Hallowed Be Thy Name

If you have a Bible and you want to read it with me, or you know it by heart, let’s all read together out loud or say it together as we did last Sunday, the Lord’s Prayer beginning at verse 9 down to verse 13.

“After this manner therefore pray ye: Our Father, which art in heaven, hallowed be Thy Name. Thy kingdom come, Thy will be done in earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread. And forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors. And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil. For Yours is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory for ever. Amen.”

We find ourselves with Christ in the school of prayer. And in Luke 11, where you find the Lord’s Prayer, it starts with the disciples asking Jesus a question. They said to Jesus, “Would you teach us to pray?” Even as John—that’s John the Baptist—taught his disciples to pray. So that petition, that request, resulted in what Jesus gave us as the Lord’s Prayer. It’s not really the Lord’s Prayer. It’s a pattern for prayer. It’s the disciples’ prayer in which Jesus gives us a pattern and the priority of a true prayer is what it’s all about. But our prayer, as we study this together on Sunday morning is, “Lord, teach us to pray.”

Now let me give you the pattern that Jesus lays out in this Lord’s Prayer. I want you to notice that in verse 9 it starts with God’s person. Prayer starts with God. “Our Father, which art in heaven, hallowed by Thy Name.” The priority of prayer is God Himself. Now a little footnote I want you to notice. Who are we praying to? “Our Father.” We’re not praying to the saints, we’re not praying to angels, we’re not praying to any man who could mediate for us. We’re praying to God. Nowhere in the Bible do we learn, or are taught, or are instructed, or have an example of anyone praying to a saint, or anyone praying to other than God. True prayer is to God, through the Son in the power of the Holy Spirit. True prayer is Trinitarian by nature. We go directly to God through the agency and work of His Son and the power of and energy and direction that the Holy Spirit gives. So all three persons in the Godhead are involved when we pray.

Then the prayer moves secondly, verse 10, to God’s program. It says in verse 10, “Thy kingdom come, Thy will be done in earth as it is in heaven.” Now there are three first petitions: “Hallowed be Thy Name, Thy kingdom come, and Thy will be done.” And we’ll be looking at each one of those consecutively on Sunday morning.

But the first three petitions, the first half of the prayer, is all about God. God’s Name is hallow, God’s kingdom is coming, and His will being done. That should be reflected when we pray. Do you pray to your Father, your “Abba,” Who is in heaven? Is it a relationship? And by the way, only those who have been born again, regenerated by the Holy Spirit, have this access to God and can come to God through prayer. Does your prayer reflect this priority of God: “May Your Name be hallowed, may Your kingdom come, and may Your will be done in my life,” even as it is in heaven?

And so the program of prayer moves then, thirdly, to verse 11, to the provision of prayer. Not until God is hallowed, His kingdom comes, His will is done do we begin to pray for our needs, verse 11. “Give us this day our daily bread.” God wants to provide for you. Did you know that? You know why? ‘Cause He’s your Father. That’s what fathers do. And He loves you, and He cares about you. And He has all the resources available to take care of you. You need to trust Him. You need to rest in Him.

So it starts with God’s person, moves to God’s program and then the provision, God’s daily bread that we need. And then fourthly it moves to God’s pardon. “Forgive us our debts.” Notice in verse 12, “Forgive us our debts,” which is sin, “as we forgive those who are our debtors,” or who have sinned against us. Your Father in heaven loves you, and He will forgive you. So He will provide for your needs, and He will forgive your sins.

And then fifthly and lastly, we will have God’s protection. We have God’s person, verse 9, God’s program, verse 10, God’s provision, verse 11, God’s pardon, verse 12, and God’s protection, verse 13. “Lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil” or the evil one. Why? Because “Yours is the kingdom, and Yours is the power, and Yours is the glory forever. Amen.”

