So Matthew chapter 6, this evening we're going to read verses 9 to 15. And as we continue on with where we left off this morning, that we are looking at the Lord's Prayer. And this morning we looked at the address of how Jesus instructs us to address the Father, or to address our God. And a couple things that we saw there is that, or remind, let me remind us a couple things in Matthew 6, that it says that we are praying to an audience of one. It's about God. It's not about us. It's not about others. And so when we pray, we're praying to God and to God alone. And that He's the one that rewards. Secondly, this morning we also had said that we pray in community, that the word are invites us or reminds us that we're not alone in this. And that we are part of a community, the body of Christ as we pray. And then secondly, that we can pray with boldness because God reigns and he owns it all. And so we ask boldly and we ask as a child coming to the father, asking our father to move and to work. So, this afternoon, or this evening, excuse me, we're going to look at this first petition. But let us read verses 9-15, so we'll have the whole context before us here. Beginning in verse 9. 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 also have 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 and ask God to give us wisdom and help us to understand this passage this morning. Let's pray. Father, we do thank you that you are our God. We thank you that this is your word that you have given to us to teach us, to instruct us. Would you help us this morning as we seek to learn and know, Father, when we pray this prayer, what we are asking, what our requests are before you. Lord, would you give us eyes to see your truth, ears to hear, hearts and minds to comprehend. Holy Spirit, would you teach us. In Jesus' name, amen. You know, when you hear names like Michael Jordan, or Jeremy Pruitt now at Tennessee, or Nick Saban, who are, what are those guys? What do you think about them? Or what do you, what's your, what's the, well, actually, do you even know who they are? Yeah, some of them do. Why? Because they're famous in some way. They've done something that's caused them to get attention. That's caused us to, as people, to recognize them. In fact, some have argued that Nick Saban is perhaps the greatest coach in the modern college world today. For Tennessee fans, the hope is Jeremy Pruitt's going to be the next guy that does that, right? I'm not a Tennessee fan, confession. But, please forgive me. But, you know, as we think of that, as we look at this first petition, the first petition here draws our attention to something very specific. It draws our attention to God. It's who it's all about. It draws our attention that we are to focus upon God, that He's the one to be praised, to worship, and glorified in heaven and on earth. You know, as we look at this first, and again, next week we're gonna look at the other two requests here in this first, the God-focused portion of the Lord's Prayer. But these first three requests are God-centered, they're God-focused. The opening of the Lord's Prayer starts with our address showing the relationship that we have, the privileged relationship that we have, followed by these three requests, hallowed be your name, your kingdom come, your will be done. All of these, we could, I know at the end, in our passage, at the end of it says, in heaven, in heaven as it is on earth, I'm sorry, on earth as it is in heaven. I'll get it right. But really, as we look at each of those three requests, all of them could have that at the end of it. that that's what we're asking. How be your name on earth as it is in heaven right now? That's what we're asking. And as we think of names, what do names mean today? I mean, sometimes we have meanings that we'll name our kids, particular names, maybe it's a family name, but a lot of times we just name our kids, don't we? Just whatever name we like at the moment or whatever's popular. But in the Old Testament, When a name was given, it had meaning. Think of Adam. Adam named Eve, the mother of all living, because he heard the promise. And in the midst of the curse, He heard God promising that there would be one that would be born of the woman, the seed of the woman that would crush the serpent's head. Eve names her son Cain, that she's acknowledged that with the help of the Lord, the Lord finally, or the Lord provided a man or provided a child. Or we look at Abraham and Hagar and, sorry, yeah. Abraham and Hagar that that Hagar if you remember she was mistreated and so she ran and God God told her that her son would be Ishmael which means God hears That God hears and sees her her mistreatment Or what about Isaac? What was his name? What did his name mean? He laughs. Why? Because Sarah laughed when God again promised that she was going to have a child in such an old age. So names have meaning that represent the person or something about the person, the character, and the authority. God's name, Yahweh, I am who I am, points to his person, to his character, to