Oh, good, you've had practice. Well done, Jono. When you mentioned that was one of your favorite songs, I'm like, yes, one of my favorite, too. And the songs you picked this morning and let us in very much fit what I want to say this morning. So it was wonderful to see that. I just want to take another time to say something else. Well done very much to Sarah and Wes for this little note in the back there. You can pick these up at the back table, yeah? Good calendar, there's prayer requests, there's chronic information, there's all kinds of things in here to keep up. Put on your fridge, take it home with you, and keep you informed about what's going on and where and where and so much. But well done to you two for the work you did to put all that together. Okay, take your Bibles, please, to the book of Matthew in chapter 6 again. says we're getting started. I'll just let you know I had tonsillitis and a chest infection all week and so the fact that I actually have a voice is a dramatic improvement but there's no guarantee it's gonna last all that long so we'll do what we can and then call it a day. Beginning at Matthew chapter 6 and we'll read from verse 8 all the way down to verse 15 and we're looking again at Jesus teaching on prayer. And he says this, and he's speaking to his disciples, and he says, do not be like them, and he's referring to the Gentiles, and he says, for your father knows what you need before you ask him. Pray then like this, our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name. Your kingdom come, your will be done on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread and forgive us our debts as we have also forgiven our debtors. And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil. For if you forgive others their trespasses, your heavenly Father will also forgive you. But if you do not forgive others their trespasses, neither will your father forgive your trespasses. Let's pray before we begin, shall we? Our gracious God and heavenly father, we give you thanks that the Lord Jesus Christ is indeed our greatest treasure. And father, he is the vision that we would like to see this morning. Father, we would be like those two Greek men that came to the disciples and said, sirs, we would see Jesus. And Father, we would long to lift Him up, and Father, to catch a fresh view, a fresh vision of our Lord Jesus Christ, God incarnate. And Father, we pray too that we would have a fresh vision of You, that we would learn afresh from the Spirit of God how we ought to pray. And Father, we pray that you would use the Word of God. Father, we pray that you would open our hearts to hear what you would have to say to us, that you would teach us and strengthen us and encourage us and revive us, Father, according to your Word. Father, we seek your blessing this morning, and we do so in Jesus' name. Amen. We've been considering what Jesus has taught about prayer, and we've seen already what Jesus says about prayer, that it's based on a relationship with our Heavenly Father. We've seen that it's a commanded privilege of the Christian life, and it's a rewarded discipline in the Christian life. And we've also seen what Jesus is saying here about how we are to pray. We must pray in sincerity, not hypocrisy. He's picking all again and again, through the whole 6 through 18, on the hypocrites and the way they give, the way they fast, and the way they pray. So our praying must be in sincerity, not in hypocrisy. We must begin with private prayer before our Father. And then last week, again, we saw the way in which God is our Heavenly Father, and we saw also how we can know for sure That we are born again and that we have eternal life. And this week what I want to do, I want us to begin to see that prayer is firstly all about God. It's all about God. We often think it's about us and what we want. In fact, let me ask you a question. What's the first thing you mention when you pray? What's the top of your prayer list? I have a little black book I keep at home, and it's got all my prayer lists in them, and I put down when I started praying for certain things, and then when God answered, and it's kind of neat to be able to check off prayer lists. And I look at the top of my list, and I wrote it trying to remember things, and I actually put some wrong things in the wrong order. But I want to ask you a question. What's the top of your prayer list? What's the first thing you think about when you come to pray? Prayer is based in a relationship with our Heavenly Father, and it must be more than just what we get out of it. If I have a friend, and all I'm ever doing is looking to get something from my friend, and I really don't care too much about him, or his situation, or his family, or anything else, I'm just looking to see what I can get out of that friendship. We don't call that much of a friendship, do we? But what about our prayer lives? Is our prayer life existing because of what we can get from God, what we can get away from Him? Or is it really a relationship in which we are building a strong relationship, a father-son relationship? It must be more than