NOT AS IT SHOULD BE: God’s name is not hallowed in this world as it should be.
- Matthew 6:9.
- “Hallowed” is not a word that we use a lot, so it’s probably worth taking a second to define it.
- The definition of the Greek word for “hallowed” is “to separate from profane things and dedicate to God.” So we are talking about God’s name being lifted up, glorified, honored, praised, exalted.
- So as we pray the Lord’s Prayer, one thing we are praying for is that God’s name would be lifted up, glorified, honored, praised, and exalted. That it would be “hallowed.”
- Why do we need to pray that?
- God’s name is perfectly hallowed in heaven, but it’s not on earth. For instance, we read scenes in Revelation of the perfect praise that God receives from those who are in heaven.
- But that's not true on earth. It’s easy to understand when you think about it. Think of all the times God’s name is used as a cuss word. Think of all the times that the Bible is rejected as not being true. Think of all the times that people live for self and don’t care about what God thinks. Think of all the times that the power, money, and success of this world are elevated as being the most important things.
- We will talk more in a couple weeks about “Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven,” which speaks along a similar line, but the idea is simply that there are more things going on in this world that are against God than there are that lift up the name of God. Sin is happening all the time.
- So we are praying for this because it’s not happening right now in the way that it should.
IF YOU WANT TO LIVE A WORTHWHILE LIFE, WHAT SHOULD YOU LIVE FOR? There is something beautiful and noble about living for something bigger than yourself.
- If you want to live a worthwhile life, what should I live for?
- There are lots of options today and lots of opinions about the best path forward.
- Today many act as though living for yourself is a perfectly acceptable way to live life. In reality, it’s a shallow way to live life.
- Our lives are too small to make the focus of all that we do.
- Living for something bigger than yourself is a wonderful thought.
- Think of WW2. People living for a greater cause. It’s invigorating to give yourself to something bigger than yourself.
- This allows us to live for things that are eternal.
- God deserves for His name to be hallowed because He is good and loving.
- I don’t want something that is beneficial to me but is ultimately untrue to be what I live for, even if I personally benefit in the short-term.
- I want the One who is good and loving to be in the place that He deserves.
- So the idea here is that we would live to glorify the name of God.
- There are a lot of similar expressions that in practice would mean basically the same thing: following Jesus, living for God, being a disciple.
- It’s worth pausing to think about this for a moment. Do I care whether my life brings glory to God’s name? Most would say no, at least in practice. They might have a vague and undefined wish that God would get something out of their lives. But I am talking about our actual goals and the way we live in practice.
- Are we making sacrifices to honor God?
- Am I spending my money in a way that honors God?
- Am I using my spiritual gifts to lift up God’s name?
- Do I pray regularly to know and follow God’s direction?
- Do I deeply hope that my life honors God’s name?
- To live in this way is to live for something bigger, more beautiful, and more noble than ourselves.
- God is doing something great. The Kingdom of God is going to outlast this world. What Jesus accomplished in His death and resurrection is transforming lives. We have been invited to be a part of all that God is doing. It’s an incredible invitation.
- Does God have an ego problem?
- Not at all - that's not why God wants us to live for His name.
- It would be unloving of Him to tell us to live for things that are ultimately not worthwhile.
- For instance, telling us to live for money is not humble (“I don’t want to tell them to live for Me so I’ll tell them to live for money.”) but is actually unloving. He would be pointing us toward something that cannot ultimately satisfy our souls.
- He knows that He is the most loving, glorious Being in the universe. It is therefore loving for Him to tell us to live for Him.
HOW CAN I MAKE GOD'S NAME MORE HALLOWED?
- If we decide that we do want to be a part of hallowing God’s name, what does that look like at a practical level?
I think there are basically two avenues for us to make this happen in our lives.
1. I WILL PRAY THAT THE WORLD AT LARGE WOULD MOVE MORE IN THAT DIRECTION.
- We have been invited to pray for God’s name to be hallowed as part of the Lord’s Prayer. We should follow Jesus’ instruction here and do that.
- The Lord’s Prayer is a list of things we should be praying about. This is one of the things we should be praying to have happen.
- There are many countries we have no impact over. There are many lives we have no impact over. We are small.
- This is one reason we pray. We are asking for bigger things that we can make happen ourselves.
- We are asking for a better world.
- Think of how much better our world would be if God’s name was more hallowed.
- More people elevating what’s right. More people honoring what’s good. More people living for what’s Christlike.
A different way to think of this is to ponder the changes to our town if revival broke out. Imagine the desperate lives who would have help. Imagine the hopeless addicts who would become clean. Imagine the lonely lives who would find themselves surrounded by a loving church family. Imagine the impact from so many more people trying to do what’s right rather than what’s expedient for themselves. It would be a beautiful thing, wouldn’t it?
If the world was more honoring of God’s name, that's a world that would be so much better.
- This might lead you to ask: well, then, why doesn’t God do this?
- It’s a multi-faceted question, but the one piece that I think is worth emphasizing here is that people need to want that. God is going to force people to do something they don’t want to do. We aren’t made to be robots.