But today we come to the first petitions. The priority of prayer being God—and I want you to notice it in verse 9—“Hallowed be Thy Name.” So this is the priority of prayer: God’s Name being hallowed. Spirazodiates, in his excellent book on the Lord’s Prayer, says “’Hallowed by Thy Name’ is placed first, because the Lord wanted us to see that the primary thing that we are to seek in our prayers is not the satisfaction of our personal needs but the exhibition of God’s holiness. We must adore God in the inner man before we can seek the supply of the needs of the outer man.” Now we don’t usually do that. We usually rush right in to the presence of God and say, “Bread. In Jesus’ Name.” Or we say, “caviar” or “steak.” “A fillet mignon. In Jesus’ Name.”

Now there are exceptions to this pattern for prayer. You don’t always have the time to start off “Our Father which art in heaven. Hallowed be Thy Name. Thy kingdom come, Thy will be done.” If you’re in an auto accident, you don’t have time to say, “Our Father which art in heaven.” It’s like, it’s already over. Remember when Peter was walking on the water and he started to sink? He didn’t have time to say, “Our Father which art in heaven. Hallowed be Thy Name.” [bubble, bubble, bubble] Davey’s locker here I come. Talk about kingdom come, he’s going to be in the kingdom if—He doesn’t have time. One of my favorite prayers in the Bible—Peter’s sinking and what do you say? “Lord, save me!” How many times have I prayed that. “Lord, save me! Whoa!” Last winter when it was raining real hard, I was driving with a guy on the freeway, and I was sitting shotgun, and he was driving. And you know, guys don’t want to tell other guys how to drive and slow down. They’re a little dangerous. Well, macho. Like this dude’s going way too fast, you know. Like, “I ain’t going to say nothin’. I ain’t going to say nothin’.” And the person hit the brakes in front of us and [wooo, wooo], and we’re sliding and—we’re two passengers—and we prayed. But it wasn’t “Our Father which art in heaven. Hallowed be Thy Name.” At that time it’s “God! Save us!” Whoa! We actually slid by the cars that stopped in front of us sideways down the freeway. It was, “Whew! Thank you Jesus!” I actually prayed in tongues right then. Like “Wow! That was crazy!” And after it was over, I looked at him and said, “Dude, you should slow down a little bit.” So, “Okay. Okay.” You don’t always have time to pray the Our Father. It’s just, “Lord, save me! Lord, help me!”

But the general rule is to pray, “Hallowed be Thy Name. Thy kingdom come, Thy will be done.” And not praying those exact words, but as we delve into this we’re going to discovery what it means to hallow God’s Name and how we hallow God’s Name. This is a two-point sermon. There’s going to be a lot of sub points, but I got a lot of main questions I want to ask about this phrase, “Hallowed be Thy Name.” Number one, what does it mean? And number two, how does it happen? What does it mean and how does it happen?

Let’s look first of all at what does it mean. What does the word “hallowed” mean? It’s an old English word we don’t use much anymore, but I discovered in studying this that Abraham Lincoln used it in his Gettysburg Address. When he talked about the “hallowed ground”—we would hallow the ground—where the soldiers had died in the Civil War. In our phrase “Halloween,” we use the little word: hallow ween, All Hallow’s Eve. And it means literally—write this down—it means “to sanctify, to revere, to set apart as holy.” Or I like “to treat as holy.” Someone has paraphrased it: “Let your Name be treated as holy.” I like that. So what does it mean to “hallow” God’s Name? It means that we set it apart. The word “sanc” “sanctify” “holy.” “Hagios” in the Greek. All translated differently, but all coming from the same root word that means “to set apart as holy.” We’re meeting right now in the “sanctuary.” Same phrase as “hallowed.” This is “hallowed ground.” This is holy ground. This meeting place, this sanctuary—I don’t like to call the place the church meets the “auditorium.” I like to call it the “sanctuary,” because it reminds us why we’re here. We’re setting ourselves apart to worship God, to hear His Word. Amen? You’re in the sanctuary today. This is a place that is holy, set apart for God. We don’t play Bingo in here. We don’t play basketball in here. Now those things are okay, but not in this place. This is a sanctuary, set apart for God and the worship of God. So what we want is God’s Name to be hallowed or sanctified or set apart as holy.