just what we can get out of it. Maybe the reason some of us struggle so much with prayer is that we're all too focused on the candy. We're all too focused on the answer to the prayer that we're looking for. Well, Jesus begins his pattern of prayer by reminding us that prayer is, first of all, all about God. Our prayer life is fueled by our view of God, how we see God, which is why I love the way that song we face up with, Be Thou My Vision. Fill my eyes, the eyes of my faith, the eyes of my heart with a vision of the Lord Jesus Christ. How we see God often drives how we pray to God. Well, in verses 8 through 10, Jesus gives us two things to remember as we pray and three things to pray for that are the uppermost in the heart of God, in the heart and the mind of God. And when we pray, first of all, we must remember that God, our Heavenly Father, Omniscient. He is all-knowing. When we come to pray, we must keep that in mind. God knows everything. And also, we keep in mind that our Heavenly Father is exalted. He is lifted up above us and beyond us. And we also, when we pray, we must first of all seek for the holiness and the glory of God's name, and the coming of God's kingdom, and the accomplishment of God's will. And we're not going to look at all those this morning. We just don't have enough time. I don't think I have enough voice for it. We will look at the first two and possibly the third as well. So what I want us to see this morning is that prayer is all about God, that we must remember our Heavenly Father is omniscient and that our Heavenly Father is exalted. So first of all, Read again with me verses 8, 9, and 10. I want you to see this. Do not be like them, for your Father knows what you need before you ask Him. That's the omniscience of God. In verse 9, he says, Pray then like this, Our Father in heaven, that's God who is exalted. And then the three requests he begins with, Hallowed be your name, your kingdom come, and your will be done on earth as it is in heaven. So first of all, remember that God, our Heavenly Father, is omniscient. When we come to pray, we need to stop and think for a moment about who it is we are praying to and what He's like. I actually wanted to take this morning, I had an idea of about seven points of all these different little things about what our Heavenly Father is like, and just spend some time soaking that up. But I thought, we'll never get back into Matthew 6, and so I put it aside. But we need to stop and think about that. We're not just coming to talk to one of our friends across the back fence. We're coming to speak, coming into the presence of a living God who is omniscient, and we're coming to speak to God who knows everything. Your Father knows everything. He knows everything that is. He knows everything that was. He knows everything that could be. He knows all that will be. God knows all the details. He knows of all men, past, present, and future. He knows every detail about every single person who was ever born or ever could have been born. God knows every intimate detail about you. He knows more about you than you will ever know about yourself. Did you know that? that God in His grace veils your own eyes to see just how wicked you really are, and just how great your sinfulness is before God. That's God's grace at work, keeping you from seeing just how bad you really are. God knows more about you than you will ever know about yourself. Nothing escapes God's notice. Nothing is hidden from God's presence. Nothing is forgotten by God. God doesn't get all. You know how we forget things? You know, you go through your files one day, you're digging through a drawer, and you open it, and you pull this little picture out, and you go, oh yeah, and you're looking at it, and there's just this faint recollection that somehow, in some past life, you were in this place, and that's where you were, and you're trying to kind of put it all together, but you just can't remember, and you ask your wife, and she says, oh, silly, that's our wedding day, and you were there, and this isn't, no, no, not quite that bad. We forget things, don't we? We just get old, and things get out of our minds, and things just get out of use. It's not in the short-term memory banks, and so we don't pull them up, and we forget. But you know what? God never forgets anything. He has every single intimate detail perfectly categorized and stored. He knows every single detail, and He knows it all perfectly. We remember details about our past and sometimes we forget little, you know, we think, well, I remember that day I was there, but I couldn't remember what I was wearing or, you know, what I was doing. I just remember being there that day. God knows every detail of all those events absolutely perfectly. God is not only all-knowing, he's also all-understanding. The Bible says in Psalm 147, verse 5, great is our Lord and abundant in power. His understanding is beyond measure. The old King James says, His understanding is infinite. God not only knows everything, He understands all things. We're not like that, are we? For example, I was watching, what's that