Well, tremendous worship this morning and such a good time around just singing. And I love to sing and I love to lift my voice. And I'm reminded, listen, the Bible says, make a joyful noise. And I know nothing about music, but I love to sing and declare his praises each and every week with you. And I hope that you do as well.
Well, listen, if you're a guest with us today, I want to echo what Pastor David said. We're grateful that you are here and you are our honored guest. And we are grateful. We understand you could have been in a lot of different places today and you've chosen to worship with us. And we consider that a joy and a privilege that you would do so.
So thank you for being here. And make sure you fill out one of those new here cards if you would today, just so that we can better connect with you later this week. And we would be honored. He also mentioned a couple of outreach opportunities. I'm not just going to completely rehash all of that, but it is coming up.
So, I think it's okay that we continue to mention this a couple of times for you. Easter Sunday at Union Grove is always a special time, and it's always a great day. And so, I just want to encourage you to leverage your influence in the community with the people that God has placed around you-maybe people at your work, people at your school, families that you're connected with through the community, through different ways-maybe the gym that you attend, or maybe the ball fields, or the places your kids hang out, and stuff like that. We're connected with a lot of people, and we want to try to invite. And so, we've provided some invite cards out in our welcome center.
I want those gone. All right, I want you to take them, and I want you to pass those out to different places this week and over next week, and invite people to come join us on Easter Sunday. We do have a sunrise service that's at seven o'clock right outside here, and we'd love for you to be a part of that. And that is different than our 9 and 10:30 services that are going. To take place in here.
And so, if you come to the sunrise, make sure you come hang out with us at 9 and 10:30 in here. And then, after the sunrise, we also have a free breakfast for everybody as well.
So, it's just going to be a great day, a full day celebrating what has provided us the victory in Jesus, and that is through the resurrection of Jesus from the dead. And so, make sure that you're here for Easter Sunday. And we would love to worship with you. If you have your Bibles, I hope that you do. If you left your Bible at home, verses will be up on the screen to help you out.
But we're going to be in Matthew chapter number 6 again. Matthew chapter number six. We began a new series last week. Entitled The Blueprint of Prayer. The Blueprint of Prayer.
Can we all say that title together? The blueprint of prayer. In Matthew chapter number six, Jesus is teaching the multitude, and obviously his followers are there along with a bunch of other people. And this is the longest sermon that we have recorded that Jesus taught. It is what we call the Sermon on the Mount.
And we did a deep dive into this sermon a couple of years ago as a church. And I know we call it the Sermon on the Mount, but if you really dissect it, it's really a mountain of a sermon. And uh so Jesus addresses So many different things about the Christian life and the Christian experience. And in Matthew chapter number six, where we're going to be today, he has this section, this portion where he is addressing what we call spiritual disciplines. These spiritual disciplines and and you know what a What a discipline is.
A lot of times it's something that you No, you should do, but you don't really want to do it all the time. You know what I'm talking about? And it's like exercise, right? Listen, nobody's going around in here and arguing whether or not exercise is good for you, okay? Every one of us would agree.
Whether you exercise or not, you can probably fundamentally agree it's a good thing. It's good for your body. You should do it. It's a discipline, but a lot of times it's hard to do it.
Well, these spiritual disciplines no different.
So he's addressing things like fasting. He's addressing things like giving. He's addressing things that are essential to the Christian faith. And here in this portion of scripture that we're looking at, he addresses prayer. He addresses prayer.
And in this teaching on prayer, he actually gives us the model prayer, what we're calling the blueprint. of prayer. Right here in Matthew chapter 6.
So, if you've ever asked the question, how am I supposed to pray? What am I supposed to pray for?
Well, Matthew 6 kind of gives you the blueprint of what prayer should look like in the life of a. of a believer. And so let's read it together. Matthew 6. Verses 5 through 13 is where we're going to be.
He says, verse 5, and when thou prayest, By the way, it says, when you pray.
