22nd February 2026 - Brendan Hurley

Well, if you could keep your Bible open at the

Lord's Prayer be great to have it there in front

of you as we look at it now and It'd be suitable

for us to start by praying. So let's pray Father

we thank you that you speak to us and we ask

father that you would help us now To see what

an amazing God you are please Help us to have

our minds blown this morning By what a great

God you are. And we ask this in Jesus' name.

Amen. Well, for a free cup of coffee, can anyone

tell me who this is? The planets are a bit of

a clue. Galileo's close, not quite. Too much

Bohemian Rhapsody if you think Galileo. That's

Nicholas Copernicus. Now if you know Nicholas

Copernicus, for the longest time people thought

that the earth was the centre of the universe.

They believed that the sun, the stars and other

planets all rotated around the earth. But in

1530, Nicholas Copernicus made a massive discovery.

The sun, not the earth, is at the centre of the

universe. Now that was a massive paradigm shift

for people, wasn't it? It became known as the

Copernican Revolution. It changed the way we

see our place in the universe. Now this might

come across as a bit bold, but I hope today we

have a Copernican Revolution. Not a scientific

one, but a spiritual one. See, our default position

is to put ourselves at the centre of the universe,

isn't it? To think everything revolves around

us, around me. Life is about expressing myself,

my happiness, what's meaningful to me. At our

core, we believe life is better when I'm at the

centre of the universe. But this causes no end

of problems, does it? It causes conflict all

over the world. Because if you think you're at

the centre of the universe and I think I'm at

the centre of the universe, we're going to have

a problem, are we? Anger, violence, wars, all

stem from people thinking that they or their

tribe are at the centre of the universe. See,

putting myself at the centre of the universe

seems like a good idea, but it actually just

causes so much conflict and chaos. It doesn't

really work. And so that's why today I'm hoping

we'll have a Copernican revolution that will

see God is really at the centre of the universe.

That our lives will align with that reality that

he's at the centre of the universe. So why should

my life revolve around God? Why him? That's what

I want to show you today as we look at hallowed

be your name and Here's the big thing. I'm hoping

we'll see from today God deserves to be honored

so pray that he would be God deserves to be honored

so pray that he would be if you're someone who

has God at the center of the universe That's

what you're gonna believe. That's what you're

gonna do God deserves to be honored so pray that

he would be. And there's three aspects to that

that we're going to look at today. Firstly, God

deserves honour. Is he all that he's cracked

up to be? Secondly, we pray for God's fame. That's

one of the ways we pray. And then thirdly, we

praise God's name in our prayers, as well as

in the way we live and sing and other things

as well. So let's have a look. This is what Hello

Be Your Name is all about. And let's start with

the first bit. God deserves honour. Now that's

the assumption that's built into hallowed be

your name. What's hallowed mean? It's not herald

be your name. What's hallowed? Hallowed is to

make holy. It's to treat as special, as precious,

as sacred. Many years ago I would go visit my

grandmother's house. and she had this big cabinet

of fine china that just sat there. We never ate

from it. I think it was there for when the Queen

decided to come over. It was treated as special.

You know, I couldn't go practice my golf pitching

and chipping in that room for obvious reasons.

That was hallowed. That was holy. That was sacred.

The opposite of hallowed would be to treat it

as common, as nothing special. Imagine if rather

than having it in the cabinet, only saving it

for the Queen, if every night we pulled out the

fine china and we had some fast food on it. That'd

be the opposite of hallowed, wouldn't it? That'd

be normal, run of the mill, every day. Now what

does it mean when we say hallowed be your name?

We're saying God's name, the reputation that

reflects his character, needs to be treated as

holy and hallowed. We're praying that we'd honour

God in our own hearts and that others would honour

him too. That his name wouldn't be blasphemed

and besmirched, that it wouldn't be dragged through

the mud. but that it would be adored and loved.

You know, why is it so horrible when Christians

sin? I mean, look, there's not just the human

hurt, which is bad enough, isn't it? What makes

it so bad is that it reflects badly on our God,

doesn't it? It brings His name through the mud.