We see a repeated pattern in Israel’s history that is instructive. Often, Israel honored God and tried to live for them, then blessing followed, then Israel got complacent in the blessing, then Israel turned to other gods, then punishment came from God, then Israel cried out to God again, and then you were back at the beginning of the cycle.
- America (and other nations) are in a somewhat different situation but there is some overlap in human nature. Hypothetically, if America was at a point right now where we were just basking in the blessings but forgetful of God, there simply wouldn’t be an appetite to call out to God. We would be content in our material things and not hungry at all for spiritual renewal.
- A final piece of our prayer here has to do with longing for the world that is to come.
- As Christians we believe that history is going somewhere. We believe there will be a world that will be much more honoring to God and His name.
- This ties tightly into the next phrase about the arrival of God’s Kingdom - and we will handle that more fully next week. But it is worth mentioning that this is part of our hope as we pray for this.
2. I AM GOING TO LIVE SO THAT GOD'S NAME IS HALLOWED IN AND THROUGH MY LIFE.
- This second one is far more practical and impactful.
- We don’t control the whole world, though we can pray for it. We do, though, control our own lives.
- I can control whether God’s name is lifted up in my life. I can control whether God’s name is glorified through the work that I do. I can control whether God’s name is hallowed.
- There is great opportunity here to hallow God’s name.
- One way to think about this is that it is good to pray for God to help us as we endeavor to live this way.
- This makes this part of the Lord’s Prayer into a request for help. “Father, I want Your name to be lifted up, honored, exalted, glorified, and hallowed through my life. Help me do that.”
- This is a prayer of aspiration. “Father, this is something I want to do with your help.”
- Of course, this is a prayer that God loves to answer. One of His children asking for help to live in a Christ-honoring way? Of course He’s going to be eager to answer that!
- What might it look like for a life to hallow God’s name?
- That is worthy of a lengthy sermon series all to itself, but let me sketch an outline.
- a. I live according to God’s Word because I believe it is the best approach and that it is God’s truth.
- b. I trustingly ask for His help through prayer because I believe He is a loving Father eager to help.
- c. I receive, embrace, and celebrate the impact of Jesus’ death and resurrection on my life.
- d. I don’t do what’s easiest, but rather what is right.
- e. I believe God is the ultimate measure of what is good, right, and just.
- There is an odd phenomenon that is currently prevalent in America: there are a lot of people who say they want America to be a Christian nation but they don’t want God in their own lives.
- The most obvious manifestation of this is that there are a large number of people who will say that America is a Christian nation and that we need to return more of us living as a Christian nation. (I will leave unaddressed here the question of whether America or any secular nation can, in fact, be a Christian nation.) But scores of those people don’t attend church at all. Not even monthly, let alone weekly.
- It’s an odd thing: they want God in their country but not in their lives.
- Now, of course, they would dispute this. They claim to be Christians, even though there is not even the most basic evidence that is true, such as going to church. (There are other measures we could use like reading the Bible daily or deeply desiring to obey the teachings of Christ but I’ll keep things simple here.)
- I am not arguing here that every person who doesn’t go to church is not a Christian. But I do believe that you can’t be a faithful Christian without going to church (barring exceptional situations like major health problems). The church is God’s Plan A for sharing the Good News with the world and He expects every believer to be a faithful part of that mission.
- For many of these people, being a Christian is a cultural marker that means that they believe in the idea of the Christian God without actually having any desire to seriously follow Jesus.
- It has to be said that it is blatant hypocrisy to want America to be a Christian nation but not wanting God in your own life in a meaningful way. After all, how is God most likely to transform America into a place that is more honoring to the name of God? Through the faithful witness of His followers.
- One way to think of all this is as a group of flashlights. Imagine a table with money, personal comfort, ego, fame, power, and God on it. We each get a chance to choose where we point our flashlights in order to give more “glory” to each - that is more light on each.
- Imagine the difference between the flashlights most being pointed to other things versus the majority being pointed at God. That second scenario obviously brings more glory to God.
- We each have a choice where to “shine our flashlight.”
FOLLOWING JESUS' EXAMPLE: Jesus talked a lot about wanting to glorify the Father with His life.
- John 8:50, 54; John 11:4; John 12:28; John 13:32; John 15:8; John 16:14; John 17:1, 4, 5, 10, 22, 24.
- As we conclude, we can learn from Jesus on this.
- The word is a parallel one: “glorify” instead of “hallow” but it points in the same direction.
- Let’s look at a few instructive passages in John.
- First, John 17.
- a. v. 1 - glorifying the Father.
- b. v. 4 - doing it by completing His work.
- Second, John 15:8.
- We can glorify God by bearing much fruit.
- Explain how that works.
- Third, John 12:28.
- Jesus is focused on glorifying His Father even when it means going to the cross.
- So He is willing to sacrifice for the opportunity to glorify the Father.
- What we see in all this is that Jesus was focused on glorifying the Father with His life. Further, we see that Jesus wants our lives to do the same (John 15).
