Mm. How do you live a life that declares to God, hallowed be thy name? By living a life of worship, which will not only exalt him, it will change you. Today, on Turning Point, Dr. David Jeremiah reveals exactly how you can expect to be changed by entering into God's presence through a lifestyle of worship.
To introduce the conclusion of his message, hallowed be thy name, here's David. We are living in a period of time in our country where worship is a very important subject. Radio stations across this nation have been purchased and programmed specifically. For worship. Almost everything on the program every day is one worship song after another, and the whole program is about worshiping the Lord.
Our churches are filled with worship of many different styles, and oftentimes it becomes a battleground for churches as to what style of worship should be followed. But the Bible just teaches us one main thing, and that is we're to worship God. We're to hallow his name. The Father is to be the focus of our attention when we pray, when we worship in church. I just said this to our people on the Lord's Day: it's not about us, it's about him.
And when we realize that, everything changes.
So, today we're going to continue our discussion of the phrase that's found at the front end of the Lord's Prayer: hallowed be thy name, what it means, and how we put it into operation in our lives. But before we do that, let me remind you: we want to help you develop and strengthen your prayer life, and we have a book that we think will do that. We've worked very hard in preparing this book. It's called Everything to God in Prayer: Guided Prayers for Your Deepest Needs and Biggest Dreams. If there's something that you want to pray about, you're not sure how to do it, where to start, where to begin, is there a scripture to help you?
Well, I want you to know we have put these prayers together for you. Here's just a few of the topics from the book. When I want to grow in hospitality, when I'm battling shame, when I need peace in my home, when my heart is heavy, when I receive God's correction, when God feels far away, those are just some of the things, and there's a prayer for each one of them printed out along with scripture on each of the pages in this wonderful book. Beautifully presented, and it's yours for the asking when you encourage us and help us with a gift of any size during the month of August. Your gift is important because it helps us meet the needs that we have and the cost of programming and production.
But it also is a way for you to invest in the kingdom, and I hope you'll take advantage of that this week. Here now is part two of Hallowed be thy name. When the Lord said, When you pray, pray like this: Our Father who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name. He wants us to not just know the name God, but He wants us to know all we can know about God so that when we worship Him, we can lift back up to Him praise for all that the Word of God reveals Him to be. And when you come to the New Testament, we discover that the greatest of the names is Jesus, the God-man.
And then a whole new list of names comes through, doesn't it? He is the bread. He is the way of life. He is the truth. He is the resurrection, the good shepherd, the branch.
And all of the New Testament is filled in the Gospels with names to help us know the one we worship. Our Father who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name. And here are the things about God. That we know from the names that have been given us. I have on occasion selected just one little name of God.
and tried to think about it for a whole week. Jehovah Jireh the Lord provides. How many of you know that God provides? That he does. Isn't that a wonderful thing?
And just for one week, just say, Lord, this week I'm going to hallow your name and I'm going to consider for my own praise what you have done to provide for me. You are Jehovah Jireh, the Lord provides. And every day focus on some time. to reflect on his provision. Not only do we hallow His name by rehearsing their meanings, but we hallow His name by respecting His greatness.
God is uncommon. He's extraordinary. He's unearthly. He's separated from sinners. He's undefiled.
And the Bible says he's holy. And we are to speak of God in reverence. We are to sanctify him, to hallow his name, means to hold his matchless being in reverence so that you will believe what he says and you will obey him and you will honor his name. We are given here in this prayer a wonderful tension so that we don't go off in some crazy direction. When we talk about our Father who art in heaven, and remember He's Abba Father, He is, according to the New Testament language, the daddy, He's our daddy.
That is intimate. But in the same sentence, we're told: Our Father who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name. And God is not pleased when we forget that He is. The great and majestic one to whom we come. He's the creator of the universe, and he deserves to be treated with respect and honor.
So whatever we may do, whatever we may say that would in any way diminish his greatness, we ought not to do. We ought to hold him up. With great reverence and respect. We hallow his name by respecting his greatness. Thirdly, We hallow his name by relinquishing control over our own lives.
Martin Luther said, How is God's name hallowed among us? when both our doctrine and our living are truly Christian. We hallow the name of God by the way we live when we give ourselves totally to Him and allow Him to control our lives. When we say, hallowed be thy name, we are praying like this, may the whole of my life be a source of delight to you and may it be an honor to the name which I bear, which is your name. Hallowed be your name.