But the second thing we need to ask is, “What does it mean?”—God’s Name. So holy or hallowed, sanctify Your Name. But what does the word “Name” mean? The little phrase there in verse 9, “Thy Name.” Important we understand that. It’s God’s nature and God’s character. It’s who God is in His essence. John Stott in his commentary on the Lord’s Prayer said, “The Name of God is not a combination of the letters g, o and d. The name stands for the person who bears it, for his character, his activity. So God’s Name is God Himself, as He is, in Himself and has revealed Himself.” Very important words: as He “has revealed Himself.” So God cannot be known apart from revelation. The only way that we can know God, whose name we want hallowed, is that God has chosen to reveal Himself. And what’s the primary, number one way God has chosen to reveal Himself? The B-i-b-l-e. Yes, that’s the book for me. Notice on your Bible it says, “Holy Bible.” Same word. “Hallowed be Thy Name.” You know the Bible is a holy book? It’s a holy book; it’s given by inspiration of God. It’s the only book in the entire universe—this blows me away to think about—it’s the only book on planet Earth, in the entire universe, that is actually the Word of God. All Scripture is given by inspiration of God. That word “inspiration” means “God breathed, God’s breath, God’s ruwach, God’s breath.” He spoke. And it literally means “breathed out.” All Scripture is given by the breath of God. And then Peter says, “Holy men of God wrote as they were carried along by the Holy Spirit.” Well you say, “I thought men wrote the Bible.” Well, they did, but they were carried by the Holy Spirit. They were borne along. My definition of Biblical inspiration is that God superintended the human authors, so that the very words that they wrote were the very words of God. Not the thoughts about God or the concepts of God but the very words of God. Why do we look at individual words when we study the Bible? Because every word is given by inspiration of God. It is God breathed.

And so the Word—the Bible—is where we learn about God, Whose Name we are to hallow. But the phrase “Thy Name” is a reference to God and His Nature and His character. In Proverbs 18:10, “The Name of the Lord is a strong tower.” I love that picture. The righteousness can run into it and be saved. In the ancient world when there was war, one of the most important things you could have is a tower. So you could run up into the tower, it was a fortress to protect you, to elevate you, you could shoot down at your enemy, but you were safe up in the tower. So God is a tower. He is a strong tower. So you can run to God, and when Satan is shooting his arrows at you, where do you go? You run to the tower. Amen? You run to God. And you hide yourself in God. And He is that strong tower that you can run to and be safe.

And Psalm 9:10 says these words, “And they that know Thy Name”—there’s that phrase again—“will put their trust in Thee.” The more you know God, the more you can trust God. The Scripture says that if we acquaint ourselves with God, we can be at peace. You know, I believe a lot of Christians are troubled today, because they don’t know their “Abba,” their Father in heaven. They don’t know how great He is, how awesome He is, how loving He is, how merciful He is. And when problems come, we’re afraid that God is not adequate or caring or able to take care of us. And they’re not really resting in their Father, Who is in heaven.

So this first petition is that God—His nature, His character—will be universally and perpetually held in reverence among men. Philip Keller, who wrote A Shepherd Who Looks at Psalm 23 also wrote an excellent book called The Layman Looks at the Lord’s Prayer. He says this about this statement, “May you be honored and reverenced and respected because of who you are. May your reputation, name, person, character be kept untarnished, uncontaminated, unsoiled. May nothing be done to debase or defame your name and you record.” He captures the spirit of that prayer: “God may You be honored, may You be respected, may You be glorified, may You be set apart as holy.” So it has the idea of treating God as holy and set apart.

Now here’s my second main point. I said I had two main questions. The first is “What does it mean?” It means that we set apart God as holy. We respect Him, we reverence Him. But how do we treat God’s Name as holy? Or how do we hallow God’s Name? If you’re taking notes, I’m going to give you four ways how we hallow God’s Name. My longest point is number one. Write this down. By recognition. By recognition. We must acknowledge who God is as He has revealed Himself in the Bible, Holy Scriptures. We must set God apart in our hearts, as well. 1 Peter 3:5 says, “Sanctify the Lord God in your hearts.” But how do I set Him apart in my heart? How do I hallow His Name? I get to know God in His Word. I’ve always said, and I still believe it, that one of the most important—any Christian study—that any Christian can undertake is simply a study of the nature, character and attributes of God. Sometimes people come to me and they’re troubled and upset and worried and they’re fretting. I say, “I want you to go home and I want you to study the attributes of God. I want you to acquaint yourself with God, and I want you to learn that He is a God that you can trust. He is a God that you can put your faith in. He is a strong tower that you can run to and be safe.” And if you don’t know your God, you cannot trust your God and be at peace. So how do we get to know Him? We get to know Him in His Word. We can’t hallow God’s Name if we don’t know who He is and what He is like.

