“Hallowed be Thy Name”
A couple of weeks ago, as I was praying about what my next sermon was going to be pertaining to, I felt as if the Holy Spirit was compelling me to focus my studies on the Lord’s Prayer. So, I continued to pray about it for a while, thinking about how to format it, and even though the passage is only five verses long, I finally realized that there is no way that I could possibly cover the entire subject matter in one thirty or forty-five minute sermon. So, I decide to make it a “sequel” if you will. I’ll only ask that you will be patient with me and over the
next few sermons, I hope to have this most famous and meaningful prayer presented to you in a way that will be both enlightening and spiritually enriching. The title of this week’s message is “Hallowed Be Thy Name”
As indicated by the title of our sermon, this morning we are going to be concerned with mainly the first verse of the Lord’s prayer which is; “Our Father which Art in heaven, Hallowed be Thy name.”
1John 3:1,2 says; “How great is the love the Father has lavished on us, that we should be called children of God! And that is what we are!” Listen to me closely when I tell you.....that God has done something truly amazing....! He has taken you and me, sin-stained, dirty and unworthy of even uttering His name out loud, and He has made it possible for us to boldly approach His Throne of Grace. Through the redeeming blood of Jesus Christ ---God’s only “begotten” Son, we have been washed clean and reconciled to our Creator--no longer only as mere
“creatures” but now, as His CHILDREN. Thus, when we pray, we have been given the distinct honor of addressing God Almighty as “our Father”! Isn’t that astounding? God, in effect says; “Call me DAD.”
Turn with me in your bibles to Matthew 6:5-9
“5 “And when you pray, do not be like the hypocrites, for they love to pray standing in the synagogues and on the street corners to be seen by men. I tell you the truth, they have received their reward in full. 6 But when you pray, go into your room, close the door and pray to your Father, who is unseen. Then your Father, who sees what is done in secret, will reward you. 7 And when you pray, do not keep on babbling like pagans, for they think they will be heard because of their many words. 8 Do not be like them, for your Father knows what you need before you ask him.
9 “This, then, is how you should pray:
”‘Our Father in heaven,
hallowed be your name,”
Now, when Jesus says; “This then is how you should pray:” in the first part of verse nine, He is not saying that we should quote this prayer word for word necessarily---He is saying that this is to be the thought pattern which we should follow in our prayers. Let’s read this prayer in it’s entirety even though I’m sure we all know it by heart. Matthew 6:9-13
9 “This, then, is how you should pray:
”‘Our Father in heaven,
hallowed be your name,
10 your kingdom come,
your will be done
on earth as it is in heaven.
11 Give us today our daily bread.
12 Forgive us our debts,
as we also have forgiven our debtors.
13 And lead us not into temptation,
but deliver us from the evil one.’
Notice if you will that this prayer is separated into eight major parts; first, we have the invocation (where we initially “call upon God;”) then we have six petitions--or appeals.
Finally, at the end, we find the closing doxology or praise of God.
Now we just talked about the invocation where we are told to call upon God Almighty as “our Father”. And even though this is how God would have us address Him, the very next part of that verse serves to continually remind us that we are still quite human...yet He, on the other hand, is Divine.......”Our Father which art IN HEAVEN” You see, even though we ARE His “children” we can in no way even begin to think that we are any more “divine” or that He is any less divine because of our special relationship. Sometimes we tend to get “overly
comfortable” when we pray or speak His name. Thus we sort of “bring Him down to our level.” So, by these two words; “in heaven” we need to realize that even though God desires a “personal” relationship with us, He still asks that we approach Him with respect and awe. In Hebrews 12:28 Paul admonishes us to “serve God with reverence and godly fear.” One would
naturally assume that we should approach Him in the same way.
Our Father, which art in heaven, HALLOWED BE THY NAME.
This, the first petition of the Lord’s prayer is uttered by millions of people all over the world, but so many fail to grasp the true meaning of what this petition is really asking for. In fact, we may not even think of this as a petition at all, rather simply a statement. But the original Greek reads more like this; “may your name be sanctified.” And for a long time, I failed to realize the full significance of these words.
At first glance, we would assume that we are merely asking that God’s name be “be made holy.”....... But there is a slight problem if we try to say that this is the extent it’s
meaning, because you see, God’s name is ALREADY Holy---Above His heavenly throne, angelic Seraphim call out continuously: “Holy, holy, holy is the Lord Almighty; the whole earth is full of His glory!”
Being the Eternal God of heaven and earth, His name simply cannot be made any more holy than it is already. So, there is definitely more to these four words; “hallowed be thy name” than first meets the eye. To help us understand the deeper meaning of this petition; let’s turn to Ezekiel 36:22,23
Ezekiel 36:22-23
“22 “Therefore say to the house of Israel, ‘This is what the Sovereign LORD says: It is not for your sake, O house of Israel, that I am going to do these things, but for the sake of my holy name, which you have profaned among the nations where you have gone. 23 I will show the holiness of my great name, which has been profaned among the nations, the name you have profaned among them. Then the nations will know that I am the LORD, declares the Sovereign LORD, when I show myself holy through you before their eyes.”
Now it says here--three times in fact-- that the Israelites have “profaned the name of the Lord”---what do you think that means? Well, we said earlier that God’s name is already holy and it can’t be made any MORE holy. And so, by the same token, it can’t be made any LESS holy either..... But, it can be given a bad reputation.