Psalm 19:14 is a prayer that we sometimes pray in church. It goes like this: Let the words of my mouth And the meditation of my heart be acceptable in thy sight, O Lord, my rock and my redeemer. That ought to be the prayer of each one of us every day. Lord, I hallow your name. by giving you the control of my life.
and living in obedience to you. Fourthly, We hallow His name by recognizing His presence in all of our lives. We hallow his name when we are constantly aware of his presence. David said in Psalm 16:8, I have set the Lord always before me. That's the key.
We live our lives in the presence of God. And we honor and respect him. And when we come into his presence, not flippantly, quickly. Just sort of with a, oh, by the way, Lord. We come into his presence, we prepare our hearts to come and to pray.
and to honour his name. And I want to say to you, men and women, that if we learn to pray as Jesus taught his disciples, it will make an incredible difference in the way we live. That God does not wish us necessarily to always be rushing into His presence with our grocery lists of things. God wants to be worshipped. The Bible says He seeks those who will worship Him in spirit and in truth.
And when we come to Him, we need to bring our gift of worship to Him first. before we ask him to fill our hands with other things. I am so confident that this is a critical part of where most of us are in our spiritual walk with the Lord. And I'm still just learning. I'm a student like the rest of you.
And I wrote down six things that entering into the presence of God with worship changes in everyone's life. It will change your life just as it's changing mine. We're all in the growing process. We're not there yet, but hopefully, we're on the road toward understanding more and more about who God is and how He works in our lives every day. And here are some of the things that I reflected upon.
Number one, When I worship, when I come into the presence of God with, hallowed be thy name. Worship enhances my appreciation and my love for God. I am caused to see him as he is. Is God's greatness changed by my worship? Not in the least.
Can I add or subtract one whit to who he is? Not at all. But when I reflect in my own heart upon his greatness. When I come in my prayer, and maybe I've learned some of the attributes of God, some of the names of God that tell me more and more about who He is, when I reflect those back to Him, something happens within me. The greatness of God is impressed upon my spirit so that I see Him and understand a little bit more about who He is and the greatness of God.
is enhanced in my life. I remember preaching a sermon some years ago talking about a lot of folks who have a big God and some who have a little God. And I got all kinds of mail when that went on the radio because some people thought I'd gotten into idolatry. I had to straighten that all out. And that's not what I was talking about.
I was talking about the fact that sometimes the way people respond to God, their God is very little. He is Circumscribed by their own restrictions. They have never seen God as the scripture presents him, and they have never worshipped that God. It's as if God were out there waiting for us to come and see him. And in the back of our mind, we have an image of who he is, and it's not a very Enhancing image.
It's sort of a Not a very great image of who God is. And then. The day comes and we're allowed to go into his presence, and for one moment we see him as he really is, and all of a sudden, Our whole expression and appreciation for God changes. That's what worship does for me. Every time I really understand what's going on in my own heart as I worship the Lord, I began to see God, and He is enlarged and enhanced in my own heart, not as He is, but in my heart.
Number two, when I worship. Worship expands my vision. You know, one of the things we're prone to do is to look at life in terms of our own limitations. That's the way the average person does. When I worship God, I begin to see life not in terms of what David Jeremiah can do, but I began to see life in terms of what God can do through David Jeremiah.
There's a big difference, my friend. I am a very limited, flawed human being. And if it's just me doing my thing for God, it's not going to accomplish very much. But when I worship God, something happens within me, it expands my vision to think about what God can do through me. What he can do through you.
I'm reminded. Often of one of my favorite stories in the Old Testament about the spies who went into the land. Yeah. It's like a lot of things that happened. The majority report came back, and they all said, we can't do it.
That's the way a lot of majority reports come back. You know, we've gotten the idea that the majority is always right, but a lot of times in the Bible, the majority was wrong. And the majority came back and they said, we've been into the promised land. And we've checked it all out, and we want you to know what our appraisal is. Our appraisal is like this.
Those are some big people. Those giants were eight feet tall and taller, the Anachim, they're called. And the majority report came back, and they said, We checked them out, and we checked them out. And you want to know what our appraisal is? We are like grasshoppers before them.
And we don't think we should mess with them. We don't think we should go in. God had told them to go in. They said, no, we saw them, we saw us, we're like grasshoppers. Joshua and Caleb, the minority report, they came back and they said, you know, We were in the same land.
Walked down the same streets, saw the same giants, saw the same situation, but What we want you to know is, those are some big people, but they are no match for God. And the only difference in the majority report and the minority report was the comparison. The majority compared themselves to the problem, and the minority compared the problem to God. The large group had a small god. The small group had a large God.
And what happens when you worship, my friends? When you come into the presence of God and you say, My Father who's in heaven, hallowed be your name, and you reflect upon his greatness, all of a sudden you begin to see things. and a much different perspective. Number three. Worship not only enhances my appreciation and love for God and expands my vision, but thirdly, worship eclipses my fears.
