[0:00] Before the preaching of God's word, turn again to the book of Luke. Book of Luke, chapter 11. Matthew, Mark, Luke in the New Testament.
[0:16] Luke, chapter 11, and I will be reading verses 1 through 4. Let's hear the word of God read. One day Jesus was praying in a certain place.
[0:30] When he finished, one of his disciples said to him, Lord, teach us to pray, just as John taught his disciples. He said to them, Father, hallowed be your name.
[0:44] Your kingdom come. Give us each day our daily bread. Forgive us our sins, for we also forgive everyone who sins against us. And lead us not into temptation.
[0:56] Amen. Let's hear God's word preached. Well, how can we sing those songs, hear those scriptures, and not say, hallowed be your name?
[1:13] Familiar words from the Lord's Prayer. May the Lord be pleased in this hour to shine further understanding upon these words, to stir us to pray more faithfully in days ahead for his blessed name, that name that is above all names to be hallowed.
[1:33] Now, last week in Luke 11, we found our Lord Jesus praying. And when he finished, one of his disciples requested for the whole group, Lord, teach us to pray.
[1:45] They had heard him pray. They had seen his habit and priority of prayer, his delight in prayer, the results of prayer in his life and ministry.
[1:56] And they wanted to learn to pray as he prayed. And our Lord graciously responds by giving them a prayer to say.
[2:07] And it still stands as an outline for our prayers today, not at all inferring that every prayer must sound like this prayer.
[2:18] Indeed, as we read our Bibles and especially the New Testaments, we do not find that. We find Peter on one occasion just saying, Lord, save me. That's not this prayer. And yet, let's not diminish the importance of this prayer given to us here and again in Matthew chapter 6.
[2:37] It is, after all, the Lord's own words teaching us specifically how to pray. So would it not be a bit strange to find this prayer not having a significant place in our praying?
[2:56] Since we are disciples who are called to put our necks in the yoke with Jesus and to learn from him. So after the address, calling on God as our Father, we come then to the actual petitions or requests.
[3:16] What is it we are to pray for? And these clearly divide into two groups. There are things for God and there are things for us. And our Lord teaches us first things first.
[3:33] That before asking anything for us, we're first to ask for God. Hallowed be your name. Your kingdom come. Before, forgive us.
[3:45] Give us. Lead us. And so his name and his kingdom are to be the priority concerns of our life. And that same priority is to find its way into our prayers.
[3:59] I have to confess how quickly I can address God as my Father and immediately launch into my needs and the things that I want for me.
[4:10] And Jesus' words here stand as a corrective to such self-centered praying. No, a God-centered life will be reflected in a God-centered prayer.
[4:24] In all things, he's to have the preeminence and that holds for our praying as well. Now, it's easy to say these words, Hallowed be your name.
[4:36] But it's a different matter altogether to have a heart that really prays for God's name to be hallowed. Prayer, after all, is more than a verbal exercise. No, it is to offer our desires unto God, to pour out our hearts to him.
[4:53] And in so many ways, then, our prayers reveal our hearts, just what's inside. They expose our greatest desires, our priorities, what we really want most.
[5:06] And so we need more than just the right words to pray. We need a right heart to pray. So let's break down this first petition and see what is involved when we pray, Hallowed be your name.
[5:21] Let's consider first your name. God's name is all that he has revealed about himself in Scripture. It represents, his name represents all that he is, just like your name represents all that you are.
[5:41] So God's name includes all of his attributes, his greatness and goodness, his majesty and meekness, his wrath and his mercy. His wisdom and power and love and faithfulness, his righteousness and justice, his vengeance and his grace.
[6:01] All that he is. His name stands for all that he is. But the Bible reveals that supremely our God is holy, holy.
[6:12] And therefore, his name is holy. You know, holiness is the only name that receives a triple repetition in the Bible. We have it in Isaiah 6 and in Revelation 4.
[6:26] Holy, holy, holy is the Lord God Almighty. Holy, holy is the only name that is holy. And this speaks of his otherness. How set apart he is from anyone and anything else in all the universe.