movie called, with Stephen Hawking, the scientist dude who thinks that The theory of everything, that's it. And they're talking about Einstein's theorem, right? And of course, I go, oh, I know Einstein's theorem, E equals MC squared, right? I haven't got a clue what that means, I just know what that theorem, and we've all heard that. And we might know that theorem, we could write it out and actually write the letters and do the little square thing and you could think you're pretty smart because, you know, you know Einstein's theory of general relativity, but I haven't got a clue what that means. But not God. God's knowledge and His understanding is absolutely perfect. He not only knows all things present and future and potential, He understands all those things in perfection. And I could stand up here, I could try and give you an explanation of E equals MC squared, and I could talk all about matter and time and blips and quarks and all that stuff when I haven't got a clue what I'm talking about. And I could do it very confidently like I know what I'm talking about, and I could be hugely wrong. I might even think I know what I'm talking about, and I'd still be wrong. But you know what the cool thing about God is? His omniscience extends to the fact that not only does He know every detail in existence, every fact, He understands everything perfectly. His wisdom is amazing. It's beyond the comprehension of a human mind. God's knowledge and His understanding is perfect. God knows our thoughts before they even become speech. The Bible says in Psalm 139 verse 4, Even before a word is on my tongue, behold, O Lord, You know it altogether. And Jesus says in Luke 16 verse 15, God also knows your hearts. He knows if we're praying with the right motive. He knows if we're praying with the wrong motives, God knows what we truly need. Before we even step into God's presence, before we even open our mouths to say anything to ask Him, before we even to think to ask God for what we think we need, God knows what we truly need. And of course that drives the question, doesn't it? So then why should we even pray since God is omniscient? What's the point of praying then? Listen. Prayer is not about us informing God of something or anything. Prayer is about lifting up our heart and our soul to God. God knows everything in our prayer lives. God knows who we should be praying for. God knows what we need to ask in each circumstance. God knows the way in which He wants to answer. God knows what He will answer, and God knows when He's going to answer. So the question again, the question comes up again, why pray? What's the point of praying? And the answer is, we pray because God calls us and commands us to pray. It is an act of obedience to come before God and pray. And you say, that's a good answer, but it's... I don't mean this the wrong way. It's kind of lame, isn't it? It is a good answer. It's a good thing to be obedient. But if we're just praying to be obedient, that sort of loses something of its strength and impetus, doesn't it? But you know what? Listen. Prayer is about learning to ask for the things that God already longs and plans to give to us. So how do we know what those things are? How do we know what we should ask for? Especially if the fact that God is omniscient and God knows everything, how do we know what to pray for so he can answer those prayers the way he wants to? And the answer is, The words of scripture, they're there to govern and guide our lives. They're also there to inform our prayers so that we can pray for ourselves and each other, the things that God desires for us. Listen, I had some friends do this, sat down with the book of Galatians and they open up the book of Galatians and they read the first page. And they stopped. They said, OK, let's pray for everything that that book, just that page of Galatians brings us to pray about. And they began to work their way through Galatians. They all prayed back and forth. And they went on for several hours as they prayed, page by page, line by line, just through the book of Galatians, looking at all the things that God was saying, this is what you can pray about. And the words of Scripture are given to inform us and help us and teach us to pray correctly. to pray the right things. You think God gave us his word just so he can tell us all about himself? Yes, he did. But he also gave us his word so not only would we know about God, but we could also relate to God with the way he's spoken to us. So we use the words of scripture to inform our prayers. I posted somewhere on our website, I don't remember where I put it now, but there's... I took the prayers of Paul, I think I've gone through Galatians all the way to 2 Thessalonians, taken every prayer of Paul and put it into a bullet point format so you can read it and you can kind of see what Paul's praying for. And I started using that in my prayer life. to learn how to pray for each other in the church. It's an incredibly informative way. We often pray, Lord, please bless them and lead them and guide them. And we run out of things to pray for. You read the prayers