I was in Cedarville to speak at the college where I graduated. in Ohio. And I don't know how these things work, so I'm going to show my ignorance. But in Cedarville, Ohio, there was a full eclipse of the moon. And we went out to eat to some ice cream place that we go out to eat.
And afterwards, we walked out, and everybody was standing in the parking lot. Looking up at the sky. And nobody had told me this was happening, so I didn't know what it was. And I walked down and I looked up, and sure enough, Up there you could barely see the moon. You could just barely see the little edges of white around.
It was totally covered. When I worship God, that's what happens to my fears. Any of you ever have any fears? Are you fearful people? You know what?
We're all fearful people to some degree, aren't we? We can talk about our bravery, but we have these fears in us. And I've said this to you before, and I've discovered this in my own life, and this is a very practical thing: that sometimes if life kind of piles up on you during the day, You don't really think about it too much, except you sort of take it to bed with you at night, and it sort of works on your subconscious. And then you wake up in the morning. And you wake up with this spirit of fear.
About The day, the appointments. The sickness. The problems, the difficulties, the children, whatever. I'll tell you, the best anecdote I know to fear. is worship.
When you worship God. When you see God in His holiness and in His righteousness, when you reflect back to Him all that is innately true of Him, all of a sudden, The cloud begins to cover your fears and they're eclipsed. I speak to you biblically and therapeutically, it works. It's the truth. Number four.
When I worship, worship not only enhances my appreciation and love for God and expands my vision and eclipses my fears, but worship energizes my work. When I hallow his name, My work gets done. And I'm not alone when I say that. I know that's true.
Now here's the struggle I have, and it's the struggle you have. I'm a type A. Have you figured that out? I'm very energized and task-oriented and project-oriented. I want to see things get done.
And around here I'm not lacking for projects, believe it. And so every day I know when I walk to my office to begin to think through the process of the, every day I know there is a multitude, a myriad of things. that need to be cared for. And they're all things I like to do. And I struggle, and this is the struggle.
I'm busy today. My agenda is full today. Maybe I shouldn't spend so much time Alone in the word in prayer. Maybe I better Lord. I got a lot of things to do.
And I remember reading one time Andrew Murray said in one of his journals he sent Lord, I got so much to do today I'm going to have to spend two hours in prayer instead of one. I think he had something there. Because let me tell you what I've discovered. When I worship God, when I hallow his name, when I lift him up with my heart and my spirit at the beginning of the day. My work.
gets done a lot better. Do you know what God does? He tells people to call me that I'm supposed to call. I mean, can you figure that out? And somebody I got to talk to ends up at the same restaurant where I go to eat.
And all of a sudden, I look back on a day that looked overwhelmingly impossible to me, and I put God first and I hallowed His name, and all of a sudden, my work is energized, and my day goes better. I'm not talking here about something that I don't know to be true from experience. Let me tell you something, friends, I've tried it both ways. And I recommend that you begin your day with God. and that you hallow his name.
When you hallow his name, You're energized in your work. Number five. When you hallow his name, when you worship, worship will encourage your spirit. The Bible says it like this: you can trade in your spirit of heaviness for the garment of praise. You can literally see your own spirit encouraged.
And then the last one's the one I love the most. Because I know this is to be true in my life. Worship exhausts my enemy. Did you know that the one thing that Satan doesn't like just about more than he done like anything else. He doesn't like worship.
I used to be confused because when I started studying the book of Revelation, I thought it was one of the greatest books. And I think it was real hard to understand because it's sort of self-interpreting. But it's amazing how many people don't read the book of Revelation and they've been told that you can't understand it, and it's a tough book, and they've kind of been mesmerized by it. One day it suddenly dawned on me that the enemy was behind all that because you see, the book of Revelation gives the final record of what's going to happen to Satan. Tells you about him.
And so he doesn't want you to read that, so he'll keep you from reading it. He'll sell you all kinds of stuff about not reading it because it's the story of his demise. I always loved what people said. You know, if Satan's bugging you about your past, you tell him about his future. Isn't that a great thought?
You know, it's a great thing. One of the things Satan loves to do is to harass God's people. But I want to tell you something. He does not know what to do when he sees one of God's children on their knees in prayer. and in praise.
Amy Carmichael used to say it this way: I sing the duxology and dismiss the devil. Satan is allergic to Phrase.
So, if you want to do spiritual warfare, I can tell you about the sword of the Spirit, which is the Word of God, and the shield of faith, and the armor, and all of that, but I don't hear very much about this, but I know it's true. The Bible says that worship is warfare, and when you worship God, you do battle with the enemy. And I love to think about it this way: it just exhausts him. He has to work 10 times as hard to get anything done. Praise God.
