Pray Like This: Hallowed Be Your Name - Pastor David Houck | 8.16.26

Jesus is in the middle of the Sermon on the Mount.

It is a collection of some of his most famous teachings, many of which you would probably recognize.

And in it, he addresses hypocrisy, hypocrisy among the religious people.

And then he turns his attention to prayer.

And as we looked at two weeks ago, he shared ways not to pray.

He condemned hollow prayers and hypocritical prayers.

And then he turned his attention, well, this is how you should pray.

And as we discussed last week, this isn't a prayer that he expects us to mimic or to repeat word for word in our own lives.

There certainly is nothing wrong with doing that if you mean what you say.

But he begins it by saying, pray then like this.

He's giving us a formula.

And so uh in verse nine, he says, Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name, your kingdom come, your will be done on earth as it is in heaven.

Give us this day our daily bread, and forgive us our debts as we also have forgiven our debtors, and lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil.

So here Jesus gave us a model for prayer, a model for prayer, an example and a formula for us to mirror in our own prayer lives.

He said, pray then like this.

And I've split it apart into uh five sections.

First of all, the person, the person that we are praying to.

We addressed this last week.

We are praying to our Father in heaven.

And Jesus revealed two crucial aspects of God's nature with this title: that he is paternal and that he is powerful.

And as we said, everything we talk about today and in the weeks to come, it all relies upon the base of the Father in heaven.

Can you truly pray to the Father in heaven?

You can only do so.

You can only call God your Father if you have received his Son Jesus.

Amen.

Next is praise, which will be our focus for today, praising God.

The number three is purpose, number four is petition, and number five is protection.

But today we are going to focus on praising God in our prayers.

There is a man who died and went to heaven, and at the gates to heaven, uh the angel uh said to him, In whose name do you come here?

And uh the man said, I come in the name of Howard.

And the angel says, Howard?

God's name isn't Howard.

The man said, Yes, it is.

The Bible says so.

Our Father who art in heaven, Howard be thy name.

Dumb joke, but the best I have for you this morning.

The section, the sentence, hallowed be your name, I think is probably one of the most rushed-through sentences in this prayer.

Something that many don't even really give much thought to, uh, perhaps because a lot of us don't even know what exactly it means, what we are saying there.

So, first of all, what does hallowed mean?

What does hallowed mean?

Essentially, it is to set apart something as holy or sacred.

To set apart something as holy or sacred.

Maybe the only uh other way you are familiar with that word is Halloween, or uh originally known as All Hallows Eve.

Uh, there's different uh origins for it, but but some of it was um it is the evening before All Hollows Day or All Saints Day when people would commemorate uh different saints and um deceased loved ones, but it was to commemorate those who they deem to be holy, those they deem to be set apart.

And that's what this means here.

Uh Peter wrote in 1 Peter chapter 3, verse 15, but in your hearts honor Christ the Lord as holy.

1 Peter 3:15

Now, this word here that says honor is the same Greek word Jesus used in his prayer, meaning hallow or sanctify.

So you could read this as, but in your hearts hallow Christ the Lord as holy.

Set aside Jesus in your own hearts, in your mind, in your soul as holy.

Treat God's name as holy, as sacred, as set apart in your hearts, your minds, and your lives.

That's hallowed.

Now you might wonder, well, what name?

Hallowed be your name.

What name is this?

Well, in the book of Judges, uh, the angel of the Lord appeared to a man named Manoah, who would be the father of Samson, one of the most recognizable judges in the Old Testament.

Now, the angel of the Lord is actually many people consider to be a Christophany, uh, meaning this is an appearance of a pre-incarnate Christ.

That before the Son of God came in the flesh of a baby, he appeared several times in the Old Testament.

And every time he does, he's referred to as not an angel of the Lord, but the angel of the Lord.

And so Manoah asks the angel of the Lord, the Son of God, what his name is.

And then we read, and the angel of the Lord said to him, Why do you ask my name, seeing it is wonderful?

Seeing it is wonderful, or it is secret, or it is too wonderful to properly comprehend.

It is our beyond our capacity for human understanding.

So when we read this and we say, How it be your name, we ask, What name?

We have to realize that his name is far beyond whatever we can understand.

Now, scripture is full of different names that are attributed to God, different titles of respect and honor that are given to him.

But perhaps the most uh familiar one is found in Exodus chapter 3.

Exodus 3 · chapter mention

When God appeared to Moses in the desert, calling him to rescue the people of Israel from enslavement in Egypt.

