Our Deepest Prayer: Hallowed Be Your Name

let's pray gracious father you are a the kind and patient persevering preserving delivering God I thank you that I have been granted the grace to stand again here what an awesome privilege I thank you that you deliver from death and that you deliver through death and so I pray that you would deliver congressman Gifford from death and that you would deliver Marge Anderson through death and now I pray for help in this moment that I would deliver your word faithfully that it would accord with the intention of Jesus in these words that it would be anointed by the Holy Spirit that it would bring about salvation for those who are outside and that it would strengthen the Saints for the glory of Christ and His name we pray amen what an unspeakable and undeserved privilege and gift to be able to stand again before you thank you so much for your gift of those eight months we don't know Illinois telethon we don't take them for granted God has been very good to us and manifestly good to you the report of the finances takes my breath away and so do many other reports so I'm filled with gratitude to God I don't know how long I will be granted life ten o'clock this morning congressman Giffords forty years old full of life and now she she hangs in the balance with a bullet in her head so we don't know do we this is what I do know though that as long as I live those eight months will bear fruit in my soul in my family in my marriage and I pray in this church I pray that the spillover will last as long as I do and that you will bear witness to the fact that you've been helped by it as I was leaving back in April perhaps you remember I said that it was a time for spiritual a spiritual reality check for soul for marriage for family for ministry so I wrote a report about that which will be my annual report that gets published in January each year with all the other pastoral reports and it was published at the desire God blog on the first January so you can go there and read that extended report about God's working in those four areas I shouldn't rehearse all that here but it seems appropriate to say something before I turned to the Word of God so let me do that for a moment the work that God has been doing for example in my own soul is indistinguishable I think from the work he does in our marriage because all soul sins sooner or later become relational problems don't they I mean there aren't any really private sins and so to talk about what God does in your heart and what God does in your marriage are the same they always enter lock so I said when I left that I wanted to set my gun sights on be setting or troubling sins and that's that's what I did and tried to go deeper with Romans 8:13 put to death by the spirit the deeds of the body all sin I called them species of pride remember that phrase I said these these things are species of pride and you may have wondered about that phrase all sins are species of pride so I didn't help you very much as far as specifics with that because I my understanding of sin is that all of them flow from a heart that's gotten God out of place himself in the wrong place so let me name a few I would say that my most be setting and and I pray now earnestly weakening sins are selfishness self-pity anger quickness to blame and sullenness my how I could or Noelle could unpack those with specific meaning and experience all of them are most manifest at home isn't that sad about the way life is that I don't think most of you think of me as a sullen person probably not many of those others either may be angry I mean Noelle points out got angry in that sermon I did so for those eight months I tried to go deeper and go hard toward the roots of those things and God has revealed himself to me in some significant ways and he has retaught me and and that's an important word some very basic strategies for putting to death the uprisings of sin in my heart and time will tell and Noel will tell he's sitting here and you will tell how deep and how durable any of that work of God has been in those in those areas there's no point in you know huffing and puffing that they're licked and on top of everything just you'll know you'll know so we'll just let the proof be in the pudding I pray that what God has been doing will now for the I want to say probably the rest of my ministry be woven into messages in other words I'm not gonna try to dump 263 single space journal pages on you in one night of reflections and wrestling's but but I I do want to just give leash sort of to let God weave it in to whatever else I'm doing and so this is my first message back I chose to speak on prayer because we always speak on prayer on this Sunday word and then prayer so that's the main reasons for focusing on prayer but the other reason for focusing on prayer is because I have been doing it a lot and thinking about it a lot I read two books on prayer and my assumption is from scripture that there aren't any victories in the Christian life without prayer so that's what we're going to talk about and and I will try to do this in a way that takes you with me into some lessons from the leave some trying to do exposition and leave report through the through the sermon so I will go to my journal two or three times and read you some things besides opening what I think Jesus is saying here in the Sermon on the Mount I love the prayers of the Bible don't you what what more informs our praying than what we just did here that is exactly the way to pray read the Bible pray read pray read pray that the way to spend time in prayer you close your Bible you won't last more than three minutes in prayer probably so I love the prayers of the Bible I love Paul's prayers for the