We love our God. Because he's been so loving

to us. And so that's why we want people to think

highly of him. Imagine you stayed in the most

amazing hotel that you've ever been to. I was

taking my mum for a little drive along the Esplanade

and we were seeing some of the beautiful hotels.

I don't know which one's the good one. But imagine

you stayed at the good one. And the staff just

bend over backwards for you. They go above and

beyond, always with a smile. The facilities are

luxurious. There's not even a light switch that

isn't working. Everything works perfectly. The

rooms are palatial. There's games for the kids

in a 24 -7 kids club. That's the dream. There's

a spa that's just heavenly. And the price was

amazingly cheap. And they throw in all these

deals, free ... meals, free minibar, all of it.

And it's so good by the end that you say, well,

I don't normally do this, but I'm going to write

a review. And you give them five stars. You say,

this is the best hotel I've ever been at. Now

imagine next week you go out for coffee with

some friends and they start bagging that hotel

that you went to. What are you going to do? You

jump in and defend it. Oh, what are you talking

about? This is amazing. This hotel is fantastic.

Oh, you should stay there and try it again. I

don't know what happened when you went there.

Maybe you were just a jerk. I don't know. Like,

you'd be defending it and honouring it and promoting

it because you think this is an awesome hotel.

Well, for Christians, that's what it's like with

God, isn't it? God deserves honour because He

is so good. Okay, hang on a sec, Brendan, but

why? What's so great about your God? Well, in

the Bible we find he's an almighty creator. He

made everything, every good gift on planet Earth

comes from him. Whether beauty, art, friendship,

food, morality, games, sex, family, sport, love,

all of it comes from him. What an awesome God.

I mean, here's how the Bible puts it. You are

worthy our Lord and God to receive glory and

honor and power. For you created all things and

by your will they were created and have their

being. Put another way in Romans 1. For although

they knew God, they neither glorified him as

God nor gave thanks to him. But their thinking

became futile and their foolish hearts were darkened.

That's the problem, isn't it? That people look

at God and they go, oh, I don't want to honour

him. Then I've got to kind of like submit to

him and listen to him and treat him as if he's

there. I'm just going to suppress him out of

my life and not give him thanks for all that

he's done for me. No, God deserves to be honoured.

And that's just for the creation he's made. He's

not only the creator, he's a sovereign king.

He's not like the deistic god that people often

talk about, the one, you know, he sets the watch

and it's like he winds up the universe and goes,

okay, let's let it run. I'm off to do other things,

mow the lawn or whatever God's gonna do. No,

he's there intimately involved in every aspect

of creation. He's ruling over every single atom,

every single event. That's who your God is. And

not only that, He's a gracious Saviour, gracious

and merciful, abounding in steadfast love. I

mean, so many, we ignore our Creator and reject

Him every day, even though He's done nothing

but good to us. People all through the world

do it. And does he smite us right away? No, he

gives us opportunity to repent. Actually, he

loves us so much that he sent his son to absorb

the punishment that should have been ours for

our sin and rebellion. I was reading about a

skydiver a little while ago named Aaron Topher,

I think it is. He went on a tandem skydive with

somebody here in Australia. And as they went

down, something went horribly wrong with the

parachute. And they started plummeting toward

the earth. And what Aaron Topher did is he twisted

himself so that he got the full brunt and impact

of the ground. He died so that the guy he was

with could walk away alive. Now, why do I tell

you that? Because that reminds us of the God

we have, doesn't it? We have a God who sent His

Son to absorb the full wrath and judgment, righteous

and holy judgment that should have been ours.

He absorbs that. It's as if He takes us and turns

us to one side and He copps it so that we will

be spared, so that we will escape. Here's how

the Bible puts it. Worthy is the lamb, that's

talking about the Lord Jesus, who was slain to

receive power and wealth and wisdom and strength

and honour and glory and praise. Jesus is the

one who was slain for us. He experienced God's

anger and judgment in our place. That makes him

worthy of power, wealth and wisdom, strength,

honour and glory and praise. He deserves our

worship. But not only that, our God is a righteous

judge. One day he's going to set everything in

the universe right. All the injustices we see,

all the problems in the world, when Jesus returns,

it's all going to be sorted out. Now, honestly,

that's just the tip of the iceberg. We've barely

touched on who God is. We could talk about God's

holiness, God's wisdom. You know, we could talk

about so many more attributes about who God is.