Now if you’re taking notes, I’m going to peel through this, because it’s too long for me to tarry on every point, but I’m going to give you a little survey on the attributes of God. Now when we use that phrase, “attribute,” we’re saying that this is something that is attributed to God. That’s what an attribute is. These are truths attributed to God. This is God’s essential nature and character.

And the first I would draw from verse 9 in the Lord’s Prayer is that God is personal. He’s not an impersonal force. Now this is in opposition to what is known as “pantheism.” Pantheism is the idea that God is one with His creation: That God is the tree, that God is the sea and the lake and the clouds. God is the wind, and God is in the animals, and God is in the grass. That’s called “pantheism.” “Pan” meaning “all.” God is in everything. Years ago I was preaching in Santa Cruz, California. That’s one freaky place. Thank God I came back to Menifee—amen?—where people are normal. I love the beauty of Santa Cruz. I love the waves of Santa Cruz. But I was talking with some Santa Cruz people, sharing Christ with them. “Oh, I believe”—I couldn’t believe this one guy actually said, “Oh, I believe trees are just as important as people.” He said, “I believe that trees are no different than people. I believe the trees are God.” I thought, how sad. How sad. Now you can cry out all day to a tree, and it’s not going to hear you. It doesn’t have ears. So people take a piece of the tree and carve little ears on it, because they want their god to hear, but it can’t hear. They take a piece of the tree, and they carve little eyes on their god, but their god can’t see. They want their god to speak, so they carve a little mouth on their god, but their god can’t speak. Or carve little feet on their god, but their god can’t walk.

Our God, the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, the God of the Bible—He is the living God. He is a personal God. And the reason we use these human terms to describe God—and He doesn’t have actual ears or eyes; we’re gong to see God as a spirit—because we are conveying that God is personal. Why does Jesus say, “When you pray, say ‘Our Father’”? He didn’t say our “it.” “We come before you thou force.” Pray that we can be on the light side, not the dark side. “The force be with you.” When we say, “God be with you,” we’re talking about a Person who loves you and cares about you. And it isn’t just some cosmic force that is in the tree and is in the wind and in the river and in the sky. And that’s pantheism. And the Bible doesn’t teach that. The Bible tells us that when God spoke to Moses from the burning bush—and Moses actually asked Him; he asked, “What’s your name? When I go to Egypt, I have to tell them that somebody sent me. I can’t go to Pharaoh and say, ‘A burning bush sent me.’” And when God spoke out of the burning bush to Moses—which, by the way, He told him to take his sandals off, because “the ground you’re standing on is hallowed,” it’s holy. God is holy. God said, “You tell them ‘I Am that I Am.’” What kind of name is that? “I Am that I Am.” This is one of the most important, essential names of God. It speaks of God’s eternality, that God is eternal, that God is ever present, that God is all things—anything you need. “I Am that I Am.” So we’ve taken that name, and we’ve come up with the name “Jehovah” or “Yahweh.” We really don’t know how to pronounce that name, Yhwh, no consonant or vowels. So we come up with the name “Jehovah” or “Yehovah” to convey the name of the great “I Am.” And what does it mean? It means simply that God is whatever you need. So we have what is called the compound names of God: “Jehovah of host,” God is the host of angels; “Jehovah Shalom,” God is your peace; “Jehovah Jireh,”—one of my favorites—“Jehovah Jireh.” You know what that means? It means “God provides.” It literally means “God sees” and “God provides.” Or “Jehovah Shalom,” “the Lord, our peace.” Or “Jehovah Tsidkenu,” “the Lord, our righteousness.” And we all love Psalm 23, “the Lord is my”—what?—“Jehovah Raah” in the Hebrew. “Jehovah Raah.” “The Lord, my shepherd.” And the very next phrase, “I have everything I need.” Isn’t that cool? When the Lord is your shepherd and you are His sheep, He takes care of His sheep.