So, in other words, this is not an option for us as believers. This is something that is expected of you and me that we should be in a regular conversation. Paul would describe this as pray without ceasing. In other words, we're in a constant conversation with the Lord. When you pray, don't be as the hypocrites are.
for they love to pray standing in the synagogues and in the corners of the streets that they may be seen of men. And he says, Verily I say unto you, they have their reward.
So he tells us, don't pray as the hypocrites. Here's what hypocrites would do: the Pharisees, they would go to the corners of the street and they would pray these eloquent prayers so that everybody could hear them. That's all they cared about. That's what they valued most, is so that people would see them and people would think, wow. What a spiritual person that is, right?
And I know that praying in the streets is not as common culturally for us here today, but still, sometimes you and I can be faced with things where it's like, hey, when you're at church on Sunday, that's when we want to look the part and we want everybody around us to think we're super, super spiritual.
Well, he says, don't be like that. Don't be like that because the hypocrites get their reward. You say, what is that reward? They get to be seen of men. That's the extent of their reward.
Verse 6. But you, when you pray, or when thou prayest, enter into thy closet. And when thou hast shut the door, Pray to the Father, which is in secret. And your Father which seeth in secret shall reward thee openly.
So there's this private aspect of prayer. That Jesus is teaching on. Verse 7. But when you pray, use not vain repetition as the heathen do or the pagans, for they think that they shall be heard for their much speaking. He's talking specifically the eloquent prayer.
You ever been called to pray and you try to impress everybody? I got to be really good with my prayer life. I got to use big words. I got to, you know, pray long because a short prayer would say I don't really pray a lot and that kind of thing.
So you're always wondering about what everybody's thinking. That's what he's saying.
So don't think that you're going to be heard more by God for the more words that you use. Verse 8: Be not ye therefore like unto them, for your Father knoweth what things ye have need of before you ask him. Verse 9, and he gives us the blueprint. After this. manner, therefore, pray ye.
Our Father. Which art in heaven, hallowed be thy name. Thy kingdom come. Thy will be done in earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread, and forgive us our debts as we forgive our debtors.
Lead us not into temptation. But deliver us from evil. For thine is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever. Amen. I'm not going to spend a whole lot of time on this because we really dove a little bit deeper last week on this point.
But I do think it's essential and foundational for you to understand the Lord's Prayer. It's based on the basis by which you come to the Father, the basis by which you approach God. And Jesus, before he teaches us to pray and he tells us what to pray for. He actually gives us two different ways. that we approach God.
And all of us approach God in one of these two ways. The first way we looked at last week was what I'm calling the business relationship to God. That's that vain repetition idea. You see, vain repetition, it means empty. It has the idea that we babble.
There's no substance. Your prayer is cold. It is mechanical. It is very impersonal. Jesus talks about that here in verse 7 when he says, When you pray, don't use vain repetition as the heathen do, for they think that they shall be heard for their much speaking.
And he also addresses the way the hypocrites pray, trying to be seen of men, trying to impress people around you, trying to get everybody to think you're super, super spiritual. What he's saying is, if this is how you pray, and that's the extent of your prayer life, and for you and I, the application is things like if the only time you pray are the mechanical prayers that we pray, like, okay, now I lay me down to sleep, the things you pray before bed, or perhaps right before a meal, and that's the extent of what your prayer life looks like, you probably are approaching God under the business relationship to Him. And this is the mechanical way that we praise him. This basis for approaching God basically says, I have something for you. And I need something from him.
Think this relationship to God or this approach to God, think a renter. With the landlords. That's the extent of what this approach to God is. But Jesus also gives us not only that basis by which we approach God, but he also gives us the second basis, which is so much deeper. And it is what I'm calling the family relationship to God, where we approach him as our father.
We approach him as his sons, his daughters, and he is our father. You see, the business relationship. Comes to God and approaches God with, I have something from you, and you have something for me. But the family relationship with God approaches him with who we are to him. and who he is to us.
