The Lord's Prayer

And, let's close our eyes together and bow our heads and pray to our great god. Heavenly father, we thank you that we can be gathered here this morning in the name of the lord Jesus Christ who so loved us that he was willing to give himself for us on the cross. So that all of our guilt and all of the wrong things that we have done and the cruel words that we have spoken, and the nasty thoughts that have been through our minds. Everything we have done wrong has gone on to him at that cross so that we, by faith alone, can be forgiven and can be made right with you forever. What a wonderful work of kind grace that you have shown to us.

And lord Jesus, we want to say this morning that you are worthy of all of our praises, that lord, even the songs that we sing with our lips, are are not words enough. To praise you for all that you have done. You are a great god, and all of creation praises you. And father, we pray this morning that you would help us as we open up these words of the Bible that you would speak to every single 1 of us here from the youngest to the oldest. Please speak to us, challenge us.

Encourage us, point us to yourself. Father, we cannot live on the things of this life alone on bread and water alone, but we must live every word that comes forth from your lips. And so please, lord, satisfy us and feed us with your truth this morning. In Jesus' name, amen. Okay.

So we are, we're looking again at the at the lord's prayer. So if you do have a Bible or you want to follow along on the screen, you can. You can turn to Matthew chapter 6 Matthew's Gospel chapter 6, and this is the prayer that is often known as the lord's prayer, which Jesus taught his disciples to to pray. And, the way we're gonna do it this morning, as I said, is we're gonna have, a few minutes of teaching, a song, a few minutes of teaching, a song. So it's gonna be chunk chunks of teaching like that as we work our way through.

Now, last week, we were looking at the very beginning of this prayer In Matthew 6 verse 9, where Jesus says, this then is how you should pray, our father in heaven. And just to pause there again, I won't go over everything I said last week, but just to pause there again. That is an extraordinary privilege, isn't it? We know that the god of the Bible is the greatest, most wonderful king in heaven, the holiest and best person that we could ever imagine, and yet he invites us to trust him and to call him heavenly father. What a what a privilege that is?

And you know what that means? It means we don't have to try to impress other people with our prayers. It means we don't have to say exactly the right words in order for god to listen to us. It means we don't have to shout at the top of our voices in order to get his attention. No.

No. God is father, And that means that we can talk to him anytime anywhere knowing that we are his children, and he loves to hear us, not as we perform for him in a religious way, but as we speak to him, as our heavenly father, our father. Amazing. Amazing privilege. But today, we are moving on to the next part of this incredible prayer Matthew 6 verse 9, still there on the screen.

Our father in heaven hallowed be your name. An our job this morning is to find out what that little word means. Because hallowed is is not a word that we use perhaps ever Unless we're here at church or reading our bibles. I don't think there's any other context or any other conversation we would have where we would find ourselves thinking, what's the best hallowed? That's the word I was looking for.

Yet nev never. Only here. And so we've got some digging to do. What does it mean? And before we apply it to ourselves, we need to actually understand it, don't we?

And so to begin, we're gonna spin right back in our Bibles to the book of Exodus to chapter 20. I'll show you why we're gonna go there in a minute. Okay? And I'll show you what it's got to do with hallowed be your name, but this is Exodus chapter 20, and here are the words that we're looking at on the screen. These are the 10 commandments or a few of them.

And god spoke all these words. I am the lord your god who brought you out of Egypt out of the land of slavery. You shall have no other gods before me. You shall not make for yourself an image in the form of anything in heaven above or on the earth beneath. Or in the waters below, and that commandment is, unpacked a bit further.

But then verse 7, you shall not misuse the name. Of the lord your god, for the lord will not hold anyone guiltless who misuses his name. Now let me just pause there and ask a question. Okay? And this isn't a rhetorical question.

You can you can really answer this 1. Okay? For those who know this part of the Bible, were the 10 commandments given before or after, god's people were saved from Egypt. Now there's a big clue in the reading as it goes. But were god's people given the 10 commandments before or after, they were saved from Egypt.