And then Jesus comes on the scene, and what does He say? “I Am.” When they were arresting Him in the garden—this could be a whole sermon in itself, so I gotta be quick here—when they were arresting Him in the garden and they said, “We’re looking for Jesus of Nazareth” and he stepped forth, and you know what Jesus said to them? He said, “I Am.” Wow! And they all fell back to the ground. If I were one of those soldiers that just got knocked to the ground just because He said, “I Am,” I’d say, “And I am outta here!” “You are, and I’m out! Have fun in the garden. Enjoy your garden stay.” Whew! And I’m out. Jesus said, “I Am the resurrection and the life.” Jesus said, “I Am the door. If anyone enters through Me, he will be saved.” Jesus said, “I Am the Bread of God, Who comes down from heaven. If a man eats of Me, he will never hunger. He will never thirst.” “I Am the resurrection and the life, and whoever lives and believes in Me shall never die.” He said, “I Am the way, the truth and the life, and no one comes to the Father except by”—what?—“by Me.” So all of the “I Am” statements are the names of God: I Am Jehovah and whatever you need. If you need peace, He’s your peace. If you need righteousness, He’s your Jehovah Tsidkenu. You need a banner—I love that—He’s “Jehovah Nissi,” “the Lord, my banner.” And He covers me. So whatever you need, God becomes. That’s the name of God; it is what He is.

Now let me rip through these other attributes. He not only is personal, He’s also spirit. Not material. John 4:24, “God is spirit, and they who worship Him must worship Him in spirit and truth.” He’s also one. This is what we call the unity of God. And this is in opposition to “polytheism.” Not pantheism, which is God is in the creation. But polytheism means that there are multiple gods. There are many gods. Did you know there is only one God? You can make it real simple. There is only one God. Deuteronomy 6:4, “Hear, oh Israel. The Lord”—Jehovah—“your God”—Elohim—“is one Lord”—Jehovah. There is only one Lord God. But He is also triune. This is in opposition to unitarianism. Well, you say, “What is unitarianism?” We have Unitarian churches. They don’t believe in the Trinity. Here’s a little footnote for you: If you deny the Trinity, you don’t have the God of the Bible. If you deny the Trinity, you don’t have the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. If you deny the Trinity, you don’t have Christianity. The Bible teaches one God—one person was stoked on that statement. See me after church and I’ll give you twenty dollars. Thank you for clapping. [clapping] I can’t afford to give you all twenty bucks. [Ha, ha] You know there’s so called evangelical Christians today who question the Trinity? You reject the Trinity, you have not God. “If any man have not the Son, he has not the Father.” If you reject the Son, you reject the Father. One God. One God. We’re monotheistic. But we’re trinitarian; one God, three Persons. God, the Father; God, the Son; and God, the Holy Spirit. We sing, “God in three Persons, blessed Trinity.” I love those words. And all through it Bible, it supports the idea of three Persons, one God. II Corinthians 13:14—I’ll just give you one—Paul speaks of “The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, the love of God and the communion of the Holy Spirit be with you.” All three Persons in the Godhead.

God is also eternal, God is sovereign, God is self-existent, God is infinite—means there’s no limit—He’s transcendent. The Bible says God knows everything. We call this the omniscience of God. I’ve met people who think they know everything, but they don’t. He knows everything perfectly. And you know what? God never learns anything. I know this is going to kind of blow a fuse in your brain. Wait a minute. God never learns anything. God never goes, “Wow!” God’s never like, “Wow! I didn’t know that.” Sometimes when we pray we’re informing God. Like, “Wow! I didn’t know that.” “Yeh, you do need my help.” God knows everything perfectly. He never learns anything. And He knows it in advance. There’s nothing outside of His knowledge. When you say, “God, do You know what’s going on here?” Yah, he knows what’s going on. “God, do You see what they said to me?” Yah, He sees.