This relationship and approach, it's not based on what we do, it's based on who we are and who He is to us. You see, that's what the basis by which we have to approach God. And here's what I want you to understand. For most of you. And for many of us, really.
We all want a deeper exchange with God. Right? That's why you're here. I really believe this. I don't know every one of your story, and I don't know every one of your hearts.
But if I was to walk around the room and ask you, do you want a deeper exchange with God and a deeper relationship with God? I think every single one of you would say yes. That's why I'm here. I'm searching for that. I want that.
And that's what I'm searching for. But here's what I want you to understand: and why Jesus spends a few moments setting up. This section on how we're to pray, the blueprint of prayer. The reason he spends a few verses setting that up is this. Is because if you want a deeper exchange with God.
You have to come. with a deeper basis for how you approach them. You have to come with a deeper foundation for how you approach God. If you're approaching Him in the business aspect, like I need something from you. And I have to work for you.
You're kind of approaching me as that renter to a landlord, if you would. If that's the extent by which you approach God, then don't expect a deep. meaningful exchange with them. Because we're approaching him just like we would a landlord. But the way, if you want that deeper exchange, we need to approach him as.
Our father. Our father. And we as his sons And daughters. And so, in this series, what we're doing, just to kind of let you know, is we are taking a section, a portion of the Lord's Prayer, and we're looking at it.
So, last week, We looked at the first section, our father. which are in heaven And this week, we are looking at the phrase, hallowed be your name. Hallowed be your name. What's interesting about This section of the Lord's Prayer. is the order by which Christ teaches us to pray.
And I'll talk about that here in a moment, but Jesus is saying that before the prayer request, before the needs. Before confession. Before the prayers for direction and guidance. And wisdom. We pray, hallowed be.
Your name. And so let's look at this by way of just two specific ideas here today. First, we're going to look at the nature of this petition, the nature of the petition, and then we'll look at the application as we wrap things up.
So let's look first at the nature of the petition. The word hallow It's not a word that you've used a whole lot. I bet in your conversations, I'd be surprised if you've used it this week, right? It's not a word that we use a lot. It's a very old English word.
But the word hallow here literally means to purify. If you were to look this up in a Greek dictionary, it's going to have this idea of purification or being set apart. When you hallow something You set it apart and you treat it as sacred. And ultimate. In other words, you treat it as something of extreme value to you.
To hallow something means you make it the most important and crucial thing about your life. The thing, when you use this word hallow, it is basically setting something apart, making it the most important and most valuable prized thing in your life. In other words, it becomes ultimate. And it becomes supreme. And Jesus, after he talks about the basis and foundation by which we are to approach him, our Father, the very first thing before the prayer request, before the needs, before the list of to-dos that we have for God to work in our life, before the prayers for direction and wisdom and for forgiveness and confession, before all of those things, he tells us this.
We start with hallowed B. your name. What Jesus is teaching here Is this, is that when we use that word hallow to place value on it and it becomes supreme?
So, what becomes supreme? His name.
So, when he uses this phrase, hallowed be your name, what we are praying for, what Jesus is telling you in your how to pray, your blueprint of prayer, he's telling us that we should make the name of God supreme and first and sacred. in each of our lives as his children. That's what this phrase, hallowed, means something. We should hallow. The name of God.
Now, names mean something, don't they? Listen, I mean, you might have been named something specific. And but in Bible names or Bible times, like names were. were super, super important. And you can trace those back.
It's always important to look at names. I mean, Peter means rock. Joshua means God of my salvation. John means God is my salvation. I mean, there's just, I mean, we could go on and on about names and their meaning.
Many of you were named, you got your name for something very specific. Maybe a Bible name. And so, like, names mean something. For some of you, you're named a family name. How many of you kind of have a middle name that is kind of tied to your family?
Any of you have that? I have that. And my grandfather, his first name was Herbert. And so my dad's middle name is Herbert. By middle name.