[6:44] The fact that there's none like him, that his name is above every other name and is exalted above the heavens.
[6:55] This is what the high and lofty one says. He who lives forever, whose name is holy. Yes, his name is holy. He is holy because his name is holy.
[7:08] That's who he is. And he's holy in all his attributes. So because God's name is holy, his name is to be treated as holy.
[7:19] Because God is holy, he is to be treated as holy. So let's come to the second word in this petition that we want to examine.
[7:30] Hallowed. Hallowed be your name. Now the basic idea behind hallow is the idea of sanctify.
[7:41] To treat something as holy. To set it apart from all that is common. So to pray for God's name to be hallowed is to pray for him and everything about him to be made known as holy, to be regarded and thought of and treated as holy.
[8:02] It may help us to consider its opposite. The opposite of hallowing God's name is to profane God's name.
[8:15] Now sadly in our day, profanity is thought merely as obscene and foul language. But the basic idea behind profanity and to profane something is to treat something that is sacred as if it is common.
[8:32] To make no distinction between the holy and the unholy. Treat them all the same. Take the fourth commandment. It obligates us to keep the Sabbath day holy.
[8:45] What does that mean? To set it apart from the other days of the week and treat it as special. Indeed, the Lord puts his name on it. It is the Lord's peculiar day to rest from our normal labors, to gather with his people and to worship him.
[9:06] So to treat the Lord's day as any other day of the week is to profane the Lord's day and to profane him and his name whose name is on that day.
[9:19] Now the third commandment obligates us to not misuse the name of the Lord our God. In other words, not to profane it. Not treat it like any other name as if there's nothing special about God's name or about God himself.
[9:34] No, the third commandment is calling on us to keep him and his name holy. Set apart from everyone and everything else and to treat it with special reverence and respect.
[9:49] Listen to Leviticus 22, 32. Do not profane my holy name. I must be hallowed by the Israelites. I am the Lord who hallowed you.
[10:02] You see the meaning of the word hallowed there. My name must not be profaned but hallowed. That is treated as holy. Because I am the Lord who hallows you.
[10:17] who has set you apart as my holy people. So, I hallow you and set you apart from all the nations I chose you.
[10:28] Now you hallow me and my name above all else. So, to profane his name is to profane him. It's to drag God down to diminish his glory on the earth.
[10:42] And so, when we pray, hallowed be your name, we're praying for grace to keep the third commandment. To not misuse the name of the Lord but to lift it high. Psalm 138, 2 says, O Lord, you have exalted above all things your name and your word.
[10:59] And in praying this first petition we are praying for grace to do the same. To exalt above all things God's name and God's word.
[11:12] Be thou exalted. That's what we're praying. In my heart and in my lips and in my life and in those of others.
[11:24] Now, when we realize what it is to hallow and what it is to profane the name of the Lord can we appreciate a little better the great long suffering the great patience of the Holy One who must daily hear his holy name profane and belittle.
[11:44] Indeed, in Isaiah 52, 5 he says, All day long my name is constantly blasphemed. Dismissed as a nobody. You know, the fool still says in his heart there is no God.
[11:58] That's blasphemy. They dismiss his holy word as if it's worthless and outdated and of the greatest irrelevance. Oh, but it's God's word.
[12:09] No mine. It's useless. It has nothing to do about me and my life today. They joke about God. I listen to comedy that is cleaned up from the kind of trash talk that we often hear but I found that they're still wide open to profane the holy name of God as an Irish comedian was longing for an Italian pope to come out on the balcony and say, Hey, how you doing?
[12:38] And they say, Forgive us, Father, for we have sinned. And he just says, Oh, forget it. And that audience erupted with applause, with cat calls, with praise.
[12:53] They couldn't be more excited to think that we would have a God who just says about our sin. It's nothing. It's no problem. Just forget about it. Well, then why is there a hell where sinners will live eternally whose sins have not been forgiven if it's something that's no problem to God?
