...hallowed Be Thy Name… Series

Sermon Brief

Date Written: February 26, 2014

Date Preached: February 26, 2014

Where Preached: OPBC (AM)

Sermon Details:

Series Title: A Study on the Lord’s Prayer

Sermon Title: Hallowed Be Thy Name… (Sermon 4)

Sermon Text: Matthew 6:9-13 [HCSB]

Essence of the Text: Jesus wanted His disciples to know how to pray…

Essence of the Sermon: Jesus wants believers today to know how to pray…

Objective of the Sermon: Prayer is vital for the believer, but prayer is not so much in the words as it is in the attitude behind those words. This model prayer lays forth a template that guides the believer in the direction of their prayer and the attitude of their heart.

Introduction:

The first week we looked at prayer from an overall perspective, that it was not FOR God but it was for us to draw into a more intimate time and relationship with God.

He knows what we need and what is going on in our lives, so we don’t have to TELL Him to let Him know… BUT we do need to tell Him so that we are in communion with Him and learning to trust Him and lean on Him.

A few wks ago we looked at the object of that prayer. We looked at the term, “Our Father” and we saw how the Father figure and how our view of God is often based on how we see our human father.

2 wks ago we looked at WHERE the object of our prayer is focused...that locale is Heaven. Our Father Who is in Heaven...

We learned that heaven is described in Scripture but in truth 'heaven' is really where God is... if God is dwelling within our hearts then we have a piece of heaven already WITH us...

Once God’s sovereign reign is established in any heart, it becomes His dwelling place and therefore…heaven! So when Jesus was instructing his disciples to pray “Our Father who is in heaven…” he was NOT referring to some remote location in the far reaches of our galaxy, but rather the location where God abides… and when that is in our heart… then that is where heaven is!

So tonight I want us to continue in this model prayer to the next statement Jesus lays out for His disciples... "Hallowed be Your Name..."

This is a very positive statement but just what does it really mean and what is implied when we say it? First we need to understand that it doesn’t just mean that we believe God’s name should be honored… because we could associate that type of statement to equal to honoring someone’s name here in this world…

No… “Hallowed by Your Name” is a phrase that is addressing the name above all names… the Creator of the Universe… the One who spoke things in to existence. When Jesus says, “…hallowed by your name…” this is NOT some passing comment about God, but it is an effort to point out that God’s name… and what God’s name means is to be forever held in the highest of honor!

When we hear the phrase, “God’s name…” this means SO much more than just saying the name of someone you know… or someone you love… but it represents all of who God is… His name, title, his person, authority, character and power… HIS very reputation!

The Hebrews had such an awesome reverence for the name of God that they would avoid speaking the name in fear of profaning with their sinful lips… They would not write the entire name for fear of profaning it with human language… it was represented by four letters of the Hebrew alphabet. YHWH…

This representation of God was later expanded to become Yahweh, which translates to Jehova… however most English translations today will represent God as ‘the Lord’

Now I believe it is fairly obvious to all of us here that the creator God of the universe that created all things living and the world that sustains them… that he deserves FAR more than a human title…

When God spoke to Moses from the burning bush he identified Himself as “I am” and told Moses to tell the Hebrew leaders that “I am” has sent him to rescue them. Jesus, in his teaching to the disciples and toward the Pharisees said this about himself, “…before Abraham, I am…”

This reveals a great deal about Jesus… first that he is eternal like God the father. Another revelation is that Jesus said, “before Abraham, I am…” He does not say I was… but I am. This tells us that Jesus before the dawn of time or recorded history… and that Jesus is still WITH us today! The phrase ‘I am’ denotes both a statement of reality but also a statement of eternality! I am means that he has been and always will be…