Prayer 101: Reverencing

Well, take your Bibles this morning and open them to our text.

! And once again, it is Luke chapter 11.! And we're going to be looking again at verses 1 through 4.

So Luke chapter 11, verses 1 through 4. And no, it's not a typographical mistake as someone was asking me earlier this morning.

It is the same title because we're in the same sermon. This is Prayer 101. Now, I say that not to minimize the importance of, quote, the Lord's Prayer, which is what we normally would think of it, how we would normally identify it.

Not minimize, it's a marvelous prayer. But it is Jesus' beginning of His teachings on prayer. And we're going to see quite a lot of other things as we go throughout this chapter related to Jesus' teachings on prayer.

Let me go ahead and read the text again. And it starts with verse 1. Now it came to pass, as He was praying in a certain place, when He ceased, that one of His disciples said to Him, Lord, teach us to pray, as John also taught His disciples.

So He said to them, When you pray, say, Our Father in heaven, hallowed be Your name.

Your kingdom come. Your will be done on earth as it is in heaven. Give us day by day our daily bread. And forgive us our sins.

For we also forgive everyone who is indebted to us. And do not lead us into temptation, but deliver us from the evil.

And that's how the prayer ends there, as Jesus is giving it, here in Luke chapter 11. Now, if you had been one of Jesus' disciples, and just kind of imagine that you're one of His apostles, and you, you know, you're traveling with Jesus every day, for a relatively short period of time, a number of years, and yet still day in and day out, you're traveling with Him.

You're there with Him nearly all of the time. Very seldom are you separated from Him. That would be wonderful, wouldn't it? But imagine, you know, you're with Jesus every day, and you are traveling with Him, eating with Him, sleeping with Him, talking with Jesus every single day.

Probably not a day hardly goes by that you don't have some conversation with Jesus. I mean person to person, face to face. Wouldn't that be amazing? And you, of course, are observing Jesus day in, day out.

He has your focus. And you're observing Him, and you're listening to Jesus as He is teaching. And not just teaching to the crowds or the multitudes, but the many other personal kind of conversations or personal occasions when Jesus is teaching the smaller group, the twelve.

And maybe some other disciples are there. And even, I would suppose, those times that He would be teaching you, one-on-one, just a personal time of teaching and mentoring and so forth.

Wouldn't that be wonderful to be a part of that? And you're observing all of that and taking all of that in and experiencing that. And you're sitting at Jesus' feet and listening to Him as He's teaching, listening to every single word that He speaks.

And you are hearing Him as He prays. As He prays to the Father. Praise to God the Father.

And the many times that Jesus is getting off by Himself and praying, certainly. The Bible mentions that a number of times. But the many other times, I'm sure, countless times, daily, maybe multiple times in a day, that you are praying together with Him.

And He is praying and leading in prayer. And you're hearing Jesus pray. And you are paying close attention to the words He prays and how He prays, His emotion in praying and on and on.

And you are hearing all of that, observing all of that. If you'd been one of His disciples and you'd experienced His praying, the most natural thing in the world would have been to ask Him, Lord, teach us to pray.

And you can kind of read between the lines. You can see what's behind that kind of a question. And I know that Luke mentions, you know, that they say, the disciples say, as John taught his disciples.

So you understand the official sense of this because it would be the rabbi's responsibility, the teacher's responsibility to teach his students how to pray and how to pray properly.

There's more to it than that. I really believe. You can kind of get in behind the question. You kind of immerse yourself in the questioner.

And you understand what's behind that. Lord, I don't know how to pray. Not in relation to the way you pray. I don't have this same gift or this same ability.

There's so much I don't know about praying. My prayer life is so weak, anemic, and I just really need to be instructed. And this is behind the question.

And so Jesus obliges the disciples, right? And He teaches them. He gives them a lesson on prayer. And that's what we have right here.

But as I kind of said a moment ago, this is not the only lesson on prayer in this chapter. And Jesus is going to continue in the verses that follow these famous verses.