Moses asked, Who should I say sent me?

What should I call you?

What is your name, God?

And God said to Moses, I am who I am.

And he said, Say this to the people of Israel, I am has sent me to you.

God is the great I am.

This is perhaps the best condensed description of God and his nature.

He is, he always has been, he always will be.

He is bigger than us, he is bigger than our universe, he is greater than our understanding.

This uh phrase uh in in the original language was um just spelled with consonants.

It was YHWH, which uh later on we added vowels to in order to be able to say it, Yahweh.

Or also, um, depending on the language, Jehovah.

That's where these names come from.

I am.

In our Bibles, uh in most translations, you don't see Yahweh or Jehovah written, they actually write it as Lord in all capital letters, so you might see Lord with lowercase letters, and then you might see Lord in all uppercase letters, and that is Yahweh, that is Jehovah.

In fact, um it is Jewish custom that they wouldn't even say this name or write this name because they considered it to be too sacred, too holy.

So, this saying here, this phrase that Jesus spoke, hallowed be your name, is a request that God's holiness would be recognized and glorified.

It's a request, it's a petition that God's holiness would be recognized and glorified, that it would be seen, that it would be praised.

This isn't a request that God would be holy because he is.

It's not a request, uh, or it's not saying that God needs glory because all glory is already his.

This is a prayer.

This is a request that God would reveal his glory, and a prayer that we would praise his holiness.

Next week we'll look at the line: your kingdom come, your will be done on earth as it is in heaven.

This is what heaven is: eternal praise of God's holiness.

That's what we're asking God, that he would bring heaven to earth.

In fact, the prophet Isaiah in the Old Testament was given a glimpse into heaven.

He saw angels uh flying around God's throne.

In Isaiah chapter 6, verse 3, he wrote, and one called to another and said, Holy, holy, holy is the Lord of hosts.

Isaiah 6:3

The whole earth is full of his glory.

That's what heaven is.

It is praising God as holy, it is hallowing his name.

That's what we will be doing for an eternity in heaven, praising and enjoying the perfect, complete presence of God.

And that's what we are called to do now.

The primary focus of our lives as Christians is to glorify God, not just in church, not just on Sunday mornings, but every day in everything that we do.

Which is why Paul wrote in 1 Corinthians chapter 10, verse 31, whatever you do, do all to the glory of God.

1 Corinthians 10:31

Every aspect of our lives should serve the purpose of glorifying God, praising God, hallowing God.

And so, for this prayer to be genuine for you, to pray the Lord's Prayer without hypocrisy means you and I have the intention to glorify God in all that we do.

So, how do we glorify God?

There's no end to the list of ways we can do that, but I do want to provide some examples.

First of all, we can glorify God in our prayers.

In our prayers.

In the Lord's Prayer, Jesus addresses God the Father, reveals who it is that we are praying to, and then he turns to praising God, to celebrating God.

Before any personal requests are made, it's a petition on God's behalf that he would receive all the glory.

How often do you just praise God in prayer?

How often do you just pray and the only thing you're saying is how holy God is, how amazing God is, how wonderful He is, how faithful He is.

A lot of us, myself included, are so quick to just, Heavenly Father, give, support, help, provide, without even acknowledging who it is that we are actually talking to.

The great I am.

Isaiah 25, verse 1 says, Oh Lord, you are my God.

Isaiah 25:1

I will exalt you, I will praise your name, for you have done wonderful things, transformed of old, faithful and sure.

Our prayer should look like this: praising God for who he is, celebrating the fact that he is faithful.

I mean, so often we pray for things, God answers that prayer, and we just move on.

Rather than stopping and thanking God that he is faithful, or thanking God for unanswered prayer, looking back in your life at a season when you prayed and prayed and prayed for something and God didn't answer, and you look back and you're grateful that he didn't, because where he led you or what he had for you was so much greater.

I mean, come on.

How many of us prayed and prayed and prayed for a certain someone and we look back and say, Thank God you didn't answer that prayer, right?

We should pray praise to God, glorify God in our prayer.

Secondly, we can glorify God in our speech.

Now, a lot could be said here, but I want to focus more on what not to say, to hallow God's name, to treat him and his name as holy and sacred, set apart from all other language, means that we have to be careful in the way we speak about him, careful in the way we use his name, protective of the title of God, of Jesus, of Christ, of the Spirit.

Which is why in the Ten Commandments, it says, You shall not take the name of the Lord your God in vain, for the Lord will not hold him guiltless who takes his name in vain.