Is Herbert. I usually don't say that a lot. I don't sign my full name very often. And I remember when my son was born. And we're in the hospital.
And the lady kept coming in asking what the full name of his child is to put on the birth certificate. We took as long as we possibly could. And me and Abby, we endeavored and we talked. And eventually I just had to tell my wife. I just had to say If if you want to still be a part of the Evans family, We're going to put Herbert down because it stays in our family.
Names are important, and perhaps your first name is named something very meaningful. You know, a lot of people name their kids after, you know, Bible characters. I got my name that way. My parents named me that. They were a little bit more spiritual than I am.
And so, like, I'll just tell you this: like, because don't think that if you don't name your kids after Bible characters, and you know the other person who does, and you're probably thinking, wow, they're way more spiritual than I am.
Well, listen, here's what I'm going to tell you: my son's name is Cameron, okay? And you say, why did we name him Cameron? True story. out of uh an a basketball stadium, okay? I'm going to tell you that.
And so I want you to know: if you're looking, if you're a guest with us today and you're looking for a pastor that names their kids after Bible characters, I might not be your guy. But if you're looking for a guy who likes sports and names them after stadiums and stuff like that, then hey, we're going to get along real well, okay? But here's what I want you to know: whatever the names are, here's in your life or your own name and why you got that name, names are important. They mean something. Names are super important.
And what we learn here, right off the jump in the blueprint of prayer, is that Jesus is telling us this: the name of God. should be hallowed in your life. The name of God should be sacred in your life. The name of God should be supreme in your life. The name of God should be ultimate.
In your life. That's what this phrase, hallowed be your name, is.
So what Jesus is saying is, here's how we're to pray. Our Father, which are in heaven, we come to him on the basis of by the blood of Jesus, we have become sons and daughters. We've been adopted into the family of God by the blood of Jesus. And so that's the foundation by which we approach his throne. And then when we get that opportunity to approach his throne, which is any time of the day that we want, we start our prayer with, hallowed God.
By Name. It is a reminder that his name should be sacred. And ultimately, In our life, we should place it as extreme value. You see, this is a petition. For us as his followers.
to treat his name With reverence. With fear. With honor. And with the utmost respect. That's what hallowed be your name is.
But you know what? Over the course of time. I mean, when you look back in the Old Testament, To now? It's like, what what's happened? Like we've lost sight.
of hallowed be his name. We, as a culture, and by the way, I'm not talking about the. The the lost culture. I'm not talking about the unchurched culture. I'm talking, let's keep it in the family for just a moment.
I'm talking about church culture.
Somewhere along the line line. As his followers, we've lost sense of this idea of making his name sacred. and hallowing it. I mean, think about it in the Old Testament. The Jewish people They would not even say God's covenant name.
Out loud. Why? Because they were afraid and they had fear that they just might use his name in the wrong way. When the scribes would write something down and they would come to God's covenant name. They would go and take a bath and purify themselves.
And then they'd come back and write his name just under the assumption and fear of using his name in the wrong way. I mean, isn't this one of the commandments of God in Exodus 20, verse 7? It's one of the commandments when he says, don't take the name of the Lord your God in vain. For the LORD will not hold him guiltless that taketh his name in vain. In other words, God's going to hold us accountable when we take his name in vain.
You see, there's this cultural shift that is happening or that has happened in the church to where we went from that, right? Where, you know, in the Old Testament, the name of God meant everything to them.
Now, were they perfect? Of course, the Israelites were not. They struggled just like you and I. They sinned. They went away from God.
They lost, you know, they doubted Him, all those kinds of things, of course. But I'll tell you this: when it came to the name of God, you could say that Israel. Focused on hallowing his name. and having extreme reverence. When it comes to his name.
But most of us, here's what we think of when we think of the name of God: we use God as like a genie. A means to an end, don't we? For many of us, if we were to evaluate, most of our prayer life looks like this: God, give me. God fixed this. God, do this.