He's going to go on from there and take the disciples even deeper into this wonderful throne gift that is called prayer. And we'll get to that eventually.

It'll be a while, but we'll eventually get to that here in the rest of the chapter, chapter 11. But we need to glean from this particular passage, from this famous prayer or model prayer.

We need to glean from it as much as we possibly can. Now, I know we've covered this ground before, and I mentioned that again. Some of you, even last week, are thinking, you know, I've heard this before.

Well, you heard it from me. Only I was preaching from Matthew, chapter 6, and we kind of walked our way through this prayer. And as I said last week, kind of debated whether I would just kind of skip this part and move on to the rest of the chapter.

But I just really feel like we need to cover this ground again. This is an important prayer, significant prayer. Again, a model for praying. And so we need to glean from this as much as we possibly can.

And, you know, this first lesson, praying 101, this first lesson is pure genius.

It really is. It's nothing short of pure genius. Because Jesus gives his disciples, he answers their question by giving them a fairly simple kind of framework for prayer.

A very simple one. Like I said last week, a skeleton for prayer that we need to add flesh to and muscle to and meat to.

Or you want to use another analogy, an outline for prayer. This is a whole lot more than just an outline for prayer because each frame of the framework of prayer is really kind of a doorway, so to speak, that will lead us to rich doctrinal truth.

That's why we need to spend some time on this prayer. We could even call this a theology of prayer. Even though it's a model prayer, each segment of this prayer is rich with allusions to rich doctrine.

And so we started to look at this prayer, of course, last Sunday, this model prayer. And we looked at the very first phrase in the prayer. Our Father in Heaven.

Now I need to explain something here, and I should have said this last week, and somebody asked me about it after I preached last Sunday. Because some of you have versions of the Bible where only the word Father appears, right?

Not our Father in Heaven. Some of you have translations like that. Have you looked at your Bibles? And you say, preacher, it's just Father. You know, you spent last week taking each word of that first phrase, our Father in Heaven.

But the only problem is, in my Bible, it only says Father. So you may be wondering about that. If you have a New American Standard version. If you have the English Standard version.

I know just a few of you have that one. Some of you have the NIV, the New International Version. And Father is what you have there. You don't have our Father in Heaven, our Father who is in Heaven.

And so you may be wondering about that. And I think it would be good for me to explain that here. Some of you, some of those Bibles that you have may have a footnote there.

Do you ever read the footnotes in your Bible? Well, they're not inspired, okay? The footnotes are not inspired. That's not part of what Luke originally wrote. Luke did not put footnotes when he wrote this book.

But there are footnotes in many of our versions. And they help explain some things. And in this case, you may have a footnote there that reads something like this.

Some manuscripts have our Father in Heaven. Or they may have something like that, okay? You see, our versions of the Bible, and there are a bunch of them.

But there are maybe a handful of popular versions. Our versions of the Bible have been translated from literally thousands of manuscripts of the Bible.

Certain books of the Bible. Some of those manuscripts are just parts of the manuscript. Some of them are just little scraps of a little manuscript that archaeologists have found. And some have been preserved.

And these manuscripts are simply copies of copies of copies of the originals. Which we don't have. We don't have any of the originals. So we have copies of them.

In some cases, copies of copies of copies. And these are manuscripts of certain segments of the Bible. And some of them are older than others, right? Do you understand that?

And so some of these manuscripts have been, or have, when you put them side by side, have slight variations. We don't need to be real uptight about that.

They're just variants. That's what scholars call them. And they don't really have anything to do with key core doctrines in the Bible. But most of them are just slight variations.

You know, a word added, a word subtracted, a phrase here that's not in another manuscript and so forth. Names of places and such. So there are a lot of variants. And that's why you have sometimes footnotes in your version of the Bible that may explain some of those things.

All right? Sometimes you'll see a footnote that says, older manuscripts say this. And yet the scholars who have put together your particular versions of the Bible have opted for the reading of a certain manuscript.