his authority. And so this petition that we look at here this morning, or this evening, is in the imperative mode. It's a command, it's a wish, or it's a request. And it is that we are requesting or wishing that God's name would be hallowed. Hallowed has the meaning to be sanctified, that is to be or become as dedicated to God either in distinctness or otherness, in devotion or in moral purity. It also can have the meaning of being set apart, as sacred, to make holy, to consecrate. to purify, to cleanse. And so this petition for God's name to be hollowed cannot be a prayer that God would be more holy because He's already holy. He's infinitely holy. And so it's referring to or pointing to His otherness, His distinctness, that He's set apart. He's majestic. He's perfect. He's incomparable to any other creature. Holiness is not just one of His attributes, but it affects all of His attributes. His holiness represents His essential nature. It is what makes Him God. It's what makes Him who He is. Holiness, His otherness, distinction, His set-apartness affects every one of His attributes. So He's infinitely holy. He's infinitely loving. He's infinitely all-powerful, almighty, righteous, infinitely majestic. His distinctiveness helps us, as we comprehend His holiness and this otherness, distinctiveness, that helps us understand His attitude towards sin, His hatred, and His wrath, that He has to oppose it. In fact, as we think of the prophet Isaiah, what is his first words when he comes in to seeing God? Holy, holy, holy is the Lord God Almighty. I'm a cursed man. And so it reminds us that God has set apart, that He's distinct, He's unique. And so when we pray, when we pray our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name on earth as it is in heaven, what are we asking? We're asking that God would cause His name to be reverenced, honored, and glorified. So let's look at each of these right there. We're asking that God would cause His name to be reverenced. This first petition balances what we talked about this morning with our intimate relationship with God, that yes, He's our Father, but we come to him like a child, a child who respects his authority, who respects his father. When we are asking or when we say that we're asking God to make his name reverence throughout all the earth, that he is reverence, whether we like, whether we acknowledge or not, but really what we're asking is that God would cause all to come and to reverence his name. to acknowledge him. Reverence has the meaning of respect. Respect felt or shown, a state of being revered, reverend, especially profound, adoring, or odd respect. This petition leads us to acknowledge that God is God. His name points to who he is, not just what we call him. That he is above all, he transcends all. That he's great, he's majestic, he is worthy of our reverence, he's worthy of our praise. Now when we truly understand who God is, we will fear Him, we will reverence Him. Proper fear does not lead us to be paralyzed or scared. Rather, it leads us to be in awe of who He is. Awe coupled with trust that He is our Father. Awe meaning that it's coming, meaning that it's being awestruck. that we're in awe of how great and grand He is and what He's done for us, coupled with trust, because we see that we don't have to run from Him. Instead, we can trust Him because of what He's done in and through His Son. So as we properly fear Him, reverent Him, we give Him the respect and praise He deserves. And as we think of our world, how does our world disrespect or not reverent God? What are some ways? Yeah, I mean, it does. In fact, Romans 1 talks about that they choose to not acknowledge Him. Almost as if they just ignore that He's there and they go their own way. And He's given them over to it. What about His name? How does our world use the name? God's name. How often do we hear it? Does it bother us? Have we gotten so used to it that we don't think much about it? Rebelling against Him and His ways. You know, how do we as believers disrespect or not reverend His name? One of the things that I find myself at times is not trusting Him. Not trusting Him. Oh, you mean, or you might say, oh, I trust Him, then why do we seek to control it all? Why when we're in difficult situations can we not sit back and just say, God's in control? Because there's something in us that deep down we know that if we can just control it, we can make the outcome be what we want it to be. Again, what we're pointing to here is that this is not reverend His name, trusting Him. Being in awe, knowing that He's in control. In fact, there may be times in our lives where something happens and we may not verbally say it, but we, in our heads, think and take his name in vain. We need to repent and ask God forgiveness. Or perhaps we're in that difficult situation, and instead of trusting him, we find ourselves saying, why me, God? Why does this have to happen? So one way we can reference Reverend his name is when we're in those difficult places, to trust him, to praise him through it, even