[13:15] Why did Jesus come down and suffer on the hellish cross that sinners like you and me could be forgiven if sin is no problem to God?
[13:26] That's blasphemy. Romans 2, 23 and 24 to the Jews, Paul writes, You who brag about the law, do you not dishonor God by breaking the law?
[13:39] As it's written, God's name is blasphemed among the Gentiles because of you. It's the way you live in regard to God's command. You dismiss it as nothing to order your life.
[13:50] And in doing so, my name is being blasphemed. His name is used as filler just to spruce up people's talk.
[14:02] If they want to make some emphasis, they'll throw in the name of God, the name of Christ. They'll use it as an exclamation point. OMG! That is no small thing to God.
[14:16] You know, the third commandment, when it says, You shall not misuse the name of the Lord your God, continues to say, because the Lord will not hold anyone guiltless who misuses His name.
[14:31] And the hearts of the righteous are pained to see it and to hear it. And so they pray, Father, it's not right. Hallowed be Your name. And nobody prayed that petition with more heart than the Lord Jesus.
[14:46] He loved His Father. He was jealous of His name and His honor. And it pained Him. It angered Him to see the way that men disregarded Him and profaned His name.
[14:59] Twice we read in the Gospels of His zeal for His Father's name in the temple, the one place where His holiness was to be specially revered and honored.
[15:10] And He made a whip and He cleared the temple of those profaning it, turning His Father's house into an unholy marketplace, as if it were no different from the mall, the barn, the holy place where the Most High makes His name known.
[15:29] It was that same passion for His Father's name that brought Him out of heaven in the first place and ultimately took Him to the cross to vindicate the holiness of His God, to show He is holy.
[15:42] Sin does matter. and become the sacrifice to atone for sin and to redeem a people for His glory. He came to magnify and make much of His Father's name to advance His honor.
[15:57] You know, in John 12, as Jesus was drawing near to drinking the cup of God's wrath on Calvary, He prayed, Now my heart is troubled and what shall I say? Father, save me from this hour?
[16:09] No. It was for this very reason I came to this hour. Father, glorify Your name. Show at the cross how holy You are.
[16:23] Show at the cross how just and righteous You are. Show at the cross how loving and merciful You are. Glorify Your name, even if it means me drinking this cup.
[16:37] And seeing God's name profaned is going to bring the Lord Jesus out of heaven the second time to destroy all those who do not honor God's name and to receive to Himself all those who do.
[16:51] Well, this petition then, hallowed be Your name, reveals the top priority of the Son of God. His heart beats to see His Father glorified, His name honored.
[17:04] After all, that's the chief end for which we exist, isn't it? that we would honor and glorify Him. And so for that, we must pray that we might be a people who hallow His name and who by our life and witness bring others to do the same.
[17:23] You know, there are people on the earth that do hallow His name and bring honor to Him. Paul writes about them in 2 Corinthians 8. He talks about these Christian brothers who are, quote, an honor to Christ.
[17:38] Their very character and life, the way they live and speak, lifts Christ up in the estimation of all who know them and meet them. Christ is being magnified by these people.
[17:54] God's glory is being made known all over the world today in the gospel of His Son. And His name is being hallowed in the lives of those who are receiving His Son, worshiping Him and living to His praise.
[18:12] So this prayer request, this number one prayer request for God's name to be hallowed is an evangelistic and a missions prayer. prayer. We pray, hallowed be Your name because we want to see Your fame increase and spread to the ends of the earth.
[18:30] For You to be known as glorious. For people to be amazed at Your holy love as well as Your holy wrath. For the knowledge of Your glory to cover the earth like the waters cover the sea.
[18:46] Now that's what we do here on Wednesday evening or attempt to do. We pray for specific individuals, churches, and places that there God's name would be hallowed, honored.
[18:58] And people who presently profane His name and live as if He's nothing to them, surely not worth living for, that they would come to hallow His name, to know Him for who He is and to treat Him as holy.
[19:13] To trust in Him and worship Him and so to spread abroad His fame to others. So I wonder if we're praying with Jeremiah, Oh Lord, do something for the sake of Your name.