God, I need more money here. God, I need this person to be gone from work. I need healing. I need this or whatever. And here's what I want you to understand.
God loves you? And he wants to hear from you, and he cares about the things that matter to you.
So I don't want you to feel like all those things are bad. But what I'm telling you this is that in the Lord's Prayer, the blueprint model for prayer before petitions. Before uh confession Before thou leadest not into temptation. before the deliver us from evil. Before even the thy kingdom come, thy will be done.
Christ says, When you pray. Hallowed. Be His name. It's a reminder that we should value and reverence and make His name supreme. But in our culture, we have reduced him.
And we have irreverently used his name. I mean, think about it. You can hardly watch anything anymore, right? without the phrase G D you know, just being thrown in front of us. Right?
People just swear using his name. Even Christians struggle with when we do stupid stuff and or whatever, we'll say things like after we make a mistake, oh my God, or Jesus or whatever, and things like that. And we do it out of frustration and out of what has just happened. We're blaspheming and using his name in slaying when we say, good Lord, and oh my God, and all these different things. And I want you to know that this prayer, maybe that is the point.
If that is you, and maybe you felt the sting of conviction from the Holy Spirit about how you use his name in your daily routine, perhaps. Maybe the reason you're not getting the deeper exchange that you want with him. Is because you've reverted to using your relationship with God as a genie. And not as your father. Maybe you've used him as a genie.
and you've lost sight. of honor The name. I mean Leviticus chapter 24 verse 16 I mean, we learned that in the Old Testament, blaspheming the name of God was a capital offense. If you did that in Leviticus 24:16, it says, if you blaspheme the name of the Lord, Jehovah. He shall surely be put to death, and all the congregation shall certainly stone him.
I'm thinking about putting that in the Constitution of Union Grove Baptist Church, okay? It's a joke. But truthfully, I'm not suggesting we go back to the law. We're freed from the law under the new covenant. But here's what I want you to understand: I think we should go back to the way that they honored and revered the name of God.
We should go back to the way that they honored him and they gave him glory and they revered him. And they hallowed. You see the nature of this petition to hallow his name. It's to honor his name as the most important thing. thing In your life.
When you say hallowed be your name, you're telling him. Your name means more to me than anything. Else. And perhaps the reason why this comes before. The petition of healing.
Is because when you hallow his name, it changes your whole perspective about everything you're about to ask him for. Right. When you value his name above anything else, here's what that says: I value you, God. Our father, Above my physical body getting the healing that I really need. Are you there?
But for some of us, we value healing more than we do the relationship. Perhaps that's why it's listed first, that we should hallow his name here. The second thing, and real quickly, because I'm going to run out of time, that's the nature of it. I want to look at the application. I want to kind of spend just a moment here.
With you on this. And so I want you to understand: I don't think that because this is mentioned first, I don't think Jesus is teaching a mechanical way, like, okay, I did the first thing, now I got to move on to number two, and I got to do this, and that kind of thing. I really believe that why this phrase, hallowed be your name, is listed first.
So this idea of praise and adore to him. I think it's saying that praise should frame the other elements of your prayer life. Praise should frame. The other elements of your prayer life. Praise is the context for the other aspects of your prayer life.
In other words, when you praise God, it puts all these other things you're going to pray for into proper view.
So you can have the right perspective on them. And that's what he's saying. When you start with praise, you value him over what you are about to ask of him. Right? And so I want to give you just three quick practical applications.
I'm a practical thinker, so I want to help you, like, okay, hallowed be your name. Is that just what I need to add to every prayer that I pray and stuff? You probably should. But specifically, what does this mean in everyday life? How can we as Christ followers apply this idea of hallowed be your name?
Well, I want to give you just three specific things. The first thing is, I think we need to honor his name. We need to honor his name. Value it. Um Keller said it this way.