of Paul and listen to things he prays for all the different believers in the church around. It's incredible the depth of the spirituality of Paul's prayers. We can use those prayers to help us to pray. The second thing is this, we know how to pray for by the leading of the Holy Spirit. There are times in my own prayer life, when we're at the prayer meetings on Thursday mornings, I'm sitting there and I think of one person, and I pray for that person, and all the things I can think of. And as, you know, in my mind that person's name is there, and all of a sudden that name just kind of changes, and I have a new name in my mind, and I start praying for that, and the next name, and then what's so cool is the Spirit of God just gives me one name, and one event, and one circumstance, and one situation, after another, after another, after another, and the Spirit of God is literally leading me in prayer. People of God, we need to learn to ask God to lead us in prayer. Show us the things to pray for. Show us who to pray for and what to pray for in that person. What's wrong with us for saying, God, show me what to pray. Show me how to pray. So even though God is omniscient, we need to learn to pray in obedience. Our Heavenly Father is waiting for us to ask for the things He wants to give us. And the answer, you say, why does God do that? God does that so that when we receive them, we will be reminded that He is the author and the giver of everything that is good. You know how cool it was? The other day I got the first answer to my prayer request in my little black book, to go back there and put the date down, and circle it, and put thank you across that. And every time I'm reading down my prayer list, I hit that point there, oh yeah, Lord, give thanks that Manny Sakantha got a job. Yeah, Lord, give thanks that all the charges against my brother Wes were reversed and revoked, and he's completely free to go. It's a cool thing. It's a reminder to give thanks. And I can say, you know what? I remember now, Lord, I prayed for those things, and I know that You, in Your loving and Your kind and gracious hand, have given that to me, an answer to prayer. The Bible says this in James chapter 1, Do not be deceived, my beloved brothers. Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights, with whom there is no variation or shadow due to change. You get the question again? If God is all-knowing, why pray? Another answer for you. We pray because God is glorified in us when we pray. It's having that Godward focus that John was talking about earlier. When we pray, God is glorified in us, and when we pray, we are satisfied in God, when we are praying and trusting Him with the answers. That's why we pray, even though God is omniscient and God knows everything. God knows what we need even before we even ask Him. We come to God remembering that He knows everything. When we come to pray, remember that God is omniscient. Your Father knows what you need even before you ask. God is all-knowing. God knows what we need. Listen to God as you pray and ask God to lead you in your praying, to bring to mind the people and situations to pray for. Second thing is this. Remember that God, our Heavenly Father, is exalted. Notice what Jesus says in Matthew 6 and verse 9. Our Father, which art in heaven. I like the old King James way that states that. And in fact, in the Greek you've got four extra words. Matthew, when he's recording Jesus' words, he takes the time to add four extra words to drive home the point that He isn't just our Heavenly Father. And it's just like an extra term to describe Him. He actually makes the point of saying, Our Father, which art in heaven? He defines and describes Him, and He elevates God as He does so. God, our Father, is exalted. He's above us. And heaven here is not speaking about a different physical realm. Heaven's not a realm like above the clouds. We always think about heaven as up and hell as down. But if you're in Canada, then heaven up is a different direction, and earth down is another direction. So it doesn't work. But that's how we think about heaven is something that is a place high and exalted and lifted up. The idea is it's actually a spiritual realm that exists simultaneously to the physical realm, but outside of time and space. And God is exalted and God is transcendent in the sense that he is removed from us. God is exalted in heaven as the place of his ruling and reigning. Isaiah 6.1, remember that great scene? Isaiah is in the temple and Uzziah has just died. And he says this, in the year that King Uzziah died, I saw the Lord high and exalted. The NASB says lofty and exalted. God is elevated above us. God is not on our level. Psalm 11 verse four says this, the Lord is in his holy temple, the Lord's throne, excuse me. The Lord's throne is in heaven. God is exalted. He's not on the same level as we are. We must remember that when we approach God in prayer, that he is exalted. We must be careful that we do not allow our reconciled position with God, our adoption into the family of God to breed disrespect and even a contempt for God in the way in