All right? Now, I'm not trying to get, you know, in the tall weeds here. But I want you to understand how some of these differences occur. And so, the King James Version, some of you have that version.

And like it, the New King James Version, which is the one that I'm reading from and usually preach from, were translated from a specific grouping or collection of manuscripts.

It's called in the Latin the Textus Receptus. Some of you have heard of that. That's Latin for received text. That means in that day, when the King James was translated, there was a received number of manuscripts, a family of manuscripts, and they called it the Textus Receptus.

All the other popular translations, most of them, are translated from a different collection of manuscripts. There are some of the same, but it's a different collection, and it's typically called the critical text.

Now, you know, Pastor, what's the purpose of all this? I want you to understand why that there are sometimes differences, and so that you won't be uptight and say, well, maybe my Bible's not correct, and so I've got errors in my Bible, and so maybe I can't trust it.

No, that's not the case. They're just these little variants. And so King James then, and New King James, that's why they have the words, Our Father in Heaven, and nearly all the rest of them have only the word Father.

All right. Now I'm going to tell you that we do know that Jesus did say, Our Father in Heaven. Even though some manuscripts only have Father.

We do know that Jesus said that. Now how do we know that? Well, I want you to take your Bibles and turn to Matthew chapter 6 and find verse 9. Matthew 6 and verse 9.

And what Matthew 6 is, is Matthew's account of this exact same prayer.

All right. Now Matthew was, by the way, there. He's one of the apostles. Matthew was there, and he heard Jesus pray and teach this lesson. And in Matthew chapter 6 and verse 9, he said, In this manner, therefore, pray.

And then what does it say? Our Father in Heaven. Or who is in Heaven. Some of you might have it that way. That's what's there. That's what's there.

And by the way, in every version of the Bible, that's there. Our Father in Heaven. So we know Jesus said it. Okay. All right.

So that's why I said that when Jesus prayed or taught us to pray, he said, Pray in this way. Our Father in Heaven.

Prayer is about resting. That's what we noticed last week. Prayer is about resting. Resting in God, our Father. It's resting in a special relationship.

Our Father. It is resting in a sovereign reality. Our Father in Heaven. That is, he's real. And he's there.

Prayer. And it is also resting in a servant's responsibility. Because he said, our Father. Not my Father. We're not just to simply pray my Father in that personal singular sense.

But we're to pray our Father with the understanding that he is our mutual Father. And so just as we are to pray to him for our own needs and lifting up our own praises and thanksgivings, we are to also pray for one another because he's our Father.

Prayer is about resting. And then Jesus teaches us that prayer, and this is going to be our focus this morning, prayer is about reverencing.

About reverencing. The very next phrase. Hallowed be your name. Prayer is about reverencing.

Hallowed. Now what does that mean? Hallowed be your name. And not only what does it mean, but what does that have to do with praying?

What is the lesson here? For my prayer life, and again, I want to remind you, this is just not one prayer we pray, and then we have other kinds of praying.

This is a model for all praying. So if Jesus is saying, this is how you ought to pray. Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name.

What does that mean? And what does it have to do with our praying? And why is that so important every time we pray? Well, let's just consider this morning the two main words in that phrase.

Okay? We're just going to focus on two words this morning. Hallowed. Hallowed. And the word name. Those are the key words in the phrase, right?

I mean, you take those out and you don't really have anything. This is what we need to key in on. Hallowed. And name. And let's start with the last word. Name.

Hallowed be your name. And what does that mean? How are we to understand that? Well, I would have to admit to you, and I think you would agree with me, that in our day and time, in our culture today, we have a hard time understanding this because name is not that important to us anymore.

It's kind of been minimized in our particular culture. Now, 50 years ago, maybe we'd have to go back even further than that, but I don't think we would. Maybe we wouldn't have to go back as far as 50 years.

But if we were to go back several decades, then most people would have no real problem understanding exactly what Jesus was getting at here when he said, Hallowed be your name.

And I would say that, by and large, today, a name is little more than just a way to distinguish between one person and family and another person or family.