though it's difficult. When difficult times come, where do we run? Where's the first place we run? Usually it's to our friends or to others or somebody that will show us sympathy. But really, where should we run? To our father. trusting Him, laying it before Him. To reverent God is to acknowledge His name, who He is, and be in awe of Him while we trust Him in all things. The first and third commandment remind us that we are to worship and praise Him alone, to reverent Him alone, to not misuse His name. The positive of that is to praise and exalt His name. Psalm 99 verses 3, 5, and 9, they say this. Let them praise your great and awesome name. Holy is he. Exalt the Lord our God. Worship at his footstool. Holy is he. Exalt the Lord our God. Worship at his holy mountain. For the Lord our God is holy. Back in the winter when it was still snowing, I got this random text from one of the guys that I know, and in it he was just talking about how he was looking outside the window and it was snowing, and it just struck him of God's creation. And he just found himself being in awe of God. I mean, how many times have we seen God's creation or a beautiful picture or a sunset and has it taken us to that point of being, wow, look at God's creation. Look at this beautiful sunset or sunrise. Now this petition, what we're asking is that God would cause all of us to be awestruck and that it would lead us to reverence Him. That it would lead us to worship Him and to praise Him. And so when we pray, hallowed be your name, do we realize that we're asking him to cause his name to be known, reverenced as it is in heaven as well as it is on earth. Sorry, still saying that wrong. Excuse me. Do we realize that we're asking God to cause his name to be known, to be reverenced on earth as it is in heaven? and praying, Hallowed be your name, we're asking God to cause His name to be revered and asking Him to be honored. You know, when we say this, this petition also teaches us that God's name, His person, is to be honored. Being honored should be our first concern in our prayers. That when we are to honor Him as He is worthy of honor and praise. You know, why do we honor someone? What do we do when we do that sometimes? Usually it's acknowledging them, bringing them up front, or maybe it's a plaque. Maybe it's a bridge or a building that's named after them. You know, part of hallowing God's name is to honor God. Jesus is teaching us to pray that God would cause his name, his being, his person to be honored by all. Why should we honor God? for who He is. Exodus 3.14 where Moses is meeting with God in the burning bush and God is sending him back to Egypt. And his question to God is, who shall I say sent me? And God gives him Yahweh, His name, His covenantal name. I am who I am. That He is the creator of all things. That everything in the world that we see and don't see, He spoke into existence. He controls all things. He has power, authority. He has majesty. You know, we also honor Him for what He's done. When we think of the gospel, that He has given us salvation. He sent Jesus. He's redeemed us. He did this because of His grace and mercy. We did nothing. We brought nothing to the table. We didn't deserve it. But He gave us Jesus. and He's redeemed us. So as believers, He gave us a new heart. So it's natural for us to honor Him because of all that He's done and who He is. You know, when we recite the Lord's Prayer, this phrase, how be your name, we're asking God to cause His name to be honored throughout the earth. That all the people would have an attitude that acknowledges and honors His name, His person. You know, when we tell others about Christ, and all that He's done, along with what He's done for them, and all that can be theirs through faith in Christ. We are bringing honor to His name, inviting others to do the same. As God brings people to Himself, He's causing them to honor Him. You know, how do we honor God? What are some ways that we can do that? One, by obeying Him, loving Him, and loving others. Believing in the promises. Trusting His Son. Confess and repent of our sins. Name them, acknowledging our failures, our mess-ups, and believing in His promises. You know, recently there was a gentleman that at General Assembly gathered a lot of people together, teaching elders to fellowship together. In fact, he apparently had done this for several years, but about six weeks before General Assembly, he had a massive heart attack and passed away. And his family, you know, it was all sudden and everything, but his family still wanted to honor what he had been doing and trying to gather these ruling elders and teaching elders at General Assembly, and so they continued to do that. But, you know, here's the thing. When we think of why were they honoring him? Because he was trying to do something good. You know, when we think about God, what has he done? He spoke everything in existence. He redeemed you and I. He gave us Jesus. There's so much that we, and so much reason that we have to honor Him. Because He's done so much for