[19:28] There's many people, places, churches, countries in this world that we should be praying that prayer. Lord, there, in her, in Him, in them, do something for the sake of Your holy name.
[19:42] You know that's a request the Lord delights to answer. That's why our Savior tells us to pray it. Wednesday evening, I told of meeting a young lady from the southern African nation who at three years old lost her mother and that left her with a father who was a staunch Roman Catholic.
[20:02] But at age 18, she went to a Protestant service with a friend and heard the gospel for the first time and was saved. Had her sins forgiven by faith in Jesus Christ.
[20:17] And when she came home and her father learned of it, he gave her this ultimatum, Your Protestant faith or your father, you have one week to choose.
[20:29] So here's this 18-year-old girl. forced to come to this place where she's now being called to honor her Savior's name and to count Him more valuable than her own father, the only parent left to her.
[20:54] And she did so. And when she did so, God's name was hallowed and lifted up. And praised. But you know, the Lord Jesus who saved her so changed and transformed her life that her father couldn't miss it.
[21:13] And so he actually came around to encouraging her to go to the Protestant service. And more glory and honor came to the Lord's name.
[21:24] Well, you also may be called to make sacrifices to honor God's name in your family, in your school, among your friends, and yes, even among your enemies.
[21:37] There is a name that is above every name that deserves to be hallowed and honored. How much does the honor of God's name mean to you?
[21:48] Well, it should mean everything. It's our highest priority and purpose for everything we do. And again, it should find its way, therefore, into our prayers as well as our lives.
[21:59] And I think our baptism can help us with this. You say, how so? Well, follow the logic. As disciples of Jesus Christ, we were baptized into the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.
[22:16] God's own name has been placed, put upon us in our baptism. Now, when you were born, your family name was placed on you, wasn't it?
[22:30] And it signifies that you belong to them. And the reality of that is that wherever you go and whatever you do, you carry around with you the name and reputation not just of yourself but of that family, either for shame or for honor.
[22:54] So at Saturday night or awards night at the school and mom and dad are recognized and walk in with their son or daughter, the honor given to the child is shared by mom and dad.
[23:07] not only for their athletic or scholastic achievements but also for their general conduct. Children's behavior reflects upon their parents whose name they bear.
[23:21] And that's for good or ill, for honor or for shame. Now, can you see the relevance of our baptism to this petition? In the ordinance of baptism, you who are true disciples of Christ who profess faith in the Lord Jesus have had the name of God placed on you.
[23:40] You no longer belong to Satan's family. You are now adopted into God's family. And so you were baptized into the one name of the Father who chose you and of the Son who purchased you for God and of the Holy Spirit who regenerated you and now indwells you.
[24:00] you've had the one name of God placed on you. Now, that's a wonderful blessing. There are many benefits that come from that to know that I belong to him.
[24:15] I can say to God, I am yours and you are mine. My baptism reminds me of that. It was a naming ordinance and you put your name upon me never to take it off of me.
[24:27] But there's also a great responsibility with that, isn't there? That wherever I go and whatever I do, I'm carrying around with me the name, the reputation of my God on the earth, how people will think of him as they see me.
[24:48] So I don't want to speak or act in any way that would drag his name down. I want to speak and live and act in a way that would lift up people's estimation of this God to magnify his name.
[25:04] And does that not make us want to pray, Father, oh, help me to hallow your name and to honor it as holy. So how do we then hallow God's name?
[25:17] How do we spread abroad the reputation that he's holy? Well, you live a holy life. That's a good place to start, but let's break it down. when you bear witness and proclaim the excellencies of the one who called you out of darkness into his marvelous life, when you tell others and speak well of your God to others, when you tell of his justice, that he punishes every sin, he must punish it.
[25:50] He's that just of a judge. He's good judge. And you tell of his grace that he's been pleased to punish sin in his own son for all who trust in him.
[26:02] And you speak of his goodness in all of his dealings with you and all that has happened to you from his hand, his faithfulness to never go back on his promises and his willingness to save sinners who repent and cast themselves on his mercy and you did so and found him to be true.