Do any of the young ones think they might know? The answer to that before or after. Yeah? After. Yeah.

That's right. They were given after. After god's people, was saved from Egypt. And that order is very, very important for us to get. You see?

It's not that god said, here's a load of laws, and if you live the right way, then I'll save you from Egypt. You do this and then I'll rescue you. It was the exact opposite way around. God said, I am going to rescue you from Egypt from slavery, because I love you, and I've heard your cries of distress, and with my strong-arm and with my powerful miracles, I'm gonna rescue you and make you my own, and then I'm gonna then I'm gonna show you how to live. Salvation first, and then he gives them the law.

And here is 1 of those laws, verse 7 still on the screen, you shall not misuse the name of the lord your god. Now that you are saved, you shall not misuse the name of the lord your god, or perhaps you are more familiar with it in a slightly different translation. Maybe you're used to it this way. You shall not take the name of the lord your god in vain. You shall not take the name of the lord your god in vain.

And that vein there has nothing to do with your veins, in your body, whole different area. Nothing to do with that. It's a word which means to make light or empty. You shall not take the name of the lord your god in vain means, don't treat the name of god as if it was a light or empty or useless kind of thing. And for an old testament, Israelite, that meant a very great deal to them, that commandment.

In fact, god's name was so holy to them that they wouldn't even write it down on a bit of paper. They were so worried that they would write it wrong or spell it wrong or make a mistake or slip with the pen that they wouldn't even write it down. They didn't wanna say it, and they didn't wanna write it. They didn't even, in some way, just wanna think about it. But actually, this command has very little to do with whether we're writing it down or whether we're spelling it correctly, It's about how we treat god's character, and it's about how we treat god's word to us in the Bible.

You shall not misuse the name of the lord your god means. Don't treat your god as if he didn't really matter. And don't treat his words as if they didn't really matter. Instead, treat them as they ought to be treated as precious valuable things. Let me try to illustrate.

I've bought 2 things with me here from home. Okay? 1 of them is this thing called a flat ball. Has anyone ever seen this before? You have because it belongs to you.

Yeah. This is a flat board. Okay? Now what you do with this is you squeeze it into a frisbee and then you throw it And the idea is it becomes a ball as you throw it. Okay?

This is our flat ball. Cut the recording. There we go. That's the flat ball. Now, with this flat ball, we treat it much as you would imagine.

We go into the garden with it. We chuck it around. We get it muddy. We take it to the beach. It goes in the sea.

The dog choose it. We leave it out overnight. The foxes get hold of it. Is mostly covered in mud and pretty horrible, and at times broken. Okay?

That's a flat ball. That's how you would expect us to treat a flat ball. Okay? That's what it was made for. Okay?

That's the way you treat a flat board. The other thing I've bought is very unlike that. Here, I have got a piece of pottery that is incredibly precious to us. This piece of pottery was made 11 years ago by my auntie, who's a potter, and she gave it to us on our anniversary. This is part of a set, this mug.

This is this is a 1 of a kind, piece of pottery made by her for us on our wedding. Now, as you can guess, and I won't even need to tell you this, We do not treat this thing in the same way as we treat that thing. We do not take this out to the garden and throw it around. And chuck it to each other and lob it over into the neighbor's garden and take it down to the beach with us and let the dog get hold of it. That would be the very worst way to use something so precious.

Yeah? We understand this idea very, very well. It's a very simple illustration. We do not misuse things that are very precious to us. We we look after them.

We treasure them. Because they've got value and therefore we don't treat them badly. Yeah? And I'm sure you can substitute 2 items in your house to make the illustration work for you. Okay?

Well, so it is with god's name, right? You shall not misuse the name of the lord your god. What does it mean? What does it mean? You shall not misuse something that is very, very precious.

God is saying to his people, you shall not take my name, a piece of handmade pottery, 1 of a kind, and treat it like a garden ball. You should treat it as it deserves to be treated. It should be cared for and honored and held as precious in your home, and looked after, and treasured. And if you do use it, you use it proper, you treat it as it deserves. Because of what it is.