Don't see God as useful, see him as beautiful. You have to understand. Up front, and perhaps this is what you need. Is that for you right now? The reason why you're not getting the exchange with God that you really want, is it because you're using him as a genie?
You're looking to him as, man, this is useful, this is helpful in my relationship. But at the end of the day. Like, if he doesn't work things out for me, I'm just not going to pray, I'm not going to come to him. Listen. It's not that's a business approach to how we approach him.
We come not in a business way, Jesus is teaching this. We come in a family relationship with him. That's why we need to see him not as just useful, what you can do for me, but who we are to him. He's our treasure.
So, to honor him means that we value him, we respect him, we worship him. Number two, you bless his name. Not only do you honor it, you bless it. Instead of using his name in ways that blaspheme, use it in a positive way. Right.
Find ways to use his name, parents, in everyday conversation with your children. Use his name to point to his glory and to teach your children how to properly respect his name. Correct them when they blaspheme his name. Use opportunities when you're talking about different things to mention the different names of God in your household so that you can bless his name and worship his name. Listen, we don't just honor and bless his name here.
I mean, really, let's just get down to business. The reason why some of you don't receive the same blessing sometimes that other people experience when they come together as a church family on Sunday, it's because you're not blessing his name in your household. And in your life. You see, this is like just the culmination of what some of us have been in all week. Does that make sense?
That's why when we come to church, it's like, man, we're full-blown praise, worship, and you look around, you're like, man, I'm not getting anything out of this. It's because this could be the only time that you ever experienced it. When we talk about honoring and blessing his name, that should be in your household. That should be in your relationships. That should be at your job.
That should be in your conversations with your children. Your conversations with your spouse. Don't compartmentalize your faith to where your faith and your Christianity is just what happens on Sunday morning for a couple of hours, and then you don't deal with it or pick it up the rest of the week. No, it should be a common thread and a common practice in every area of your life during the week. That's what it means to bless his name.
Third, live in a manner that honors his name. The third application finally is this: live in a manner that honors his name. Listen, we're called to be Christians. That means like Christ. The Bible says, Be ye holy, for I am holy.
You see, the application that we can learn from this when we talk about hallowing and setting apart his name, it's this: why don't we, as Christians, live in a manner that honors his name? Listen, when you became a follower of Jesus and you trusted in him, you put on the team jersey. You put on his jersey. And so when you leave here. And you don't represent, listen, you're hurting your whole team.
You're hurting the name of Christ when you do that. I coach basketball here in middle school. Found a conversation with some of our kids midway through the year. And I told him, I said this: when you go onto the court, you have the Union Grove jersey on. You're representing us.
You're representing the school. And you're representing this team. And so we want you to represent us well. You see, that's the idea, and everybody understands that when it comes to a team.
Well, when you became a Christ follower, here's what I want you to know: you put on the jersey, you wear the name of Christ. On you. And here's what I want you to know: when you leave here and you defame and blaspheme the name of God. You are hurting. His name in your life, and you are hurting the cause for his name in your life.
and around the world.
So, what we got to do is live in a manner that honors his name. Live in a way that represents him well, that glorifies him. M.
Wells.
So we see here the blueprint of prayer. The aspect, the first thing, our father. art in heaven. That is the basis and foundation by which we approach him. But then number two, hallowed be your name.
So let me ask you this. Do you honor his name? Do you worship it? Do you value it? Above anything else.
Do you spend time every day in praise and adoration? Do you spend time in worship? Or is the extent of your prayer life? It's just God give me this. Gotta do this.
God fixed this. No. Before any of those petitions, and God cares about what you care about.
So, listen, I get it. Those things are a part of our prayer life, and I'm not making you feel bad if you do or feel guilty. But what I'm telling you. is that many of us we lack the most important thing that should frame everything else we pray for. And that is adoration.
and praise. In glory and honor. To the one. who we should value more than anything else. Our treasure.
Our prized. Our father.