You probably know that, but not enough people, not enough Christians take this seriously of just throwing around God's name or Christ's name without care, misusing it, using it as a curse word, using it just flippantly and casually, not as a prayer, not reverently, but just saying, Oh my God, at something completely random, and you're using God's name, you're invoking God in something where you're not even thinking about him.

Every time we speak of God, every time we speak of Jesus or the Holy Spirit or Christ, we should be intentional, purposeful in how we speak about him.

But it goes beyond that.

It's misrepresenting God's name.

Taking the name of the Lord your God in vain can just be as simple but as dangerous as calling yourself a Christian when you're not a Christian, or communicating that you're a Christian and then not acting Christ-like.

People know you're a Christian, people know you go to church, but you are no different than the rest of the world.

You are misrepresenting Jesus.

You are misrepresenting Christ, you are using his name in vain.

We do that when we abandon our call as Christians.

Leviticus chapter 19, verse 12 says, You shall not swear by my name falsely, and so profane the name of your God.

Leviticus 19:12

I am the Lord.

We aren't to misuse his name, we aren't to say, Oh, I just swear to God as we take that lightly, or maybe we even use that dishonestly.

But you also just don't invoke his name in anything you say or anything you believe or do.

This you have to be so careful about, and something that is honestly a pet peeve of mine when someone comes and says, God told me to, or God wants me to, or God said, or God gave me this vision, or God gave me this idea.

Are you a hundred percent confident that God said that?

The truth is, as Christians, the only time we should say God said is when we're about to quote Scripture.

Because we know beyond a doubt that that is what God said.

But so many people intentionally or mistakenly invoke God's name with something that at the very least we don't really know that that's something God said, or that that's where God led us.

Or at the worst, we purposefully invoke God's name as a form of manipulation.

Be careful when speaking about the great I am, be careful about using God's name.

Thirdly, we can glorify God in our worship, in our worship.

Now, all of our lives is to be worshiped, everything we do is to be worshiped.

To worship is again just to glorify God.

But here I want to focus on communal worship.

When we gather together, when we sing, when we praise, when we fellowship, when we study God's Word.

Our focus every single Sunday morning should be to glorify and praise God.

It's not about our enjoyment.

It's not about our personal preference.

It's not about us.

We shouldn't come to church focused on our personal preference, but on God being praised.

Don't come and you think about the singing and you say, Oh, I hope the singing doesn't go too long.

I hope the singing isn't too short.

I hope there are a lot of hymns.

I hope there aren't any hymns.

I hope they play my favorite song.

I really hope they don't play this song.

We should be preparing our hearts before we enter this to just praise and worship and glorify God.

To sing these words, to focus on these words, to focus on just praising the great I Am.

To giving our hearts over to Him.

It is a sacrifice of praise, a sacrifice of thanksgiving.

It's not just a meaningless tradition.

It's not just this casual opener to church.

It's not a time to catch up with people.

It's a time to come before God humbly and sacrificially and prepare your hearts to worship him communally.

And that is a powerful testimony to guests, to people who aren't believers, to people who come in for the first time.

Psalm 96, verses 1 through 3 says, Oh, sing to the Lord a new song.

Psalms 96:1–3

Sing to the Lord all the earth.

Sing to the Lord, bless his name, tell of his salvation from day to day.

Declare his glory among the nations, his marvelous works among all the peoples.

That's what we should be doing.

We are declaring to each other, we are declaring to the world how wonderful God is, praising him for his mighty works.

It is a powerful testimony.

Just focus on praising God.

And I gotta say, and I get it, we we are definitely uh more on the conservative side of uh church.

Uh, you know, we're we're we're very much New York Baptists, all right?

You know, I get that, but let's be honest, so many of us get more animated at a sporting event or just watching a game on the TV or at a movie premiere or at a secular concert or playing video games than we are when we're praising God on a Sunday morning.

Now, I'm not saying you should scream as loud as you do at, you know, at a stadium, you know, let's keep order.

I'm not saying you need to be dancing in the aisle, you know, we don't want any of those flag wavers, you know, running around the sanctuary like some churches have.

But we're praising God and we're praising God together.

And I know a lot of people are cautious, and I get it, I've been this way too.

We don't want to make it look like we're praising God for show that we're trying to get people's attention, because that certainly does happen.

But really, we shouldn't be focused on what other people are doing.

We shouldn't be looking around or, you know, uh judging people.

We should just be focused on praising God ourselves.