But don't you reckon a God like that deserves

honour, praise and worship? Imagine for a second

you were going to start a religion. Maybe some

of you have thought about doing that. I don't

know. Please don't. It's probably not going to

end well. But say you were going to start a religion

and you had to dream up a god for everyone to

follow. Do you reckon you could design a god

as good as the god I've just explained to you?

I think what happens when people dream up religions

is they end up with a God who's just a bigger

version of themselves, limited by their values,

their concepts, their thinking, who doesn't blow

your mind, who doesn't challenge your thinking,

who doesn't make you go, wow, he's infinitely

greater than I ever imagined, I need to worship

him. They're just bigger versions of themselves.

That's what the gods of other religions are like.

Man -made gods that people have dreamed up. Have

you ever thought about, you know, jihad in Islam?

72 virgins for the jihadists. Now, you can't

tell me that doesn't sound like a man -made god

to you. But the God of the Bible is so radically

different. He wasn't dreamt up. He came down.

He revealed himself in the Lord Jesus. And he

showed us that he's infinitely greater than anything

we could concoct. At the same time, he's holy,

he's merciful. At the same time, he's good, he's

powerful. He's just better than we could ever

dream up. He's infinitely great. And that's why,

by the way, heaven won't be boring. You know,

sometimes my kids say to me, Dad, isn't heaven

going to be really boring? No. Because what are

we going to be doing in heaven? We're going to

be getting to know and enjoying that God who

is infinitely good for all eternity You're never

going to sit there in heaven after a billion

years and go Yeah, right. I think I get God now.

Is there anything else? No, it's always going

to be mind -blowingly epic See, the God of the

Bible deserves honour. He deserves to be the

centre of the universe. And if you don't think

he does, if you're still here and you're thinking,

I should be at the centre of the universe, I

actually doubt you know God very well or yourself

very well. You're thinking too highly of yourself

and too little of God. I mean, think about it.

You're essentially saying, who does God think

he is? God or something? That's kind of silly,

isn't it? If that's where you're at, can I ask

you to do something? Come read the Bible with

me. Let's go have a coffee and if not with me,

find another Christian here at church, but come

read the Bible with me and let's go through and

see together how awesome this God is. I want

to show you that he's better than you ever thought.

But if you're here today and you know that God

is worthy of honour, worship and praise, if you

know that He rightfully should be the centre

of the universe and is, then what are you going

to do? I know, live a life that glorifies Him.

Fantastic answer, that's brilliant. But you know,

as good as that is, even that's beyond us. I

can't worship God properly unless He saves me,

helps me. I mean, He's worthy of greater worship

than my little life on earth can ever give. So,

yes, let's worship God with our lives, but first

and foremost, we need to acknowledge that God

is greater than we could ever worship Him. We

need to ask God to actually glorify His own name.

And that's our second thing. Yes, God deserves

honour. So what should we do in response? First

and foremost, pray for God's fame. Pray for God's

fame. See, when we stop and pray, hallowed be

your name, we're praying to God for God. Because

we know He's the only one who can truly do this.

See, when we pray like that, such prayer is putting

God at the centre instead of us. It's like if

my kids were to buy me a Father's Day gift. You

know what has to happen when my kids buy me a

Father's Day gift? They say, Dad, I want to get

you a Father's Day gift. Here's what has to happen.

I need to give them the money. I need to take

them to the store. At least Laura does. And I

need to tell them what to buy. No, please, I

don't want another pair of socks. Actually, it's

okay if they do. But they need me to actually

honour me properly. And it's like that with glorifying

God. We need his help to honour and worship him.

And so that's why we need to pray about it. Prayer

is us acknowledging our dependence upon him.

So what will it look like? Do we just need to

every day wake up and say, hallowed be your name?

No, I think we need to pray into that more. We

can go through the Bible and see concrete examples

that align with that. I mean, the one we looked

at today from Exodus 33, 18. Moses prays to God,

please show me your glory. That's hallowed be

your name, isn't it? Then God puts Moses in the

cleft of a rock, passes by proclaiming his name,

gracious, merciful yet just. But I love that

prayer. What a prayer. Please show me your glory.