He’s perfect in His knowledge. He is omniscient. He has all power, He’s omnipotent, He’s everywhere present. Every part of God is everywhere present all the time. Now those are attributes that man cannot possess. But there are attributes that God has that you and I can have. And this is how we hallow His name, if we are like God in these categories. God is love—I John 4:8—God is merciful, God is gracious, God is kind, God is compassionate, God is faithful, God is righteous and God is holy and God is unchanging. One of my favorite attributes of God is what theologians call the “immutability” of God. You know what that means? God doesn’t change. Guess what. Everything but God changes. You don’t believe me? Go home and look at your junior high annual. You were freaky looking. Look at your high school annual. Go to a high school reunion 40 years after you graduate. I mean, you won’t recognize anybody. It’s hard not to say, “Oh, no.” I’d better stop right there. I haven’t been to a reunion for high school in a long time, but the one I went to was freaky. It’s radical how things change.

God never changes. Everything I just told you about God: He’s eternal, He’s all knowing, He’s all powerful, His love, His grace, His mercy, His righteousness, His love—none of it will ever change. And when you come to your Abba and you pray to your Father, guess what? He’s not having a bad day. “Lord, is it okay to talk to you right now?” I mean, He’s never going to be bummed out or mad. Like, “No; come back later.” Because God never changes. I just love that about God.

But the one attribute by which God most wants us to understand Him—and this first petition in this prayer extols—is His holiness. God is Holy. When Isaiah the prophet was called to be a messenger to the nations—Isaiah 6—and he saw God sitting on the throne and the angels said, “Holy, Holy, Holy is the Lord God Almighty. The whole earth is full of His glory,” they didn’t sing, “Loving, loving, loving.” They didn’t sing, “Merciful, merciful, merciful.” They didn’t sing, “Kind, kind, kind.” They sang, “Holy, Holy, Holy.” And the attributes of God I just mentioned, and more, are all influenced by His holiness. His love is a holy love, His mercy is a holy mercy, His judgment is a holy judgment, His jealousy is a holy jealousy. Everything we know about God is founded on His holiness. And what does “holy” mean? Separated. It means that He’s separate from all other things; His creation, His creatures. And God is to be worshipped in His holiness. And we’re going to see in a moment that one of the ways we can hallow His Name is by living like Him; His love, His grace, His mercy, His holiness. When we live like God, which is what it means to be godly, then we are hallowing God’s Holy Name. So our recognition of who He is, as revealed in His Word, the Bible, is how we hallow God’s Name.

In the Decalogue, the Ten Commandments, Commandment number 3 is, “Thou shalt not take the…”—what?—“Name of the Lord in vain.” “You shall not take the Name of the Lord thy God in vain.” It’s talking about claiming to live for God and then living unlike God. You take God’s Name, and then you don’t live like God. And it’s not trusting Him for who He is.

Here’s number two: How do we hallow God’s Name? Not only by recognition, number one, but by number two, adoration. By adoration—write that down—by adoration, by worship. Psalm 99:3, “Let them praise Thy great and awesome Name, for it is Holy.” Psalm 99:5, “Exalt ye the Lord our God and worship at His footstool, for He is Holy.” We worship God for who He is, not for what He gives. We haven’t gotten to the daily bread yet, but what are we doing? We’re worshipping God. Try it sometime. Take a day, take two days, take a week, take a whole month and say, “I’m not going to ask God for anything. I’m just going to worship Him for who He is.” We worship God for who He is, not for what He gives us. Now we do respond to the goods things He does for us, but even apart from that. That’s why Job said, “Though He slay me, I will trust Him.” That’s why Job said, “He gives and He takes away. Blessed be the Name of the Lord.” God is worthy to be worshipped apart from the gifts that He gives. If God doesn’t heal you, will you still come to church on Sunday? If God doesn’t give you a job in your timeframe, making the money and where you want, will you still love God and worship God and serve God? If someone you love very dearly dies and God takes them home to heaven, will you still love God? Because He hasn’t changed; He’s immutable. He’s still worthy to be worshipped and praised. Will you still try to live a life that honors Him and hallows His Name? That’s what this first petition is all about. We worship God with our lips.