So I just want to say, I get it.

It tends to be uh against our culture, our tradition.

It's okay to raise a hand.

All right, if you can do a wave, the wave at a game, you can raise your hand in church.

All right, and I get it.

You know what?

I I would encourage you uh next Sunday to try it out, and maybe this is too much for you to get into.

So what you do is you just small, put your hand like this, then you get more comfortable, and it goes like this, and then you might get to this point, and then maybe both hands, all right?

But I'm not expecting anyone to get to both hands.

But why do we do that?

Is surrender to God.

We are giving it up to God.

We are worshiping God, we are praising God, we are reaching out to our heavenly father as a small child reaches for their parent.

We can glorify God in our worship.

Number four, we glorify God in our conduct.

Now, this could mean all of our actions, just how we live our lives, but I specifically pulled this word from a passage that Peter wrote in 1 Peter chapter 2.

1 Peter 2 · chapter mention

Here he is saying, conduct as it relates to how we live and act among outsiders and as citizens.

We've looked at this a couple of times this year, but I think it is worth repeating.

Peter wrote, keep your conduct among the Gentiles, meaning non-believers, honorable, so that when they speak against you as evildoers, they may see your good deeds and glorify God on the day of visitation.

Be subject for the Lord's sake to every human institution, whether it to be the emperor as supreme, or to governors as sent by him to punish those who do evil and to praise those who do good.

For this is the will of God, that by doing good you should put to silence the ignorance of foolish people.

Live as people who are free, not using your freedom as a cover-up for evil, but living as servants of God.

Honor everyone, love the brotherhood, fear God, honor the emperor.

I'm gonna bring this passage up every couple of months because I just feel like we really need to all understand this.

It's difficult, it's challenging, it's against our culture to just honor everyone, to just honor those we don't like, to honor those we disagree with.

Say, why pay taxes?

Why do I have to pay taxes?

Why submit to the government?

Why honor the politicians I don't like or the party that I vote against to bring glory to God?

So I don't understand how that works.

But you understand it's written there, don't you?

This is God's will, so that we can glorify God, so that when outsiders try to accuse us of something, there is no basis for what they're saying.

Because we are living as the most honorable, respectful citizens that there are.

This comes at a sacrifice.

This is counter-cultural to many people, but it means choosing to do the right thing over the easy thing, choosing to not cheat on your taxes, to not choose less than legal methods of doing things, to not take advantage of government programs when it's dishonest for you to do so.

I want to be clear.

If you qualify, if you legally and honestly qualify for a government program or assistance or a benefit, then do that because take advantage, not take advantage, but make use of it because that is your right as a US citizen.

If there are legal ways, legal deductions you can take in paying your filing for your taxes, then do that.

But you do so honestly, you do so with integrity.

You're not deceiving, you're not taking advantage of these programs, of the nation, of fellow taxpayers.

You say, why?

I don't understand it.

Isn't it my money?

You do it because you glorify God, whether or not you like it.

You do so because God commanded it.

God is hallowed, set apart.

He wants us to be set apart just as he is, to honor everyone, including government leaders that we don't like, including people we don't agree with.

We can glorify God in our conduct.

Number five, we can glorify God in our giving.

Christians are called to be generous, we're called to give abundantly, give above and beyond because we understand that God is the ultimate provider of all that we have.

We have what we have because God has given it to us.

It's not our money.

People say, well, it's my money.

No, it's not.

Well, I work for it.

God allowed you to have that job.

God gave you the capability to have that job.

God gave the breath in your lungs.

I mean, it's not yours, it is God's.

We should always hold on to our possessions and our money with open hands, loose hands.

Because if you acknowledge the fact that God gave this to me, then what do you have to lose to give some of it back?

You know he will continue to provide.

And generosity isn't just about meeting the needs of others or supporting the local church or supporting global missions.

It is about that, yes, but it's also a powerful testimony.

It is a cause for praise to God.

Paul wrote to the church in Corinth.

He was encouraging them to give to support other Christians.

And he said in chapter 9, verses 11 through 13 of a second letter, you will be enriched in every way to be generous in every way, which through us will produce thanksgiving to God.

For the ministry of this service is not only supplying the needs of the saints, but is also overflowing in many thanksgivings to God.

By their approval of this service, they will glorify God because of your submission that comes from your confession of the gospel of Christ and the generosity of your contribution for them and for all others.

He's saying your generosity will cause them to praise God because they see your faith in work.