A name just simply is a designation so that you have your name and your name and your name, and so we don't all have the same name, and so we can use a name to just tell us apart, to distinguish who we're talking about.

And I think, by and large, is what the name means to us in our culture today. And today, there are very few of us that attach any special significance to our family name.

Now, that changes the older we get. I mean, in this crowd, the older ones among us have more of a sense of that than the younger ones of us.

And so I need to explain this. In the old days, a name was synonymous with reputation. Do you think that's so much true today?

I really don't think so. Now, obviously, at the bare minimum, you know, when a person's name is mentioned, we write off, think about that person, and we think about what that person is like.

But I'm really talking about on the other end of it. I have a name, and you have a name. Do you spend a lot of time being concerned about what you do that is attached to that name?

Because a name really is a reference to character, reputation, even honor.

Now, what does the Bible say about a person's name? Because the Bible does speak to this. One of the most famous passages, probably, would be Ecclesiastes 7 and verse 1, where it begins with a good name.

A good name. That's not talking about a good choice of names. You know, it seems like parents today and for a number of years now, you know, every time about to have a child, you know, we get out the name book, you know, and try to find a good name and interest about what the name means.

And we go to that whole rigmarole, and then after we pick the name, we don't ever think again about the meaning of the name. But we're not here talking, the Bible's not talking about a good choice of names so much as a good reputation.

When it says a good name, it's talking about the good reputation of the one who possesses that name. That is all important in Scripture. And so I go on.

In Ecclesiastes 7 and 1, a good name is better than precious ointment. That is expensive perfume. Now, that may not be, you know, that metaphor may not work for us today, but this was a big deal.

Perfume was very expensive. It was even something that was used as currency. It was so expensive. And so a good name is better than expensive perfume.

But I really like the rest of this. And the day of death. Now, listen to this. The day of death than the day of one's birth. That is, the day of death is better than the day of one's birth.

The name of a person, the reputation of the person at the day of death is much, much, much infinitely more important than the reputation of a person, the name of a person at the day of his or her birth.

And the point is that the end is more important than the beginning. I mean, when you have a new child, and some of you are young and still having babies, when you have a new child, you want to pray for that child to live right and have a good reputation, certainly so.

But we ought to pray not so much for a good beginning. We pray for that. But that child would end well.

That ought to be our prayer for each one of us, that we would end well. And end well means that when you die, your name, you have a good reputation. You have good character.

You ended well and didn't just throw it all to the wind. And so a good name is better, King James says, rather to be chosen than precious ointment and the day of death than the day of one's birth.

How about Proverbs 21, 1? A good name, that is a reputation, is to be chosen rather than great riches. Loving favor is to be chosen.

That means esteem from others. High regard from others. That's to be chosen rather than silver and gold.

The most expensive things that you could imagine. I remember hearing a story of supposedly Alexander the Great, the great general conqueror of the world, the known world of his day.

Great leader. And it was reported to him that one of his soldiers had been caught stealing. And so he demanded that the soldier be brought before him. And so they brought him into his tent.

They were out there on the battlefield. And brought the soldier in. And he looked at that young soldier. He says, What is your name? And the soldier, rather embarrassed, he said, Well, my name is the same as yours.

My name too is Alexander. Alexander the Great looked at this young man in his eyes and he said, Then, son, either change your ways or change your name.

You see, a name is to be chosen because a good name is a person's good reputation, a person's character. All right, so if that should be true of our names, each of us, and it should be.

That's a whole other lesson. If that should be true of our names, then what about God? What about God's name? Well, when you pray, let me ask you, Do you have a sense of the absolute goodness, the absolute moral perfection of the one to whom you are praying?

Do you have some sense of that? His greatness. Some sense of his attributes. His perfection.

Well, when Jesus said, Pray this way, our Father in heaven, he said this, Hallowed be your name. And he's not talking about the title for God.

He's not talking about how to address God with some specific name. He's not talking about the name to call him. What he's talking about is acknowledging the nature and character of God.