us. And when we really gather our grasp, just how forgiven that we really are, we're gonna run after Him with all that we have and all that we are. We're gonna honor Him. So in asking God's name to be hallowed, we're asking God's name, His person to be reverenced, honored, and then lastly, to be glorified. Ultimately, asking God to call His name, His being, His person to be hallowed is asking God to call all of creation to glorify God on earth as it is done in heaven. Heaven's the model. You know, as you think of when Moses was building the tabernacle, where did he get the pattern or the plan? In Exodus, God. It was modeled after what God had allowed him to see in heaven. That he got it from, he got the model from God. And so heaven is the already. God is glorified as he, God is glorified in heaven already. He's glorified here, but again, as we were talking about this morning with the already, not yet. Is that, that it's not as it will be when Christ returns. that He is praised, He is exalted as the King of kings, the Lord of lords, God above all gods. And one day we will experience it in the same way that it is experienced in heaven. In Isaiah 6, we get the picture of Isaiah's experience of the heavenly throne room. Now recall what he says, holy, holy, holy. He saw, he experienced God's otherness. And he cries, holy, holy is the Lord God Almighty. Or Paul, what does he say in 1 Corinthians 10, verse 31? Whatever you do, whether you eat or drink, do it for the glory of God. John 12, verse 28, the Son being lifted up, Jesus asked God to glorify His name. And the Father answered, I have glorified it and will glorify it again. Or Westminster's Shorter Catechism, question number one says, what is the cheap end of man? The chief end of man is to glorify God and enjoy Him forever. John Piper is famous for this quote, that God is most glorified in us when we are most satisfied in Him. What does he mean by that? What's he saying or what's he telling us? That here's the point. That when we find pleasure and satisfaction in seeking God, in seeking for God's name to be made hallowed, that is reverenced, honored, glorified, He is most glorified in us. that when we exalt Him instead of ourselves, He's glorified, and we find our true satisfaction as we are doing what He's created us to do, to praise our Creator, to worship our Father in heaven. So this petition here, as we think of glorifying God, is that we are to tell others of what He's done. that we are to give him the credit. And I remember in high school, one of the running backs that we had was really, really good and made a lot of the newspapers. And so he's always getting interviewed by the media. But the interesting thing is that he would always give credit to somewhere else. He'd always talk about whether the linemen up front had to block. They had to do this. The quarterback had to do this. You know, as we think of all the blessings that we have, as we think of all the things that God does for us, do we give credit where credit is due? Do we glorify God and that he's the one that has given it to us? That he's the one that has provided it for us? You know, as we As we go out into this world, one way that we can glorify God is telling others about Him. In fact, I have a friend that is selling this product and what she does is she tells how it's going to benefit us. That this product is going to change your life. It's going to make you lose weight. It's going to make your wrinkles go away. It's going to do this. All these things of just how great this product is and therefore you should buy it. or join her team and sell it with her. You know, we've got the greatest gift of all in Christ. And we can bring God glory or be part of God being glorified as we give that gift to others, as we share the gospel, as we tell others of who Christ is, what he's done, what he's done for you, for me, what he's done for them, and then invite them to respond. Do the best that we can to articulate it, but leave the results to Him for Him to draw the person to Christ. You know, as we think of our prayers, when we pray God's name would be known, that all the people here in this community and state would come to know Him and respect Him and fear Him. to be amazed at Him, at who He is, what He's done, leading us to trust Him and to trust His promises. You know, as we pray the Lord's Prayer, that prayer, how be your name? That's what we're asking. God, your name is great already. Regardless if we acknowledge or not, but would you make it great? Would you make all people come to know you? To acknowledge you to reverence you in honor and glorify you let's pray Father we thank you that you are our God. We thank you that you have given us your word Lord we thank you that you use people to Take your message to the ends of the earth. And so father we ask that your name would be hollowed. I that all the earth would acknowledge you, would glorify you, honor you, and reverence you. Help us, Father, as we live each day, Father, to seek to honor you in all that we do. In Jesus' name, amen.