which we pray. Listen, Ecclesiastes chapter five says this. Be not rash with your mouth, nor let your heart be hasty to utter a word before God. For God is in heaven and you are on earth. Let therefore your words be few. What's he saying? He's saying we must come to God in a godly, holy fear before the one who is both King of Kings and Lord of Lords. There must be a respect for God in both our attitudes and our words. Yes, He is our Heavenly Father. We saw in detail last week how that happens. But no, He is not just like your daddy. It's a tragedy when we start thinking like that. We need to get a fresh view of God, a fresh vision of God. And you know what I think? We spend so much time in the New Testament that sometimes we lose sight of the way the Old Testament holds up and describes God. Read Isaiah, read Ezekiel, read those great old men of God, read the Psalms, read the Proverbs, and see how the Bible describes God. He is not just like your daddy. And we're making a very big mistake when we describe God in those sort of intimate terms. He is exalted above us. The Bible says, in Hebrews 4.16, let us then with confidence draw near to the throne of grace that we may receive, first of all, mercy and find grace to help in time of need. That does not mean we go in rudely or haphazardly. hazardly into God's presence. Confidence does not mean carelessness. The idea of drawing near with confidence is we draw near carefully into God's presence. We draw near with respect. He is our living God. We don't go rudely or haphazardly into God's presence. Because God, our heavenly father, is exalted, we must approach him with fear and respect. Every time the Bible describes a man in the presence of God, there's fear and there's respect. Often you find that the person falls on their face before God because they're in fear of who he is. Listen to what Joshua says in, or Joshua's description in verse 5. Try it again. Joshua is described in Joshua 5.14 like this, and he's talking and the commander says, I am the commander of the army of the Lord, now I have come. And Joshua fell on his face to the earth and worshiped and said, what does my Lord say to his servant? Listen, God has not changed. We often think, well, you know, that's the Old Testament, man. Come on, it's all different now. We're in the church age, the Old Testament age, the New Testament age, church age, and the age, doesn't matter what age it is, God is the same yesterday, today, and forever. And listen, people of God, we've lost sense of respect and a reverence for the living God in the way in which we approach Him. Yeah, we approach Him confidently. Confidence based on the fact that Jesus Christ's blood washed us clean. that Jesus Christ blood has made us pure again in the sight of a living God, that we now have a relationship. He is indeed our heavenly father. Yes, we have that sonship, that adoption. Yes, we are his and we can never be taken out of his hands. All those things are absolutely true, but we need to lose, not lose, I need to regain sight of the fact that God is a holy and exalted God and we come before him with respect and with care. and deference and reverence before God. The current trend in our age is to approach so casually and so carelessly, we've almost forgotten that we are still speaking to the almighty, all-knowing God of the ages. God is exalted and we must approach him with respect and awe for who he is. There's also a great comfort in loving and serving and praying to a God who is exalted above us because God is exalted. He is our heavenly father. He is untouched and unaffected by any earthly circumstances. Don't misunderstand. I don't mean doesn't care. What I mean is he isn't dragged down or he isn't hindered by our earthly circumstances. God's never too busy to hear or answer our prayers. You go before God, you know, sometimes you go into the office of somebody you need to see, and there's a whole lot of people waiting to see that same important person, and they're all kind of busy looking on, and you know, you think, oh, and you're waiting, and you think, am I ever going to get a chance to talk to the boss, or talk to my father, or whoever it is you're waiting to see? God never makes you take a number, or book an appointment, or come back at some more convenient time. God is always available to hear. The fact that He is exalted above us means He's unhindered by these circumstances that we're in. And He's always available to hear what we have to say, to listen as we pray, and listen as we approach Him. Because God is exalted above our circumstances, He is always immediately available to hear and to help. God is always available to provide mercy and grace. Because God is exalted above our situation, because God is our Father which art in heaven, God is able to work immediately in our situation, to work without any hindrance, to accomplish His will in our lives and our circumstances. Because God is exalted above all others, because our Father is enthroned in the heavens, He is the ultimate court of appeal. There's no higher court to whom we need to appeal to. Not only that, His