For instance, I have a job where I have to go into people’s homes quite often and do some work. Now suppose that I drive up to the house in a van with the name of my company on it, go into their house with my shirt that also has my company’s name on it, and even introduce myself as Dwight Davis from Hard Tops.... Now, before I even get started with my
work, I light up a cigarette. Then as I am going about my business, I use foul language when talking to my helper. I do a sloppy job, don’t clean up behind myself and basically offend this person.....
When I leave this person’s home, I leave not only a sloppy job, but I also leave something else; a bad reputation. This person will no doubt remember the company of Hard Tops in a very negative way. He or she will never recommend my company to any of their friends because of the way that one person acted. The rest of the company employees could very well
be wonderful people that do great work, but because of my actions, many people will regard my company as being undesirable.
Again; God’s name IS holy. Problem is, we don’t always keep it holy, thus we need to pray “hallowed be thy name.” The Greek word for hallowed; “”hagiazo” means; to make holy, to treat as holy and sacred, to hold with reverence or to set aside as holy unto God.
With this petition, Jesus taught us to pray that we would keep God’s name holy and sacred among us, and that we would in no way profane, disgrace or tarnish the name of the Lord.
Now we get into the heart of the matter; exactly how do we “keep God’s name holy?” There is quite a bit of confusion on this subject, but we are going to try to clarify it this morning. When asked; “how do we keep God’s name holy?” most people would almost automatically reply; “by not using His name in vain.” And I’ll have to agree that this is a very important part of keeping His name holy--but it’s not the most important part! So many think that as long as they don’t use God’s name in vain or use it in a derogatory fashion that they are “keeping it
holy.”
There is also another gross misconception --especially among our denomination today; and that is the matter of keeping the Sabbath holy.......Just as we made clear about the fact that God’s name is already holy and will be holy with or without our help, so the Sabbath is already and it will continue to be holy because God made it holy!
We think that we can keep this day holy by avoiding a long list of “things we should NOT do on this day”, and, if we make it through the 24 hour period without working, buying, selling, or “going our own way” --then we’ve succeeded. But, and correct me if I’m wrong, isn’t “keeping the Sabbath” or “keeping God’s name holy” more than just about what we
should NOT do............isn’t it even more so about what we should do?
Brothers and sisters, we are ambassadors of heaven! We are representatives of God here on earth. When we claim to be Christians, we are assuming the responsibility of representing our Lord in a way that will inspire others to desire citizenship in the Kingdom of Heaven. And as God’s representatives there are two things in particular that we must do in order to keep His name holy.
A man by the name of Martin Luther has this to say about it: “God’s name is kept holy when His Word is taught in it’s truth and purity, and we as children of God lead holy lives according to it......but whoever teaches and lives contrary to God’s Word dishonors God’s name among us...”
God said that the Israelites profaned His name everywhere they went. And how? By claiming to be “God’s chosen people” yet living in such a way that God could not condone. The Israelites corrupted themselves with idolatry and bloodshed to the point that God had to pour out His wrath upon His own nation! And because of this, God’s name was “dragged through the mud” so to speak. The other nations around them respected the name of the Lord less because of the actions of His children.
Do you and I profane the name of the Lord today?......Do we sometimes say or do something that does quite the opposite of Hallow God’s name? If you are thinking; “certainly not!” ---you need to be a little more honest with yourself! Because the truth is that whenever we conduct ourselves in a way that is NOT Christ-like, we are not keeping His name holy. So when we pray “hallowed be thy name”, we are asking God that we would always remember Whose children we are and we are asking that Jesus manifest Himself in us. By praying this particular petition, we are asking God to do through us what we cannot do of ourselves.
In 1Corinthians 10:31 Paul says; “So whether you eat or drink or whatever you do, do it all for the glory of God.”
In the third verse of the 23rd Psalm, David writes; “He leadeth me in the paths of righteousness for His name’s sake.” When we pray;
“Hallowed be Thy name...,” that’s what we are asking God to do---lead us in the paths of righteousness for His name’s sake.
Brothers and sisters, we live in a time when God’s name is being profaned every single day--in fact every minute! Our children are being accustomed to hearing the holy name of the Lord being used in vain on television, at school, and yes, even at home. People who do not have a relationship with the Lord are seeing those who are supposed to be “called by His
name” living a more sinful life than they do! Friends, before we can be effective in God’s service, His name must first be “hallowed” in our own hearts and lives.
I want to close our message with the first five verses of one of my favorite Psalms; (Psalm 31:1-5)
“In you, O Lord, I have taken refuge; Let me never be put to shame; deliver me in your righteousness. Turn your ear to me, come quickly to my rescue; be my rock of refuge, a strong fortress to save me. Since you are my rock and fortress, for the sake of your name lead and guide me. Free me from the trap that is set for me, for you are my refuge. Into your hands I commit my spirit; redeem me, O Lord, the God of truth.”
A human life hidden in and devoted to Jesus Christ is, as the Apostle Paul says; “a living sacrifice” that has as it’s primary purpose the objective of glorifying God and uplifting
Jesus through our testimonies which are our lives. May God bless you as you continue to seek Him through His word.