[26:18] When you bear witness to the goodness of God's name, you hallow that name. You lift it up. But then again, when you stand up and speak up for the Lord and his truth, we live in a culture today that is now openly mocking God's name, God's word, his moral commandments, calling good what God calls evil and calling evil what God calls good.
[26:46] Sadly, even churches and professing Christians are caving in and compromising so as not to be cancelled or written off as an old-fashioned, out-of-date, somebody on the wrong side of history.
[27:01] No, when evil comes in like a flood and God's name is being drugged down all around us, we plant our feet with Daniel and his three Hebrew friends and we stand up.
[27:13] We will not compromise with his word. This is the word, the holy word of our holy God and we stand up and we speak up for his namesake.
[27:24] Have you ever done that when someone misuses the name of the Lord your God? Have you ever just in a kind way said, I wish you wouldn't use that name in that way because he means everything to me.
[27:37] This Jesus you just spoke of, he's my savior. I love him. He loved me first and he will not hold anyone guiltless who uses his name in vain.
[27:50] That's to stand up for the name and honor of God's God and his truth. When you come and worship the Lord and sing his praises as you do today, you are hallowing, honoring the name of the Lord.
[28:07] Psalm 9, 9, 1 and 2, I will praise you, O Lord, with all my heart. I will tell of all your wonders. I will be glad and rejoice in you. I will sing praise to your name, O Most High.
[28:19] That's what we've been doing here this morning. So on Sunday when everyone else is headed to the lake and the ballpark and the shops and just a piddle in the yard, you're headed to church.
[28:29] Why? I was glad when they said unto me, let us go into the house of the Lord. Let us go there and sing the praises of him. Oh, how men can use their voices to praise their athletes at the football game on Saturday.
[28:45] Should we be any less for our victor that we heard of this morning who's triumphed over sin and death and hell for us? That honors his name.
[28:56] You have that beautiful word in Malachi 3, 16 when everyone else in Judah was complaining about God, complaining about their troubles that God had sent.
[29:10] Then those who feared the Lord talked with each other and the Lord listened and heard and a scroll of remembrance was written in his presence concerning those who feared the Lord and honored his name.
[29:25] When you come together and speak to one another and speak well of the Lord, he's listening. Write this man's name down. Write her name down.
[29:36] she's honoring my name. The God of creation rejoicing to see you in the way that you speak with your brothers and sisters as we gather together in a way that honors his name, hallows his name.
[29:55] And then you hallow his name when you continue to praise the name of the Lord in your greatest trials and your most painful losses and afflictions. Job lost it all in one day, his ten children and all his wealth and Satan was out to get him to what?
[30:12] To curse God's name. To destroy God's good reputation on the earth. But instead, Job falls to the ground in worship and says, the Lord gave, the Lord has taken away, let the name of the Lord be praised.
[30:31] That's it. And when you do that, afflicted saint, and praise God in your storm, you hallow his name.
[30:47] You honor his wisdom by believing he knows better than you what's best for you. You honor his goodness by believing he loves you better than you love yourself, even in your trial.
[31:02] And you honor his sovereign authority by humbly and sweetly submitting to his will for you. Saying with Jesus in Gethsemane, not my will, but yours be done.
[31:15] Now for some of you, that is the greatest opportunity you have right now in your life to hallow God's name. to bow your neck with meek and sweet submission and to say, I will drink the cup that my father has given me to drink.
[31:36] To do it with faith in him, with a trust in his goodness. Are you viewing it as that opportunity? Are you seizing that opportunity in all your trials?
[31:51] You hallow God's name when you trust him to give you victories in all your conflicts and in all your battles. Some trust in chariots, some trust in horses, but we trust in the name of the Lord our God.
[32:03] And the Old Testament is just a history book on that verse. To see men and women, to see people trusting in the name of the Lord in their battles.
[32:14] And I trust that you can do some work in saying, well, what does that mean to me? Well, it means everything to us in our spiritual battles. And we need to remember that our battles and our warfare is a spiritual battle.