decisions, His answers are without fear of appeal or revoking. Aren't you glad that when God says yes, somebody else can't come around and go, oh, no, no, no, I appealed to a higher court and God's decision's been overturned, sorry, the answer's no. No, it never happens that way. Isn't that great? God is so exalted that His answers are final. When God heals someone, they're healed. When God answers their prayer and a job is provided, it's provided. When God answers a prayer and the charges are reversed, they're reversed. When God answers a prayer and someone comes to church, they're there. He doesn't take it back again. God is exalted above us, and He's enthroned in the heavens. There's no higher court of appeal that we can appeal to, and there's no higher court of appeal that can overturn God's answers and God's decisions. Beloved, when we come to pray, remember that God is exalted. He is your heavenly Father. He's our heavenly Father, enthroned in the heavens. You and I must approach Him confidently, with respect and with care and with assurance That God will hear us and God does hear us when we come to pray number Remember number one that God is exalted and number two that God is omniscient. He knows Everything about us and about our circumstances even before we can pray Prayer is first of all all about God Well now, we come to Jesus' first three petitions in his model prayer there, and he says there, Those three opening petitions are, again, absolutely God-focused, aren't they? They have nothing to do with us! He starts off and he says, listen, look, let's change our focus. Let's stop thinking about what we need and what we want. Let's turn it and look up to God. And we pray, first of all, for the hallowing of God's name and the coming of God's kingdom and the doing and the accomplishing of his will. The first thing we need to remember in prayer is not us. We need to forget ourselves and think first of God. That's what Jesus is showing us. And think about our own prayer life. Think about how the last time you spent some time before the Lord in prayer, what was the first thing that you were looking for from God? What's the first thing that came out of your mouth? Father, I need this, and I need, I want that. And Father, you know, I really need that over here. And, and, oh, but it's okay. I'm not praying for myself. I'm praying for other people. You know, Father, you need to do this for that person over there. And all of our focus is very much down here. And even though we're praying, we're asking for each other. That's not a bad thing. Don't misunderstand. But Jesus puts a priority in place and says, first of all, First of all, we pray, and the first thing we ask for is the hallowing of God's name, and so on. We need to forget ourselves and think less of ourselves and more of God. So later in the next four petitions after that, verses 11 down to 15, those things talk about what we need. Give us this day our daily bread, forgive us our debts, and lead us not into temptation, and so on. All those things are there, speaking about us. But our first priority is to consider the things that God would have us to pray for. First, and we'll look at just this one this morning, first we pray for the glory of God's name. Notice what he says in Matthew 6 and verse 9, hallowed be your name. The first thing we must understand is what Jesus meant by saying, your name. What does he mean by that? In our Western world, names are chosen in honor of someone else we know, maybe in a sense of a popular usage. When I was a kid, girls came into my class and every second girl knew his name, Jennifer. I don't know, it was just a popular name in 1969. People were naming kids Jennifer. Don't ask me why, but it was. Today you see different names coming up that are common. We were talking just before, Tiff and a few of us, about names for babies and how all the old names are being brought back and reused. Elsie and Laura and all these older names. And we thought, isn't it interesting how names get sort of revolved around in cycles and certain names get popular and certain names come and go. But you know, in the Bible times, people were named differently. In the ancient Eastern world, names were chosen to represent what the parents hoped for their child in terms of action or lifestyle or accomplishments. For example, the way that Jesus is named. Remember this scene? Joseph is there and he's having a dream, and the angel comes and tells him what's happening with Mary, and the angel says this in Matthew 1.21, She, that's Mary, will bear a son, and you shall call his name Jesus, For He will save His people from their sins. The name Jesus is directly related to what He will do. His name literally means Savior, right? Joshua is the same word in the Old Testament as Savior. And so if we were to give Jesus His names and what they mean, we would call Him Savior the Anointed. That's what His names mean. Jesus Christ. Jesus means Savior, and Christ means anointed by the Spirit of God, or with the Spirit of God. So the names are very much related to who they are and what they're about, what they