God says you shall not misuse my name. Don't treat pottery as if it were a garden ball. And you can see, can't you, in the verse, that that matters quite a lot to god? See how he puts it in verse 7? You shall not misuse the name of the lord your god, for the lord will not hold anyone guiltless who misuses his name.

In other words, if we treat the name of god as if it didn't really matter, He will judge us for that. He takes the misuse of his precious name pretty seriously. Now in a few minutes' time, we're gonna see some of the ways that we might actually wrongly do that with god's name. But for now, I just want you to start thinking in these terms. The opposite of Halloween god's name is misusing god's name.

Missusing is the opposite of Halloween, and we're gonna come back to what it does mean, Lynn, after this next song. Right. So god's people we've seen are not to treat him and they're not to treat his name as if it didn't really matter. That's the third commandment we've seen that together. But if that is the opposite of Halloween name, then what does it mean to hallow god's name?

Chapter 6 verse 9 of Matthew, this then is how you should pray Our father in heaven hallowed be your name. And look at the heart of it, This is a word which reminds us who god is. That's the best way to think about it. The word hallowed is a word which reminds us who god is. The god of the Bible, who is our heavenly father, is unlike anybody else.

He's unlike anybody else. He is absolutely special. He is in a category all of his own because he is so different from us. He is the great creator, and we are just his creatures. He is the perfect 1, and we are those who fail all the time.

He never, ever, ever since and he never, ever even thinks of sinning. He never looks back into the past and says, I wish I hadn't done it like that. And he never looks forward and thinks, I'm not sure what to do about that. He knows everything, and he sees everyone, and he is perfect all of the time, and in all of his ways, he is absolutely special. He is hallowed.

Hallowed. It's god. It's a word for god. Different separate, perfect. Hollowed.

But did you notice that the prayer in verse 9 is not actually just a statement about god. It's a request. Here, Jesus wants us not just to say something, but to ask for something. Some of the other translations of the Bible try to capture that. Have a look.

They'll come up, on the screen. See if I can oh, there we go. So look, notice how the language changes a bit. Our father in heaven, your name be honored as holy. It's a request.

Our father in heaven, may your name be kept holy? It's a request. Keep your name holy. Our father in heaven, may your holy name be honored? Do you see the difference there?

It's not a statement, just saying that something is true about god. It's a please. Please father in heaven, May your name be hallowed? Please, may honor it. Make it known.

Help people to see that it's holy. Make it holy your name. Help people to see that. It's a request. And so the question is, What exactly are we doing with god's name when we pray this prayer and when we ask for this thing?

What what what are we actually asking for? Now to illustrate that for you, I'm going to reveal what is under this blanket. And I know this is the moment you've been waiting for to find out. It's not the lord's supper. Which you may have thought, I'm gonna show you what's under this bank.

It's actually really rather boring. I'm afraid. What I've got here is a jug, and 2 liters of water, and Laura's bedtime blindfold, okay, to keep the light out. Now, where is my helper? Jamie?

Come up here. Alright? To give Jamie a round of applause, everybody? Now here we go. Alright.

Now, I want you to imagine and you will have to imagine quite hard that this this jug is the lord. Okay? Now here's what we're not doing when we pray hallowed be your name. Jamie, every time I say hallowed be your name. I want you to pour a little bit of water into there.

So this water represents holiness. And this jug represents the lord. Okay? Every time I say hallowed be your name, I want you to put a bit of water into the jug. So hallowed be your name.

That's what we're looking at this morning. A bit more than that. Otherwise, we're gonna be here a long time. So, with prayer looking at this morning, it's hallowed be your name. Helloowed be your name.

Hallowed be your name. Hallowed be your name. Hello, be your name. Thank you, Jamie. Hello, be your name.

Hello, be your name. Mind the comfort screen. Hello, be your name. Hello, be your name. There we go.