That's what he's talking about. Let me give you some passages from the Old Testament. Exodus chapter 34 and verse 4.

Moses had returned to the top of Mount Sinai to receive the Ten Commandments, and he had the tablets all prepared and in his hands for the Ten Commandments to be recorded upon.

And the Bible says, Listen to what it says. So he cut two tablets of stone like the first ones. Then Moses rose early in the morning and went up Mount Sinai as the Lord had commanded him, and he took in his hand the two tablets of stone.

Now the Lord descended in the cloud and stood with him there. Now that's amazing in and of itself, isn't it? The Lord descended in the cloud and stood with him there and proclaimed the name of the Lord.

That's what God did. Moses goes up into Sinai to receive God's law. He has the tablets upon which they will be recorded.

And God descends. The Lord, Yahweh God, descends. That, by the way, is amazing as well. He descends. He condescends.

And he stands there, right there with him. And he proclaimed the name of the Lord.

You say, well, okay. What does that mean? Well, we've got to read further. The word name, you see here, is the Hebrew word Shem.

Shem. And it does not mean a, you know, just simply the name, like, my name's Don and your name is, you know, and you know your name.

He's talking about the reputation of the person. That's what the word Shem means. Reputation. Fame. Glory.

Character. That's what the word Shem is talking about. So he proclaimed what? His character. His reputation. His fame.

His glory. And listen to what he proclaimed. And the Lord passed before him and proclaimed the Lord. That's Yahweh in the Hebrew text. Yahweh.

And then he repeats it. The Yahweh God. Yahweh Adonai. That is the one true God. The mighty one. So he says, this is who I am.

I'm the one and only true God. God almighty. And then he mentions these character traits.

Merciful. That's the first one. Merciful. That mean anything to you? God is merciful.

He says, merciful and gracious. Let's take those two side by side. God is merciful. God is gracious. He says, I am Yahweh God. God almighty.

Merciful and gracious. Merciful, if you can think of it in this sense. God withholding what we deserve. Gracious is kind of the opposite of that in a sense.

God giving what we could never deserve. Let's say something about the character, the nature, the fame, the glory of God.

He's merciful. He's gracious. And he goes on. Long suffering. That's pretty important for us to know. That is, you know, we're nothing but trouble to him.

Sinners, disobedient, weak. God doesn't take his thumb and squash us. He's long suffering. Patient.

Long suffering. Merciful. Gracious. Long suffering. There's just a whole list here. And abounding in goodness. That's our God.

Abounding in goodness. And that's a very key word. It's the word chesed. Sometimes translated grace.

It would be the Hebrew equivalent of the Greek cares. It's grace. It's grace. And not just gracious, but covenant. His covenant grace.

Covenant goodness. And he's abounding in it. Abounding in goodness and also truth. That's the next word in the list.

He says he proclaimed his name. I'm Yahweh, God Almighty, merciful, gracious, long-suffering, abounding in covenant goodness, grace, and truth.

That is, every word he speaks you can trust. He's truth. And then he says, keeping mercy for thousands.

What does that mean? Well, in the first place, it's not thousands of people. It's thousands of generations. And again, it's an allusion to his covenant.

The covenant with his people includes us. Because he is keeping mercy, keeping his covenant for generation after generation after generation on in to our generation.

He's a covenant-keeping God. That's who he is. And when we pray, hallowed be your name, we're celebrating that. We are acknowledging that at the very least, but we're celebrating that.

And we are reverencing that about his name. But he's not done yet. Keeping mercy for thousands. Forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin.

Iniquity, transgression, and sin. Those are the three words. Three words come from the three words in the Hebrew that we might translate sin every time. But it's a little different angle, different reference to sin.

And he's forgiving. That's the most important part we ought to get. But, by no means, clearing the guilty. That's the last thing he said. That's his nature.

He does not leave the guilty unpunished. He's just. Praise the Lord. We have Jesus who took our punishment.