But here’s number three. First, recognition; second, adoration; and thirdly, proclamation. Proclamation. Oswald Sanders says this—and I love it—“This petition, ‘Hallowed be Thy Name,’ has missionary overtones. How can His Name be hallowed by people who have never heard it?” Good question. “A true hallowing of His Name will result in a passion to make His Name known to others.” Guess what? You cannot say, “Hallowed be Thy Name” and keep your lips tight. You need to share it with your family, about how Holy God is and who God is. You need to share the Gospel. You cannot pray, “Hallowed be Thy Name” and not tell your neighbors about who that God is. That you want reverence and respect it. You cannot say, “Hallowed be Thy Name” and not pray for missions and support missions or go on a mission trip or have a heart for people who have never heard that name to be saved. So it does have a missionary overtone. How can we as a church come on Sunday and pray, “Hallowed be Thy Name”? There are people in parts of the world right now that haven’t even heard the name, don’t know about God. I’ll never forget my first trip to China about 20 years ago. And I don’t speak Cantonese, and I couldn’t communicate. But some of the college students could speak English. And we were sharing with this young man out in the street, we’re passing tracks out in Chinese, and he started talking to us. He’d never heard the name “Jesus.” He’s never heard about God or even the concept of God and he’s never heard of the Bible. He had no clue. Now he had read Darwin, but he hadn’t read God’s Word. He was an atheist and evolutionist. And I think, “How can I pray ‘Hallowed be Thy Name’ when there’s people who haven’t heard His Name?” So it motivates me to get the word out; to pray, to give, to go. And “Lord, use this money to win someone to You who needs to hear that name. Lord, open my lips and help me to be a testimony and share the Gospel. Help me to be a witness that Your Name might be hallowed.” So we need to proclaim the name of Jesus.

But here’s my fourth and last way we hallow God’s name: by our actions. I’ve already alluded to that, but I want to make it very clear. By the way we live, our thoughts, our attitudes, our words and our actions can either hallow God’s Name or defame God’s Name. Have you every known somebody, “I’m a Christian. Yah, I believe in Jesus,” and then you watch the way they live and go, “I don’t know how you could be a Christian and live like that.” Now we can’t judge people’s hearts, but we can judge their behavior. “And what you’re doing is not Christ-like. What you’re doing is not holy. God is Holy. You claim to be a child of God, and you’re not living a holy life, then it doesn’t compute here.” If I pray, “Hallowed be Thy Name,” I need to live a life of holiness. In Titus 1:16, they professed that they know God, but in their works they deny Him.

Now in the context of this prayer—I want you to come back to this prayer, and I want you to look at it with me in your Bible. In the context of this Lord’s Prayer, how can I pray and live in such a way to hallow God’s Name? Let me point them out. Number one, we pray unselfishly. “Our”—verse 9—“Our Father.” I cannot say “our” if I live for myself. I cannot say, “Our Father” if I live selfishly.

Secondly, we pray reverently. He’s our Father who’s in heaven. If He’s my Father, I should live like a child of God. If He’s in heaven, I should live for eternity. If God is your Father and He’s in heaven, guess what? Heaven’s your real home. This world’s not your home. And you otta live under heaven’s Lord, under heaven’s laws, and you otta speak heaven’s language. People otta be able to say, “You’re a Christian; aren’t you?” “How did you know that?” “They way you talk, the way you treat people, the way you conduct your business. I figured out you’re a Christian.” So you are hallowing God’s Name by your very life.

But thirdly, we must pray worshipfully. It says, “Hallowed be Thy Name,” verse 9. I cannot pray “Hallowed be Thy Name” if I do not try to live a holy life, and I don’t worship God in the beauty of His Holiness.

And then fourthly, I must pray submissively. Notice verse 10, it’s “Thy kingdom” and “Thy will.” I must live in His kingdom, and I must live to do His will. What a travesty that we would say, “Thy kingdom come, Thy will be done” and then it’s like, “Okay, what do I want to do with my life, and how do I want to live my life. I don’t care what God says, but this is what I’m gonna do.” Then don’t pray that prayer. If I have to pray that prayer, I have to pray it submissively as well as respectfully and worshipfully.