Okay? In other words, when we pray hallowed be your name. We are not making god holy. It's not like he's empty And when we pray, make your name holy, he actually becomes holier every time we pray, make your name holy, make your name holy, and as we pray it, he gets holier and holier. That is not what we're asking.

The god of the bible is already maximally full of holiness. When we say hallowed be your name, we're not adding anything to him. We're not improving his character. We're not making him more holy than he is. For all eternity, he has been perfect holiness.

So we're not serving him in that way when we pray. So what are we asking for? Well, this is a bit more like what it is. Jamie, I want you to put this blindfold on. Okay?

Mind your hair. There we go. Can you see anything at all? No. So Jamie is now at this point for all intents and purposes, blind.

Okay? He cannot see what's in front of him. He cannot see your faces. He cannot see the weather outside. He cannot see the light.

If we were to get him to do a little assault course around the room, he would fail miserably. Okay? He can't he cannot see. And so when we pray hallowed be your name, what we're actually asking god to do, both for us and for the world around us, is to take the blindfold away and help us to see exactly round of applause for Jamie, everybody. Okay?

That that is more like what we're doing. When we pray hallowed be your name, we are saying, lord, take the blindfold away. Help me to see. This world is full of your greatness, and the Bible is full of your truth. And Jesus Christ, your son is full of mercy, but because of my selfishness and my sin, I don't see it.

I don't see it. I'm not impressed by it. I don't think this world is great. I don't think your bible is wonderful. I don't think your son is worth following.

I'm blind. And so help me to see. Take the blindfold away. Hello your name. Help me to see and help my friends at school to see and help those I work with to see and help those I live next to to help them to see how glorious and special you really are.

Hollowowed be your name. Make them see. Make me see how great you are. You see the difference? We don't make his name holy.

It is holy, but we want it to be seen as holy. And so we pray hallowed be your name. I think the message, which is a version of the Bible, gets right at the heart of it. It's not a translation to speak, but it's a version, Mandy. Maybe we could, have that up on the screen.

Here's the message, how it puts it. Our father in heaven reveal who you are. That's hallowed by your name. Our father in heaven, reveal who you are. Show me, show the world who you really are.

And so friends who are here and anyone joining online and boys and girls with us, do we do we want that? Do we want that? Do we believe that? Do we ask for that? Both for ourselves.

And for those we know, do we pray along those lines, father in heaven, take the blindfold away. Help me to see, help them to see because that request is the number 1 request in the world's most famous prayer. Hallowed be your name. Now after the break, we're gonna get very practical We've heard what not to do, which is to misuse the name, we've heard what to do, which is our father in heaven reveal who you are. But we also need to say, okay, well, how do we ourselves answer that prayer?

How do we go into the world and live out hallowed be your name? And that's what we're gonna look at after our next song. So here's our verse for the morning. This then is how you should pray. Our father in heaven hallowed be your name.

That's the prayer. That's the request. We've had to think about what it doesn't mean, what it does mean. But now the question is how do we not just say it but go into the world and and live it. Thomas Watson, who was a, a puritan, who was a Christian who lived a long time ago, he wrote a book called The Lord's prayer.

And in his book, The Lord's prayer, he came up with 14 ways that we can hallow god's name, 14 ways. And by the way, if you're a member of the church and you're following along with this series and you want a book that will really stretch you and help you to understand the lord's prayer, Thomas Watson, the lord's prayer, published by the banner of truth, Thomas Watson, the lord's prayer, by the banner of truth would be worth getting hold of if you wanna do some proper study into the lord's prayer. But anyway, he has these 14 ways that we can hallow god's name. First 1, when we profess, that just means when we affirm that we trust him, when we profess in his name, when we set him in our highest thoughts, when we trust him, when we never speak of god, except with the highest reverence and respect. When we love him, when we worship him according to his word, when we honor god's holy day, When we give him the glory in everything we do, when we obey his commands, when we sympathize with him, and grieve when he is dishonored when we give the same honor to god the son as to god the father.