Show me what you're like. Show me how great you

are. Make your name known to me. Imagine for

a second if everyone at Northern Hope woke up

each day and prayed, our Father in heaven, hallowed

be your name. Father, please show me your glory.

Humble me. Open my eyes. Help me to see new things

about you today, about how great you are. Help

me to savour the things I already know about

you. Help me to grasp more of your love. What

do you think would happen if we all did that?

I suspect God might actually answer that. I think

we might get a deeper hunger for God. It would

mean more people are at growth groups. It might

mean we'd have to order in a bunch of books about

God so that people could get to know Him better,

so that they could understand their Bibles better.

I think we'd have to put out more chairs at church

because wow we've just got more people coming

in because these Christians they're so joyful

and magnetic as they come to know their God.

I think we'd all have a deeper joy and contentment.

Think people would leave church and come to church

with a spring in their step and a deep anticipation

as to what's going to happen when they come.

I think you'd find there'd be less little squabbles

in church. in friendships, in marriages, because

people be thinking less of me and more about

their Father in Heaven who deserves to be worshipped

and praised. And I reckon there'd be a greater

servant -heartedness because we know a God who

doesn't sit in an ivory tower and let us suffer.

We know a God who comes into our world and bears

the punishment we deserve, suffers with us, That

creates joyful service and a loving community.

Wouldn't that be great? But it starts with praying,

hallowed be your name. Praying into that. And

that's just if we pray this for ourselves. What

about if we prayed this for others too? What

if we prayed, Father, may your name be honoured

not just in my heart, but in the heart of my

family members, my spouse and my kids. And please

glorify your name at Northern Hope this weekend

in the preaching, in the activities, in the services,

in the kids' church. And Father, not just at

Northern Hope, enable your name to be praised

in Cairns, in Australia, all over the world.

People marvel at your majesty. Father, please

plant churches throughout Cairns. We want to

see people adore you, Father, because you're

worthy of it. What would happen if we prayed

that? I wonder if God's answer would be that

His Word dwells more richly in our homes, as

people read their kids' Bibles together at the

dinner table, as they talk about God, that there'd

be more excitement about what's going on. I think

we'd be more bold in our evangelism because we'd

see that people don't just need Jesus as much

as that's true but that God is worthy of their

worship. Praying like this would be immensely

powerful. It would change us, it would change

others and it would bring God glory. In their

book, A God -Sized Vision, Colin Hanson and John

Woodbridge survey revivals in the last 300 years.

And at the end of the book, they list five traits

that happened in every one of these revivals.

It's kind of like the pattern. And topping the

list is persisting in prayer. Some prayed for

a decade until revival broke out. It wasn't easy.

Some, it was just a few who got together and

prayed but they persisted in prayer because they

yearned for God to be glorified and so they prayed

and they prayed and they prayed and they prayed

that he would be. Do we yearn for God to be glorified

like they did? Do we look around and see people

ignoring God when we go to the shops and think,

that's criminal. I need to pray about that, that

these people would become worshipers of the one

true God. Is the heartbeat of our prayers God's

glory and that we'd know him better or is it

our earthly desires for the stuff that we want?

Hallowed be your name. It does so much. It gets

our priorities right. It gets our hearts seeing

that God is at the centre of the universe, not

me. But not only should we pray for God's name

to be hallowed, you know what we should do when

we pray? We should actually spend time hallowing

it. Here's our third point. When we pray, praise

God's name. Praise God's name. If you're someone

who uses the Lord's Prayer as a template, this

is a great time to praise God for who He is and

thank Him for what He's done. And this shouldn't

be done begrudgingly. Actually, when we do this,

it's a delight. Here's how C .S. Lewis put it.

He says this. I think we delight to praise what

we enjoy because the praise not merely expresses

but completes the enjoyment. It is its appointed

consummation. It's not out of compliment that

lovers keep on telling one another how beautiful

they are. The delight is incomplete till it's

expressed. It's frustrating to have discovered

a new author and not be able to tell anyone how

good he is, to come suddenly at the turn of the

road. Did I jump ahead? To come suddenly at the

turn of the road and upon some mountain valley

of unexpected grandeur and then to have kept

silent because the people with you care for it

no more than a tin can in the ditch. Or to hear

a good joke and find no one to share it with.