And then fifthly, I must pray it dependently, verses 11, 12 and 13. I must pray that God would provide my bread every day. I must live in dependence on Him. I must pray that God will forgive my sins, and then, in turn, I will forgive those who have sinned against me. If you’re unwilling to forgive others, what makes you think God will forgive you? You know what the evidence is that you have been forgiven? Do you know what the evidence is that you have been forgiven? You are forgiving. You show me a person who is unwilling to forgive others who have hurt them, and I’ll show you a person who, at least he’s not living like a Christian. We come to the Cross to be forgiven; we stay at the Cross to learn to be forgiving. Anyone can forgive others as a Christian, because we have been forgiven so much. Until we pray, “Lord, forgive me my sins, as I have forgiven others who have sinned against me.” The two go together; we can’t have one without the other. So I live in dependence. “God, provide my bread, God, forgive my sins.” And then I pray dependently, “God, keep me from sin.”

Notice verse 13, “Lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil.” “God, deliver me from sin; deliver me from evil; deliver me from temptation.” Now, we’ll do a whole sermon on that petition, but you cannot pray—listen carefully—you cannot pray, “Lead me not into temptation,” if you willingly, deliberately go right into temptation. Say you’ve got a problem with alcohol, and you’re driving down the street, and there’s a saloon or bar or “Fuzzy Frog” or whatever they call it. There is no Fuzzy Frog; I just made that up. If I open a bar, that’s what I’m going to call it, Fuzzy Frog. And you’re like, “Lead me not into temptation. Oh, yah,” and you turn into there. “Lead me not into temptation.” The whole time you’re walking into the joint, you’re, “Lead me not into temptation, lead me not into temptation.” Well, you dumbo! You can’t be praying, “Lead me not into temptation” if you’re willingly, deliberately looking at things, doing things, going places where you shouldn’t go, you shouldn’t be, you shouldn’t do. “Lead me not into temptation” means that I do my part to turn away and walk away from the temptation. The Bible says, “There is no temptation given you but is common to man, and God is faithful not to allow you to be tempted above what you’re able, but will with the temptation make a way for you to escape.” And you know that way that God has made for you to escape sometimes is two feet. And you say, “We can’t help ourselves, we just got so passionate, and we got intimate with each other and we messed up.” “Well, what were you guys doing?” “Well, we were in the back seat parked on a dark hill, car, and no one around.” What do you expect is going to happen? The whole time you’re driving to your make-out spot you’re praying, “Lead me not into temptation, lead me not into temptation.” You dummy! Don’t go there.

So if I pray this prayer—the point I’m trying to make is if I pray this prayer, and I surrender myself to this prayer, I hallow God’s Name. I cannot start with this first petition, “Hallowed be Thy Name” and disregard “Lead me not into temptation.” So every petition that is prayed in this prayer, God’s Name is hallowed when His kingdom comes, God’s Name is hallowed when His will is done, God’s Name is hallowed when He provides our bread, God’s Name is hallowed when He forgives our sins and when we forgive others who have sinned against us. And God’s Name is hallowed when I resist temptation. That ‘s how I hallow God’s Name. That’s why it’s first on the list.

And then did you notice how the Lord’s Prayer ends? “Thine is the kingdom and the power and the”—what?—“glory.” That’s the purpose of prayer. The purpose of prayer is the glory of God. And how do I hallow God’s Name? When all that I pray for and all that I think and all that I do and all that I say brings glory to God. Are your thoughts about Him based on Scripture? Do you worship Him as Holy? Do you witness for Him with your lips and with your life? Years ago we used to sing a chorus, and we’ll have to revive it here in our church. It goes, “In my life, in my life be glorified. In my life, in my life, Lord, be glorified.” And then we used to sing, “In my home be glorified, in my marriage be glorified, in my church be glorified, in my nation be glorified, in the world be glorified, in my life, Lord, be glorified.” That’s what we’re saying when we say, “Hallowed be Thy Name.” Is that the prayer of your heart? “God, be glorified.”

Let’s pray.