do. So a name describes the person and their character and their word. The second thing you have to understand is what Hallowed Be means. It's the word Haggad's Thetho, and it's an aorist passive imperative verb. And you say, who cares what an imperative passive verb means? It doesn't matter, right? Well, it's actually a really cool verb, and it actually describes something very interesting. What the verb means is the person doing the asking is asking the listener to do an action to the asker. So he's saying, listen, Hallowed Be Your Name is asking God to make His name holy in the asker's life. You get it? So when I say, Hallowed Be Your Name, oh God, I'm asking God to do something in my life. I'm asking God to make His name holy in my life. Okay. The one praying is asking for God to act and do those things. So you put those two things together, the meaning of Jesus name and what hell would be means. And what Jesus is saying is this father, bring us all to the right attitude before you in light of who you are and what you have done. Father, bring us. to an attitude of reverence before the living God on the basis of who he is and what he has done. So stop and think about it just for a second, who consider God's person. God is our heavenly father, the almighty, all-knowing, all-present, unchanging, solitary, sovereign, thrice holy, three persons in one. That's who God is in a nutshell. And you stop and go back and unpack all those different attributes. And I'd love to spend about six months going through all the attributes of God and unpacking what they mean and all they describe about who God is. And what we're saying is, listen, hallowed be your name, hallowed be who you are in my life. We stop and allow those things, almighty. all-knowing, all-present, sovereign, thrice holy, all those things, and the awe-inspiring truth about who God is in his person. And the second thing is considering God's work. Think about God's work in your life. God is our creator. Created you. If God didn't create you, you ain't here. It's as simple as that. God created you. He sustains you. The very fact that you're still walking around, your heart is beating, and your brain is working, and you're upright, and all the rest of it, is because God is sustaining you. God is a creator, a sustainer. He redeemed you. He's a great prophet. He spoke all of scripture. He's a great high priest. He was the one who died in our place. He's the King of kings and Lord of lords. He's the only wise judge, and He is the one who rules in unapproachable light. Now you put those two things together, God's person and God's work and the things he is, and you say, listen, Father, hallowed be your name. Make your name glorious and holy in my life. You say, what does that actually look like? Our prayer should be, Father, make me to revere you and be in continual awe of who you are. What's it look like? If God's name is holy in my family, then we as a family will choose to do the things that honor and please and show respect for God. If God's name is holy in my work life, then I choose not to do the things that displease and dishonor the name of my God. And that will also reflect to others around me the place of God in my life. So when I'm praying, hallowed be your name in my life, I'm saying, hallowed be your name in my work life. So God is revered and respected in my work life. Everything I do, I do in light of the fact that who he is and what he's done. If God is revered and respected in my personal life, every decision I make, every contemplation, everything I'm thinking about doing, I'm doing in light of the fact that God is holy. I'm doing everything in light of the fact that God is sovereign and almighty and all-knowing and all those other things. I keep in the back of my mind, or actually better yet, I keep right in the front of my mind who God is, and that affects and influences every decision I make, every activity I engage in. What I'm saying is that when we pray and ask that God's name be hallowed in my life, there's also an expectation on my part that I will strive to do what I'm able to do to make His name holy in my life. What it means that every thought, every activity, every scenario must be considered as to whether it will make God's name greater or lesser in my life. So our prayer life must begin with the Father making your name holy in my life, in my personal life, my marriage, my family, my work life, my friendships, my relationships, all those things. I'm praying that God's name will be holy in every aspect of my life. It just kind of occurred to me standing here. Wouldn't it be interesting if we changed our prayer life and began to pray that way, how many of the things that we would later ask for, we wouldn't ask for anymore? How much would that affect and influence the things that we're asking for God from God in prayer? If we first of all said, God, make your name holy in my life. I think it would change a lot of the things, the way we live. It would change the way we think. It would change the way we relate to each other. And all of a sudden, a lot of those prayer requests would almost