When we proclaim Christ to see other people saved, when we prefer his name to every other thing, even precious things, when we have conversations that honor him. And in the book, every 1 of those is expanded and built upon. And really, as I was looking through it, it could be its own sermon Sierra it's just those 14 points. But can you see Halloween god's name is really about everything that we are? And everything that we do and what we think about and what we prefer and what we say when we talk about god and what we do with our Sundays it it it involves everything that we do.

But I think if you wanted to summarize to basically boil down What it means for us to hallow god's name, you can't do much better than those words we looked at earlier this morning from the catechism. Do you remember? Let's have them up again. How can we glorify god? It means the same thing.

How can we hallow god? How can we honor him? How can we make much of him? How do we do that? By loving him and by obeying his commandments and laws.

You see those 2 things together by loving him and by obeying his commandments and laws. That is a big way, perhaps the main way that we hallow god's name. Now, again, let me try to illustrate what that looks like for us. So in the room, there are 3 people who I gave envelopes to before this service. Okay?

And this is a little game that we're going to play called things that your mom and dad might say to you before you go into school. And if you don't have kids at school, if you're not a kid, you can sort of substitute things your boss might say to you when you get into the office and just read the illustration into your own setting. Okay? So let's have Person number 1, stand up and say something that your mom or dad might say to you, just before you go into school. Where's number 1?

Nice and loud. Don't tell me he's left. Number 1. What number have you got? It yeah.

What does it say on the front? Sam. I mean, it was a very simple instruction. I didn't I there wasn't layers of complexity that This man is a teacher at a local school, everybody. So if your children are at Latchmere, it'd be very alarmed.

I would. Thank you, Sam. Alright. Okay. Then go on then.

Number 1. Say it nice and loud. Please give back this form because if that's something your mom or dad might say to you before you go to school, doesn't it? Please give this form back to your teacher. Okay?

Where's number 2? Please remember to put your sun cream on at break time. There we go. That's something your mom and dad might say to you before you go to school. Please remember to put your sun cream on at break time.

It's summer. It's hot. That's what you need. Number 1. Number 3.

Sorry. No. That's that serves me right, doesn't it? I repent brother. I'm sorry.

It's easily done. I just see that now. Yeah. Yeah. Please remember to drink lots of water today.

Okay? Those are all things that your mom or dad might say to you before you go to school, please drink lots of water today. Please put your sun cream on at break time, and please give this form back to your teacher. Now there are a number of ways, probably 3 things, I think, that kids will do with that information. The first thing they might do with that information is forget it before they get into the classroom.

Okay? They've been told it and immediately it's gone from their brains. Okay? The second thing that they might choose to do with that information is remember it, but also ignore it. Okay?

So they may remember that mom and dad said that, but actually there was something more important to do, and therefore, they didn't do the form or put the sun cream on. The third thing that they might do is remember to do it, but be grumpy about it. Okay? So they might put the sun cream on or drink the water even if they don't want it. Isn't that about right?

Those are rough either 3 things. Forget it immediately, remember it and ignore it or do it grumpily. Okay? The 1 thing that most kids definitely will not do with information like that is really with gladness in their hearts, obey it, and make a big deal out of it. Okay?

They're not going to run-in and say to their teacher or to their mates. Guess what my mom just told me. Guess what I'm gonna do today. I'm gonna drink more water than normal. Yeah.

Miss. Miss. Miss. You know, I'm gonna put my sun cream on later. Okay?

They're not going to celebrate that information very much. They're going to forget it. They're going to remember it, but be grumpy about it. Or they're going to remember it and ignore it. That's more.

They will not be full of excitement. They will not go into the day eager to love and obey their parents by putting those instructions into practice. And isn't it true, friends that very often god's words to us, are a little bit like that. We sort of know that they're important, don't we? Because the things mom and dad say to us, very often are important.

We sort of know that they're important, but we don't get very excited about them, and we easily forget them. And if we're honest with ourselves, sometimes we don't forget them. We just choose to ignore them. What are we talking about when we say hallowed be god's name? We're talking about loving him and we're talking about obeying his commandments and laws.