[32:28] And to learn the lessons that Israel had in their physical battles and to apply them to our spiritual life. And so there's David and he shows up as a teenage boy in the Valley of Elah and he hears this giant profaning the name of God.
[32:47] He says, who is this uncircumcised dog? That he should be profaning the armies of the Lord.
[32:59] He goes and fights them. And why? Not for wealth, not for some heroism on his part, but so that God's name would be honored and made great so that the whole world might know that there is a God in Israel.
[33:15] And not a God to be profaned, but a God to be hallowed and honored. And those gathered here, David says, will know that it's not by sword or spear that the Lord saves, for the battle is the Lord's and he will give all of you into our hands.
[33:31] Will you hallow the Lord's name? When you trust in him for the victory in your battles with sin, you think it's this person in your life. Oh, no. No. Not flesh and blood.
[33:44] Spiritual wickedness. That's where your battle is. Are you trusting in the Lord? Only these weapons are strong enough to undo the strongholds against which you fight.
[34:00] Are you making good use of God's name? In prayer, that's how you hallow it. Are you pleading for God's name as the reason to answer your prayers?
[34:12] It may surprise you just how many times in the Bible God's name is appealed to in this way. In Numbers 13, we see Israel's right at the border of the promised land, but they rebel in their unbelief, refuse to go in as God commanded them, and God was angry enough to destroy them all and to start over with Moses.
[34:32] He says, how long will these people treat me with contempt? Treat me as a nobody. Profane me. I'll strike them down with a plague, destroy them, but I'll make you, Moses, into a nation greater and stronger than they.
[34:45] And Moses says, no, no, Lord, no. He's the mediator between God and man. Here he stands in prayer and he pleads God's own name as the reason for not destroying all of them at once.
[35:02] If you put these people to death all at one time, the nations who have heard this report about you will say, the Lord was not able to bring these people into the land he promised them on earth.
[35:15] So he slaughtered them in the desert. Moses knows how jealous God is for his name. And so he says, Lord, you don't want that reputation sticking to your name.
[35:26] You weren't able to bring them in. You were strong enough to get them out of Egypt, but not strong enough to get them in. And Moses found that the honor of God's name carries weight with this God in heaven.
[35:43] And he relented of what he threatened to do. Same thing happened with Joshua, the replacement of Moses after Moses dies. And they've lost a battle at Ai that they should have won.
[35:56] And Joshua's pleading with God. The Canaanites and other people of the country will hear about this. You see, it's his reputation, his name that's at stake. And they will surround us and wipe out our name from the earth.
[36:08] What then will you do for your own great name? Do we pray for God's own great name as the reason why God should defeat our enemies, our spiritual enemies, should give us victory over temptation, should save rebels?
[36:31] Do you ask that when you're praying for lost people? on your prayer list? Lord, save them for your great namesake. To show that after all these years of living in sin and rejecting you and thinking you're not worth anything, you're certainly not worth living for.
[36:50] Show the power of your grace in coming to your enemy and turning their hearts to trust you, to love you, to serve and obey you. For your namesake, Lord, save.
[37:04] That's what we see over and over again. There's Asa, king of Judah, and he's got a whole vast army of Cushites way outnumbering him.
[37:18] How does he pray? Lord, there's no one like you to help the powerless against the mighty. Help us, O Lord, our God, for we rely on you, and in your name we have come against this vast army, O Lord.
[37:29] God, you are our God. Do not let man prevail against you. God, this is your battle. We are the Israel of God. Your name has been put upon us.
[37:41] And so it's not the Cushites versus the Israelites. It's the Cushites versus God. Don't let man beat you. He's pleading for the name of God to be upheld.
[37:53] You have difficulties in your life, challenges that you're powerless to fix. Remind God of his cause. It's his cause. I'm yours, O God. I carry your name wherever I go.
[38:05] Oh, help me to stand. Don't let me fall now. Do something for the sake of your name. When you've fallen into sin and come to God to confess, do you ever ask God to forgive you for the sake of his name?
