at verse
15. But sanctify the Lord God in
your hearts and be ready always to give an answer. He said, I
want you to hallow my name, to sanctify it, to make it holy
in your heart. Is God in my heart? Yes, He is.
Is He sanctified? Well, if it's that God... You
mean God is not... No, no, no. Have you sanctified
the Lord in your heart? Have you hallowed God in your
heart? If you haven't, then guess what? Your prayers are going to be
hindered. You're not going to be able...
Notice, he says, His ears are open unto their prayers. Who?
Who with prayers? The righteous. When we get down
and we say, Our Father which art in heaven, we're not asking
to be saved. If you're not saved, you don't
get, this is not the prayer to pray. Okay? I'm talking to people
who are saved. When you kneel down and say,
Our Father, which art in heaven, hallowed be thy name, you are
saying, God is different than anything else in my life. He
is to be valued above all things, and I am supposed to set Him
apart. What am I supposed to do? Hallow
His name. Sanctify the Lord God in your
hearts. And if I'm thinking about God and how He's the most important
thing in my life, guess what's going to happen? I'm going to
bump into people who want to know about God. Why? Because the Lord is going to
direct you to people who want to know about you because you
look like Him. You know the reason why you don't
ever see anybody saved or you don't even get a chance to witness
anybody? Because you're not trying to hallow his name in your heart.
You're not saying, Lord, you're different and I'm willing to
follow you. Hallow me, God. Sanctify me as you have sanctified
yourself. I'm going to set you apart in
my life and I'm willing to be set apart from this world. Most
Christians in America are what? They're just simply trying to
not look too Christian. Not act too Christian. Why? Because I've seen some overreaches.
What about the Lord? What about being sanctified to
the Lord? Set apart to Him? People are deathly afraid that
someone might think you're a Christian. You say, well, I'm not afraid
of that. Then why are you mostly concerned about fitting in? Just
being normal, being one of the guys, one of the girls, nobody
can ever tell that there's anything different about me. Some of you
are like, I'm no problem. Yeah, because you're never around
lost people, so you don't have to worry about it. I'm talking about people
who live in the real world and on purpose come into contact
with lost people. You ought to be willing to be
different. Why? You are a child of God.
You're to be sanctified to Him. I'm not talking about all get
rid of that sin and stop doing that. I'm saying what does God
want and as He draws me to Himself, I become more like Him. sanctify
the Lord God, and be ready always to give an answer to every man
that asketh you a reason of the hope that is in you with meekness
and fear. Be ready, because they're gonna ask. Hallowing God's name,
it's reverencing, reverencing His authority in my life. He
is in charge. It is exalting His glory and
thanking Him, and it is accurately representing Him to others.
Lord, Teach Us To Pray #6 (The Lord's Prayer: Hallowed Be Thy Name))
Series Lord, Teach Us To Pray
| Sermon ID | 1014241954304961 |
| Duration | 58:48 |
| Date | |
| Category | Midweek Service |
| Bible Text | Matthew 6:9 |
| Language | English |
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