We're not talking about going into the day thinking, I know God has said that I should, not be mean to be, you know, I know what he says. I know he doesn't want me to lie. I know he wants me to be kind, be kind. I know he wants me to listen to my teacher. I know he wants me to tell people about Jesus.

And I suppose I'll just go and do it today. We we're not talking about that sort of obedience because that sort of obedience doesn't bring much glory to the giver of those commands, does it? It implies that he's a slave driver who puts these burdensome commands on you that make your life suck, basically. That's what that attitude does. And we don't wanna treat god's words as if we sit here and we say, oh, well, you know, I like that bit, but I don't like that bit.

And to be honest, you know, I'm in fact, I'm so disengaged when I read it, I've largely forgotten it by the time my engine has started in the car park. That's not how we wanna treat god's word. How we want to treat his character and his word is by is by loving him, and then by gladly obeying his commandments and laws, because that combination of of love fueling obedience is what brings glory to his name. That's what implies to everyone around us that god is great, and it's a great way to live to live god's way. And people look at that and think, okay, he or she's quite different from everybody else, but they seem really glad about that.

I'm interested in who's calling the shots in their life. That's the sort of thing that brings glory, and it hallows god's name. The words of the cat is so helpful, not just how do we glorify god's name by obeying his commandment and law, and not just how do we glorify name by loving him because we could then decide how we want to love him. I wanna love him this way. You wanna love him that way?

I love him like this. You love him this way. No, we're not free to define what the love looks like. But it does put alongside love and obedience together as the way in which we hallow god's name. That's how it happens.

It's when we say, lord, I wanna walk in your ways, and I wanna live for you and I wanna tell the truth today, and I wanna love other people, and I wanna do all of that because of who you are. You're my god. You saved me and you made me and your words are good for me, and I wanna do this to bring honor to your name and to give attention to your name. That is the way or 1 very big way that you and I hallow god's name. By loving him and by keeping his commandments and law in our lives.

But here's the thing. If you're like me, then that is something that you fail to do all of the time. And every day. And that's why in order for us to obey this command into hallo god's name, we need a whole lot of help from heaven. If we're gonna be able to do it.

And in our last section, that's what we go to. Okay. So we're on our last section now. We've understood the opposite, which is to misuse god's name. We've talked about what it does mean.

We've talked about how to live it out by loving god and by obeying his commandments and law. But here's the big problem. If we are going to do this, we need the very thing that we've just sung about, which is God's grace. And so I wanna finish this morning by looking together at the lord Jesus Christ. These are some words that he said at the end of his life, which re which really are remarkable.

Here's John 17 verses 1 to 4, and this is Jesus praying, very shortly before he would be dying on a cross. After this, g, after Jesus said this, he looked toward heaven and prayed, I have brought you glory, and we could put in there. I have I have hallowed you. I have hallowed your name. By finishing the work that you gave me to do.

And when you read through the gospels, that is absolutely true. It's just what you see when you look at Jesus. In every moment of every day, in every conversation with every person, whether he was with massive crowds or with just a few, Whether he was tired and exhausted by his work or whether he was full of energy, it was always hallowed be your name. I have bought you glory father by doing your work and your words. Never did the lord Jesus Christ tell a lie.

Never was he unkind to anybody? Never did he treat the precious name of god as if it were worthless. Never did he take the the pottery mug so to speak? And chuck it around like a garden ball, he he he hallowed the name of his father. It was so precious to him.

And he bought god glory on earth by doing his work. And so why at the end of his life, Do we find Jesus Christ on a cross, dying like a criminal? Because that's what people believed. You see? That's certainly what the religious people of the day believe.

They believe that if you were dying on a cross outside a city, That only meant 1 thing. You were a 10 commandment breaker. You were under god's curse. You were a disobedient 1, and you ought to die in the worst way possible so that everybody knows what kind of person you are, 1 who has misused the name of god. And so this makes no sense.