Let's wear the old man out. One of the ways you do that is with praise and worship. Our father. who art in heaven. Hallowed.
be thy name. Do we not all of us agree that far too often We rush into the presence of God. without any preparation. We hardly acknowledge for even a moment who he is. And then we wonder why.
Our prayers Seems so insipid to us. And we have lost our sense of worship. Enjoy. I grew up in a family that lived almost all of my growing up days in a college environment. My father was a college president, and we used to talk a lot about all the Christian colleges in the United States.
One of the more famous ones, and probably one of the leading ones, at least for many years, was Wheaton College in Wheaton, Illinois. I don't know much about Wheaton College, but I remembered reading some books that were written by one of the presidents of that college who was quite. a well-known writer and was evidently a godly man. His name was Raymond Edmund. He's written So many books on discipline of life and worship and godliness.
And I'd always heard that Ray Edmund went to be with the Lord. During a chapel service at Wheaton College, I'd heard that, but I'd never seen the story until recently. I found the exact. details of what happened to Ray Edmund. when he went to the Lord.
It was like this. He was speaking at a very special chapel, which had been called because he had not been able to speak for some time. He had been quite ill. and he had asked for this opportunity to speak to the student body. It was his great passion as the president of that college to teach his students to reverence God.
He used to say over and over again, worship is a serious matter. And on this particular day in chapel, he was back on that theme again of worshiping God, and he was illustrating his point. By telling of his recent visit. to Hali Selassie, who was then the emperor of Ethiopia. And he was saying in his sermon, How Challenging it was to be prepared to meet this king.
the preliminary briefings and the protocol. And all of the things he had to follow, and how he walked into his presence and he had to bow with respect as he entered the presence of the king. And he said, in the same way, We must prepare ourselves to meet God. We must enter into His presence and hallow His name. And at that very moment, as He said that, Dr.
Ray Edmonds slumped onto the pulpit, fell to the floor, and entered the presence of the King of Kings and the Lord of Lords. For a few moments, said one of the students who was there. We had come to life. The dividing line between heaven and earth suddenly dissolved, and we were no longer restless college students with textbooks on our laps, worried about exams the next hour and dates the next weekend. We had joined angels and archangels around the throne, and our president, was ushered In to heaven.
And do you know what they said about Raymond Edmund? After That they said he probably had the easiest transition from heaven to earth of anybody they'd ever met. There was no groaning and Grunting to get out of this life and into that. He had spent so much of his time in the presence of God down here that he just changed venues and went into his presence up there. And I sort of suspect that when Jesus taught his disciples how to pray and he said, hallowed be thy name, he was trying to cut down on the transition time.
For men and women down here, we need to learn how to worship God. Because someday that will be our eternal occupation. Our Father who art in heaven. Hallowed be thy name. Let's hallow his name.
And all that we do. In this week, as we walk and talk. as we live and move. As we witness, as we work. Let us not forget this important lesson from the lips of our Lord.
that we come into his presence first of all. with praise. in our hearts. Amen. Hey, we're enjoying this time together.
I can't see you, but I feel you.
Sort of like when I teach, I kind of envision what you're doing, where you are. Many of you are listening on the radio. At your kitchen table, maybe just getting ready for bed or getting up in the morning. And wherever you are, and whatever you're doing, this study on prayer is good for all of us, for me and for all of you. It will help us, it will motivate us, it will encourage us to pray.
And prayer then becomes an adventure in our life. This series was built on a book that I wrote some years ago called Prayer the Great Adventure. It's not the book that we're offering this month, but you can get it from davidjeremiah.org along with a study guide and a set of CDs if you want to do that. And I hope you'll think about that carefully. If you want to lead a small group or maybe a Sunday school class, it will be helpful.
And we'll see you right here next time on this Good Station. David Jeremiah, thank you. The message you've just heard came to you from Shadow Mountain Community Church and senior pastor Dr. David Jeremiah. Has the Lord been moving in your life through this ministry?
Tell us how at Turning Point, P.O. Box 3838, San Diego, California, 92163. Visit our website at davidjeremiah.org slash radio or call 800-947-1993. Ask for your copy of David's new book for strengthening your prayer life. everything to God in prayer.
It's yours for a gift of any amount. You can also download the free Turning Point mobile app for your smartphone or tablet, or search in your app store for Turning Point Ministries to access our content. Visit davidjeremiah.org slash radio for details. This is David Michael Jeremiah. Join us tomorrow as we continue the series Prayer the Great Adventure on Turning Point with Dr.
David Jeremiah.