God didn't withhold his punishment for your sin. If he had, he would not be just. No, God punished the guilty. In our case, by the grace of God, Jesus took our guilt.

I say this is a marvelous passage to help us understand. What it means to hallow his name. His reputation.

His glory. His fame. These attributes. See, this is the fame. His fame. These character traits that are mentioned here in Exodus 34.

These character traits are his name. Judges 13. I'll give you another example. God announces to a man by the name of Manoah and his barren wife, unnamed, that she's going to have a son.

And his name would be Samson. Somebody would come up with it over here. His name would be Samson.

And Samson, of course, would be a judge of Israel. But the important thing is what happened next. Because God revealed this to Manoah and his wife and revealed it to them personally.

And did so through a visitation. Actual visitation by the angel of the Lord. That's what the Bible says here. And I believe that's none other than the second person of the Trinity.

Pre-incarnate visitation of Christ. But after the announcement. Listen to Judges 13, 17. Then Manoah said to the angel of the Lord, What is your name?

Now, why would he ask you a question like that? I just kind of want to know your name. What's your name? You know, like we would meet with somebody.

We don't know who that person is. By the way, what's your name? And then two seconds later, we forget it. But, at least I do. But Manoah asked an unusual question.

What is your name? What is your name? But then he tells us why. That when your words come to pass, we may honor you.

And the angel of the Lord said to him, Why do you ask my name? Seeing it is wonderful. It is wonderful.

What does that mean? That his name is just, you know, just really wonderful name. You know, like we would say, you know, I like that name. Or, I like that name. That's a wonderful name.

No. The Hebrew word here means incomprehensible. Why do you ask my name? Because my name is beyond your comprehension.

He's not talking about a word here. He's talking about the person. Again, I think the second person of the Trinity, this pre-incarnate visitation of God the Son.

And he says, you're asking my name, and I can tell you, but you wouldn't understand it. You didn't understand it. See, his name identified a person whose character and nature was infinitely beyond anything Manoah's finite mind could comprehend.

Because we're talking about more than just a word here. We're talking about the person and all that person is, you see. And we all know that great messianic passage in Isaiah chapter 9, verse 6.

For unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given, and the government will be upon his shoulder. And his name, that's again the word sham in Hebrew, renown, fame.

His name will be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace. references to not only his character traits, but his accomplishment.

His accomplishments. You see, we love him, we trust him, not because we happen to know his various names and titles. We've been through one of those studies, which are good.

Because it's not just knowing the names, it's knowing what they represent. And the character traits of that person that goes by those names.

We know his character. That's what it is. And we know his fame. We know his renown. David wrote in Psalm 9, verse 10, And those who know your name will put their trust in you.

Well, what? In our culture, just because you know my name is Don, does that just automatically mean, well, you know, I'm going to trust him? Well, hopefully you trust me because my name Don represents who I am.

Now think about that in relation, how more so that is true in relation to God. When you know his name, who he is, his reputation, his fame, his character, his nature, when you know his name, then you would trust him.

And then he concludes that part of the psalm, For you, Lord, have never forsaken those who seek you. And how about this psalm? Psalm 20, verse 7. Some trust in chariots.

We know this one, don't we? Some trust in chariots and some in horses, but we trust in the name, the character, the reputation.

We trust in the name of the Lord, our God. And so listen, you know, we could spend hours looking at countless passages in the Bible that reveal the significance of the name of the Lord.

And his name is equal to who he is. Get to know him. It will enrich your prayer life. It equals also, the name equals what he has done, doing, promises to do, in Scripture.

It's equal to his nature. His nature is holy. His holiness and righteousness. It's equal to his character.

The character of our God. Goodness and justice. His name is equal to his will, which is always wise and always right. And it's equal to his works.

The redemption of his beloved. And by the way, everything Jesus did on earth was a manifestation of Yahweh's name, the name of God. Jesus prayed in John 17, 6, I have manifested your name.

We would know God if it had not been for Jesus. He manifested the very nature, character of God because he is God.