Does it to us really? Naturally makes no sense to us. Why would the perfect law keeping son of god be dying as a law breaker? Why would the 1 who treated god's name so wonderfully be treated as if he'd done it so terribly? And the answer is because on that cross, he was not dying for his own sin for he had none.

He was dying for us. You remember those words of exodus? The Lord will not hold anyone guiltless who misuses his name. That is a hundred percent true. It's a hundred percent true.

The lord will not hold anyone guiltless He will hold us to account for misusing his name, but the best news in all the world is that Jesus died to take that guilt for you. You just think about that. Every sin that you have committed. Every time that you have treated god's name badly, Every time that we've forgotten his commands, or we've obeyed them as if they were a slavish duty, Or we've despised the words of god, every time we've told a lie, every time we've lost our temper, Every time we've loved something that we shouldn't have loved. Every time we've broken a commandment.

Every time we've been ashamed of god. Have you ever been ashamed of god? You've been ashamed Of God. You've been ashamed of him. Every time we have done that, Jesus died for them all.

When on the cross, he swapped places with us. Breath take, isn't it? The 1 who hallowed god's name. Perfectly in every way, swap places with me, 1 who has misused his name, for all of his life. And if you trust in him, and if I trust in him, then all of that can be forgiven.

If you will do that today, if you will say god, I'm sorry for making your name empty and worthless, Thank you that Jesus died for people like me. I wanna be saved. I wanna follow him. I wanna treat your name better. Help me.

Then we will be forgiven of all of our sins, and that's for boys and girls to the oldest here that forgiveness is open to all of us. And the best thing is, you know, when we ask god for that forgiveness, we actually hallow his name. We we honor him by receiving help from him. See, you imagine you're out swimming at sea, you know, perhaps it's your holidays, and you've gone out swimming, and you've got into trouble in the ocean. And you're out of your depth and the current is too strong, and you're being swept away, and you're nearly overcome.

But then wonderfully, you see the lifeboat arrive, and somebody is called for help, and the lifeguard is there with all of their training and all of their equipment and their years of service and they shout to you over the megaphone. Just calm down. We're gonna have you in the boat soon. Here's the life ring. Reach out and take it.

How do you hallow the lifeguard at that point? You don't say, I've got it myself. I don't need you. I'm fine. Well, you don't try to swim to the boat in your own strength.

That will not glorify the lifeguard very much. The way that you will hallow that lifeguard is by helplessly accepting the rescue. Because when you do that, you're saying, you're trained. I'm not. You're strong.

I'm not. You're a savior, I'm not, and it glorifies the lifeguard when you accept the rescue. And so it is with us. We will not hallow god's name if we think we can deal with our sin ourselves. And we will not hallow god's name if we pretend our sin is not an issue because it is.

We will hallow god's name when we say I can't, but you can. So save me, strong 1. Save me. That brings glory to him. And then with his help, we will be able to go into the world to love him and to keep his commandments and law.

Hallowed be your name. We're not to misuse it. We're to pray for it. We're to live it out. And we're to trust in Jesus, the rescuer who makes it possible hallowed be your name.

Shall we take a moment just to pray and ask that the lord would both do that in this world and in our own lives too. Father in heaven, we thank you again that we can call you by that name. That name which assures us of your love for us and your commitment to us. And we pray father that you would hallow your name. We pray that you would answer that prayer firstly in our own lives, because father, we we do not appreciate your greatness.

Nearly as much as we should. And so please, even those of us who are Christians here, would you take the blindfold away all over again and help us to see how holy and perfect and kind you are, hallow your name in our lives, we pray. And father, for those of us we know, those we work with, those in our families who don't yet love Jesus, those in our schools. We pray that you would hallow your name in their lives. Take the blindfold away.

And help them to see your greatness. We pray. And father, we ask that you would help us to go from this place, and by your grace, would we love you and keep your commandments and law. And in that way, bring glory to you. And when we fail, father, which we inevitably will, help us please not to run away from you or to start trusting ourselves, but to bring glory to you by trusting in Jesus Christ, our savior, help us please with all of these things in his precious name, amen.