The Scotch Catechism, that's not a whiskey that's

talking about a Scottish Catechism, says that

man's chief end is to glorify God and enjoy him

forever. But we shall know then that these are

the same thing. Fully to enjoy is to glorify.

In commanding us to glorify him, God is inviting

us to enjoy him. Don't you love that? Enjoying

God is how we glorify Him. Praising Him completes

our enjoyment. If you want deep satisfaction,

joy and delight, there's no getting around this.

You need to know God well. Know what He's done

for you. Know how good He is. And then praise

Him for it. That will bring you deep delight.

Thanking Him will take your joy to a whole other

level. So, what's this look like? Well, it's

to get to know God. To meditate on the scriptures.

Yes, even read a good theology book. See what

God is like. And then it's to do things like

each day count your blessings. And I mean that.

Literally count them. You can get your fingers

out if that helps. Count up your blessings and

thank God for them. Lord, thank you so much that

you sent your son to diamond for me. Thank you

so much for the greenery and the ocean and the

barrier reef and there's just so many wonderful

things that I get to enjoy here in Cairns. Thank

God for the things around you. And then praise

God for an attribute. and adore Him for it. Father

I praise you that you are wise, that you know

better than I do. You're an awesome God. And

if you do those things, you're actually letting

God take centre stage in your life. And worshipping

Him won't be a drudgery, it will be a delight.

Okay, let's recap. We started by asking, why

should my life revolve around God? And we saw

it's because God deserves to be honoured and

so pray that he would be. That's what we're meant

to believe, that God deserves to be honoured

and what do we do? We pray that he would be.

And we saw three things. We saw that God does

deserve honour. We saw that we need to pray for

God's fame and that we need to also praise God's

name. That's what hallowed be your name is all

about. So what's this all mean for us practically

though? Well there'll be some of us here today

in church who've never had a Copernican revolution.

Your heart is still putting yourself at the centre

of the universe right where God belongs. I mean

he's there but in your heart you've got it all

distorted. And I hope you've seen today, not

only is that dangerous because it means you're

not in right relationship with God, but it's

actually robbing you of joy and satisfaction.

Because each one of us is built to enjoy that

God and to know Him more. God deserves to be

the centre and it's better for you if He is.

So if you don't know that God, Make today the

day that you have a Copernican revolution or

at least start working out whether you should

have one. Maybe talk to God about it. Say to

Him, Father, if you really are there, if you

are the centre of the universe, if you deserve

to be worshipped, please make that clear to me.

But for many of us here, we have experienced

this Copernican revolution a long time ago. You

know that God deserves honour, that He's infinitely

greater than you know, and that each day you're

going, yes, I know that's what you like, God,

and I need to know more of you. And you've seen

the way it's changed your life when you've had

God at the centre. But you also know it's hard

keeping Him there, isn't it? There's a tug of

war for every Christian, isn't there? God's spirit

lives within us, but we also have a sinful nature.

And these two are pulling against each other

all the time. And we need God's help to keep

in step with the spirit, to keep pulling back

towards God at the centre of my life. And the

way we do it, one of the key ways is to pray

into hallowed be your name. That's the heartbeat

of a healthy Christian life. You know, like they

used to say, all roads lead to Rome. Well, all

roads lead to glorifying God, don't they? To

hallowed be your name. So I want to ask you,

how can you do that better this week? Is there

just one thing from today's sermon that you can

try? How can you pray into hallowed be your name?

more consistently. Because God is at the centre

of the universe and you know it's such a delight

when you live with Him there. Let's pray. Father

we want to thank you so much that you're an awesome

and wonderful and powerful God. And we pray that

you would help us to bask in who you are, to

savour it, to enjoy it, to never tire of it.

Please Father, we need you to soften our hearts,

that we may honour you and worship you as you

deserve. And Father, we ask that you would glorify

your name, not just here at Northern Hope, not

just here in Cairns. but all throughout the world.

Please, Father, bring glory to your name, which

you rightly deserve. And we ask this in Jesus'

name. Amen.