And I would also say everything Jesus will do when he returns will be the full and final revelation of the great name of Yahweh God. Revelation 19, 16, and he has on his robe and on his thigh a name written, King of Kings and Lord of Lords.

Getting back to the model prayer. In prayer, we're to pray this way. Hallowed be your name.

We're to understand what that means. But then, what are we to do with the name of the Lord? Well, Jesus tells us, doesn't it? And that's the second word.

That's the first word in the phrase. Hallowed. Or if you wish, hallowed. Okay. Hallowed be your name.

Now, what does that mean? What does the word hallowed mean? It's not a word you hear every day. Not one I would imagine that you use even occasionally. What does it mean?

Hallowed. We have some sense of the meaning of that. But even more important than that, how do we do that to God's name? All right, what does the word hallowed mean and how do we do it to Jesus' name?

That's what Jesus said. Hallowed be your name. Well, in the first place, the word hallowed is just a word that simply means to be absolutely separated from all that is profane, sinful, unholy.

To be separated from all that is profane and completely dedicated to God, the one true God.

That's just what the word hallowed means. We might use the word consecrated. It gets close to that same meaning. It does mean that. All right, now in Jesus' day, the word hallowed was attached to a number of things, a number of inanimate things, like the temple.

The temple was hallowed. It was hallowed. It was to be completely separated from all that is profane and dedicated completely, totally to God and to His use.

That's why Jesus went in and turned over the money changers' tables and drove them out with a whip because they were profaning what was to be hallowed.

What they were doing and they were dishonest and they were robbing people and they had turned God's house into a den of thieves. That's why Jesus had every right to do that because the temple is to be hallowed, separated from what is profane and dedicated to God.

Even the Holy of Holies, the Holy of Holies was certainly hallowed. Only the high priest was allowed to even enter there. Even the furniture, all the furniture in the temple, every piece of it was hallowed.

But also, the firstborn male in a Jewish family was hallowed. And any number of things, we could just go on and on with the list, but you understand that Jesus was not referring to places, people, or things here.

Jesus was referring to God Himself, hallowed to be God, the person of God. Therefore, for God to be hallowed means what?

Well, let's just take our definition. It means that He is utterly separated, completely separated from all that is profane, unholy, and completely dedicated to Himself.

To Himself. For His own eternal glory. And by the way, that would work for any of us. That only works with God because He is all glorious and perfect.

Dedicated to Himself. All right, so then, since God's name, all that He is and all that He does is to be hallowed, holy and separated, set apart, then He alone is worthy of everything.

Everything we are and everything we have. He alone is worthy of our love, our devotion, our worship, not just here on Sunday mornings and Sunday nights for some of you.

He's worthy. Alone deserves all glory and deserves all honor. See, that is the message of these four words. Hallowed be your name.

So then, not only is prayer about resting in God, prayer is about reverencing God. And so, when you pray, do you have a sense of awe?

Reverence? A sense of respect for God that's due His name? Or, do you come to Him in some flippant kind of way?

Some common? I understand that prayer is really a conversation with God, but, don't, don't relegate that to just, you know, a couple of friends talking.

He is our friend. He's infinitely more than that. And we should approach Him with the reverence and awe that His character and nature deserves in prayer.

That's what Jesus is teaching us here. See, knowing, we're knowing that God is not someone you can just trifle with.

Knowing that He is not a God you can somehow manipulate with your, you know, clever words. You ever tried to do that with God?

We're going to get our way, we're going to get what we want and we kind of use words that we're good at that. We do that with one another. Kids were born with that gift with their parents.

You know, they just know what to say, what string to pull. You can't do that with God. We're talking about a God who knows every thought that you have and all your motivations and He knows all of your deeds, every deed.

He's not a God you can just make deals with. Knowing that He is the God who is merciful and gracious and long-suffering, abounding in goodness, abounding in truth, and His covenant is for generation after generation forgiving, iniquity, transgression, sin.

God who by no means will leave the guilty unpunished is just God. Hallowed be your name.

Thank you.