They see that God is working through you, and they are thankful and grateful not just to you, but to God.

It's a testimony, and it encourages fellow believers, it encourages churches, it encourages pastors, it encourages ministries when we give generously and glorify God with our money.

Lastly, we glorify God in our bodies.

We glorify God in our bodies.

Do you glorify God with your health?

Do you glorify God with your diet, your fitness, your sexuality?

We are created in the image of God.

We are given these bodies by God with the expectation that we steward them well, not abuse them, that we take care of our health, not neglect it.

Say, well, this is just a vessel.

You know, my body is a body, but I'm a soul.

I'm an eternal soul.

Yes, but you've been given your body, take care of it.

Just as we're called to steward the earth well, to manage God's earth, not completely abuse it, but take care of it.

Everything God gives us, we are to steward it well.

And that includes our bodies.

Now we are given freedom, religious freedom.

You know, we're we're not like the ancient uh Israelites who were given specific rules of eat this, not that.

So we have some freedom.

We can eat bacon, amen.

But that doesn't mean you should only eat bacon.

We should still protect our bodies.

Paul said in 1 Corinthians chapter 6, beginning in verse 12, all things are lawful for me, but not all things are helpful.

1 Corinthians 6 · chapter mention

All things are lawful for me, but I will not be dominated by anything.

Saying, you have freedom to choose what you eat and drink, but it's not all good for you.

And some things have the capacity to master you.

Alcohol, substances, sugar, fat, McDonald's, you know, I it they have the capability to become a master in your life.

And look, some of us are more prone to certain things than others.

Some of us might be able to, with alcohol, take it or leave it, doesn't matter, have one drink, we're fine.

Others might come from a background of alcohol abuse or a family history of alcohol abuse.

So you need to understand that that can master you.

You need to be careful with that.

And this includes their sexuality.

Paul continues flee from sexual immorality.

Every other sin a person commits is outside the body, but the sexually immoral person sins against his own body.

Or do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit within you, whom you have from God?

You are not your own, for you were bought with a price.

So glorify God in your body.

You're not only created by God, you were then purchased by God through the blood of Christ.

And then you become a temple of the living God through the Holy Spirit who dwells within you.

We are the church.

The building is in the church, we are the church.

We bring the church wherever we go.

We don't travel to a temple, we don't have to go behind a veil because God is living within us.

So, how are you treating the temple?

How are you honoring the temple of the Holy Spirit?

Sexual immorality is any sort of sexual act or expression outside the context of a marriage between a man and a woman.

Anything outside of that is sexual immorality.

And anything outside of that dishonors your body, dishonors the temple of the Holy Spirit.

We can glorify God in our bodies.

We pray, hallowed be your name.

But is God truly hallowed in your life?

Is God truly set apart as holy?

Placed above all else.

Is he placed above your family?

Is he placed above your career?

Is he placed above money?

Is he placed above your friends?

Your ego?

Your habits, your hobbies.

Is he placed above your own dreams and desires?

Look, we're not always gonna get it right.

On this side of eternity, we will always fall short.

Thanks be to God that in heaven we will always get it right because we will be made complete.

So look, it's it's not hypocritical, it's not completely hypocritical to pray this when you fall short.

But we cannot truthfully praise this if we're holding on to something else, if we're refusing to hallow God in every aspect of our lives, to glorify Him in everything we do.

Look, every single one of us, probably one of these things on the list stuck out to us more than the others.

It might be different for everyone.

Where are you not hallowing God in your life?

Start there.

We can't even begin to offer you the praise and the glory that you deserve.

God, you don't you don't need our praise.

All glory belongs to you, all holiness belongs to you.

You are the great I am, yet you invite us to praise you.

You invite us to worship you, you invite us to glorify you.

It is an honor, it is an undeserved privilege, a gift that we have been given, that we can call you, Father, that we can say, hallowed be your name.

That we have been given the Holy Spirit, that we have been purchased by your Son Christ, so that we can even begin to worship you and then experience an eternity of perfect worship and fellowship in your presence.

We fall short, God.

We fall short in hallowing you in our lives.

We thank you for the grace that you provide in those moments of weakness through Jesus.

Lord, we ask for your help and we ask for the help of the Holy Spirit that we might be able to identify in our lives the areas where we are not bringing you glory.

And that through the power you have given us, because we can't do it on our own, but through the power and the strength you have given us through the Holy Spirit, we might be able to identify those areas and to change them and to glorify you in all that we do.

We pray these things in the name of Jesus.

Amen.