[38:21] David did that. He fell greatly. He sinned greatly but he confessed with an eye to the great name of God. Listen what he says in Psalm 25, 11.
[38:32] For the sake of your name, O Lord, forgive my iniquity for it is great. He's not saying, you know, my sin's really not that bad. No, he says, it's great.
[38:43] It's really great. I own it. But this is an opportunity for you, O Lord, to magnify your name and to show that your grace is even greater than all my great sin.
[38:55] So forgive me for the sake of your name. When you're in great trouble, trouble up to your neck, do you ever plead for God to make a name for himself in rescuing you?
[39:12] Listen to David 1, 43, 11. For your name's sake, O Lord, preserve my life. In your righteousness, bring me out of trouble. Yes, I want out of trouble, Lord, but would it not be an honor to you after all other efforts have failed to show what you can do for the honor of your name?
[39:38] Show forth that power to bring me out of trouble or to keep me in the trouble. Both are an honor to his name. It's a win-win for God, isn't it? Plead his name.
[39:49] Ever feeling forsaken by God and alone drinking the promise, the Lord will not forsake his people for his great name's sake. Because it is pleased the Lord to make you his people.
[40:02] You see, it's his name that's on the line, and he's not about to forsake one of his own. Plead his name. Suck in the comfort that he honors his name.
[40:13] Even when men do not, he will not go back on his word. Maybe you're at a crossroads and you don't know what to do, and you're fearing a misstep. If I do this, well then this might happen, and if I do that, this might happen, and you need wisdom.
[40:28] Ever pray for God's name's sake that he would lead you? Psalm 31, 3, since you're my rock and my fortress, for the sake of your name, lead and guide me.
[40:41] Lead me in paths of righteousness for your name's sake. Would it not be to the glory of your name to lead me in righteous paths?
[40:52] Oh, lead me for your name's sake. So can you see how God wants us to make use of this petition? That's why Jesus teaches us to pray. Hallowed be your name.
[41:04] To seek God's honor before asking anything for ourselves, and even when asking for ourselves, to ask it for his name's sake. You see, to see that what I want, even more than what I want, is for God's name to be hallowed, to be thought better of, for it to be magnified and lifted up in the eyes of the watching world.
[41:29] Is that how you're praying? Does that mark as the priority, the first thing about your praying, is that you are jealous to see God lifted up?
[41:41] Oh, may Christ breathe into us by his spirit, more of that spirit. We might pray that way, and if you're lost this morning, you cannot honor God without honoring his son.
[41:54] The Lord Jesus Christ, his son, is the perfect representation of the father. You only know the father by through the son. You've seen me, you've seen the father.
[42:05] Would you know the father's name? I've come to reveal it. And in me, you will see what justice is, what righteousness is, what love is, what grace is, what wrath and anger is in me.
[42:17] And so you must come and honor the son. In order to hallow God's name. But take this as encouragement, sinner friend. An encouragement to come to Christ right now and to ask him to save you for the sake of his name.
[42:35] You've been profaning his name. You haven't counted him worth living for? Changing any of your plans for? You've been profaning and putting him down. And yet, you should be encouraged to come and say, but Lord, come and save me.
[42:50] Just to show how great your name is. How great your grace. Greater than all my sin. Come and save me for the sake of your name. That's a prayer. He always answers as a sinner comes and throws himself on God's mercy in Christ.
[43:06] Christ. Well, in our closing song, we're going to ask our God of highest heaven. You know, he is that. Yes, he's our father. And we saw that last week. But he's our father in heaven.
[43:19] He's a God who's to be revered. He's a father who is also the one with the name above every name. And so we sing great God of highest heaven. Glorify your name through me.
[43:33] May this week we pray and seek God's name to be hallowed and lifted up because we have that promise in Malachi 1 11. My name will be great among the nations from the rising to the setting of the sun in every place.
[43:47] Incense and pure offerings will be brought to my name because my name will be great among all nations. Amen. Amen. Amen.