become, I hate the word, but irrelevant, because they would change on their own. And God would work in us to change us, and we wouldn't ask the same things. The reason why I said our first desire in prayer is for the glory of God's name is because when men revere and respect God as holy, that glorifies his name, that reflects God's glory to everyone around us. God's first desire is for the glory of his name. Our first thought and first petition to God in prayer must also be for the glory of God's holy name in my life, in every aspect of my life. Until the question comes up, isn't it? Is God's name holy in my life? And I'll throw the question right back at you. Is God's name holy in your life? You're thinking about all the things that you're doing in your life, all the different relationships, your work, your school, whatever it is, your friendships. The relationship you have with your boyfriend or your girlfriend or your fiancé or whatever it is, is that relationship reflecting the glory and the holiness of who God is? It's a question for all of us to consider on our own, face to face with the living God. Prayer is all about God. When we pray, we must remember that God is omniscient. He knows everything. He knows what we need before we even ask for it. We must strive through the words of scripture and the leading of the Holy Spirit to pray for the things that God desires to give us, so that when He does, we will recognize His hand in it. Prayer is secondly all about God, and we must remember that God is exalted. He is enthroned in the heavens. He is exalted and must be approached confidently, but not carelessly. Thirdly, prayer is all about God. Our first desire in prayer must be that God's name is hallowed, is made holy in our marriages, our families, our church, our homes, our workplaces, our personal lives, everywhere. God's first desire, when he said to teach us, taught us how to pray, he said, hallowed be your name. Before we talk about your needs, before we talk about your wants, before we talk about your problems and issues, my first desire in your life is that my name might be holy. Is that the desire of our hearts? I would challenge us all. To me, going through this study has been tremendously challenging and convicting and changing about the way I pray. And I'm asking you the same thing. They stop and think long and hard about how you pray, to read what Jesus is saying there about prayer, and be challenged about the way you approach a living God. Do we approach him carelessly and haphazardly, with far too familiarity, forgetting for a moment that he is the living God of the ages, the almighty God of the ages? Would you stand with me? I'm going to pray and then Grant's going to come and lead us in communion. Our gracious God and heavenly father, we give you thanks this morning for the Lord Jesus Christ. And Father, we thank you for what he taught us when he taught the disciples how to pray. And Father, we would first of all remember that you are the all-knowing God. You know exactly what we need, even before we ask. Father, you know our hearts. You know the motivation, the attitude in our hearts before we pray. Father, you know every detail about us. But Father, we pray and we come before you. We pray because first of all, it is obedience to pray. Jesus commanded us to pray. Father, Jesus spent and gave us an example in prayer, and he prayed often to you. And Father, we realize also that when we pray, you are waiting and longing to give us the things that you want for us to have. And Father, just thinking about that and thinking about the very first request, hallowed be your name. And it is your desire, oh God, to make your name holy in our lives. And Father, we plead with you that we would be a people of God who are looking to glorify and make your name holy in everything we do, in our relationships, Father, in our workplace, in our homes, in our families, in our marriages, Father, it is our desire to make Your name holy in those places. And Father, we would agree with Jesus, and we would join with Him, and we would say, Father, hallowed be Your name. Father, we pray for this church. We pray, O God, that you would make your name holy in every person's life in this church and in our church life. Father, we pray that we would have a passion and a desire for the glory and the holiness of your name. Father, John read us that scripture about whatever we do, we do all to the glory of God. The glory of God is reflecting the holiness of your name to those around us, that they would see the glory of who you are. Father, we cry out to you for this church, that you would revive us again according to your word. Father, we cry out to you too for this community around us, that you would revive this community, that you pour out your spirit on this community. And Father, you would revive it according to your word. And Father, we pray that you would bring many souls from this area into the kingdom of God, that you would increase your kingdom around this little church. Father, we ask you these things and we give you thanks and we pray in Jesus name, Amen. Grant.