pians one nine to eleven Ephesians one 16 to 21 Ephesians 3:14 to 19 Colossians 1 9 to 11 I love the prayers of Jesus John 17 longest prayer of Jesus and and probably with you most of all the book of Prayer in the Bible is called the Psalms it it is the church's inspired prayer book and the Psalms are so varied in their expression of Prayer that there's no experience you can have in life from the most horrible to the most happy that you can't find words in the psalm to give expression to God so I love the prayers of the Bible but the Lord's Prayer so here we are Matthew 6 if you have a Bible you said open it again the Lord's Prayer Matthew 6:9 213 is where on this leave I spent most of my time praying it unfolding it like we be doing and thinking about its structure and why Jesus taught us this way to pray and probably the reason for that if I don't think as far to explain is I was with you in memorizing the sermon all year long right we memorized the Sermon on the Mount I wonder if you could say it I won't have you stand but I learned the Sermon on the Mount maybe someday this year I'll just stand up here and say it to you take about 15 minutes and the effect it has when you say the whole thing together what one of the effects it has is to inform every part with the other parts right so you're thinking about the Sermon on the Mount reviewing every week only now you dump it into it chapter 7 and chapter 5 and all the pieces are going in there you know oh oh oh that's the way the Bible works so that's the reason why most of my prayer reflection was around this prayer and why I chose it as a text for this sermon the Lord's Prayer is very true to life here's what I mean life has pieces to it parts to it that are big and magnificent and wonderful and exciting and life has pieces in it that are mundane and boring and small and seemingly insignificant that's the way life is and that's the way this prayer is isn't it life has its spectacular and simple things almost every one of you experiences something from time to time breathtaking and boring fantastic familiar extraordinary ordinary awesome average exotic everyday that's just the way life is we wish it was kind of all exotic big exciting but it isn't and never was never was you can't get your feet off this ground here can't fly away you can't be an angel we live right here and we we change diapers used to anyway about 4,000 of them I figured looked at one way the Lord's Prayer is just like that and everybody notices it you noticed it you just maybe not have set it this way it has six petitions three and three right verses 9 and 10 first part are three petitions and the second part verses 11 to 13 or three petitions and the first three are hallowed be your name your kingdom come your will be done on earth as it is in heaven so we're asking God to bring about three things calls your name to be hallowed and cause your kingdom to come and cause your will to be done the way the Angels do it in heaven and then the second three petitions or give us this day our daily bread it's verse 11 verse 12 forgive us our debts as we forgive our debtors and in verse 13 lead us not into temptation but deliver us from evil and you all feel the difference between those three those two sets of three the first three petitions are about God's name and God's kingdom and God's will in the last three about our food and our forgiveness and our holiness in the first three call attention to God's greatness in the last three call attention to my needs of a needy person needs food and any forgiveness and I need help in fighting sin I'm needy God has millions is there's a field difference here right this is loud this is soft this is big and this is small and daily and nitty-gritty that's the way life is and that's the way this prayer is big and little glorious and common majestic and mundane lofty name kingdom will and and lowly food and forgiveness and struggling with sin Ecclesiastes is this a familiar verse to many of you amazing verse chapter 3 verse 11 and please est says God has put eternity in man's heart yes so that he cannot find out what God has done from the beginning to the end what is that I take that to mean that the human soul God has put the human soul and the world is iridescent with wonders linked with eternity now and then taste see them feel them then they go away in the humdrum and the ordinary and the mundane experiences of life keep us from seeing them and soaring the way we'd like to dream sometimes and even we believers right who have the just take a deep breath have the Holy Spirit of God dwelling in us even we say we have this treasure in clay pots so we we live this tension right we we live this mystery there's a big eNOS and awesomeness about a believer and something so utterly non awesome you don't look awesome I'm not awesome but you are awesome one day the children of God will be revealed x8 says right now you look like everybody else and you're not our Spirit is alive with God's Spirit and our bodies are dead because of sin that's the way life is and that's the way this prayer is iridescent with eternity and then woven into the ordinary thing of life so let me rehearse them again verse 3 verse 9 father cause your great holy name to be honored and reverenced and esteemed and treasured and loved and valued above all things to the field my voice is intending to communicate how big and strong and deep and wonderful are these three petitions father verse 10 cause your glorious sovereign kingly rule to hold sway without obstruction everywhere in the universe and right here especially verse 10 be cause you're all wise all good all just all holy will to be done all over the world the way the Angels do it in heaven and they do it perfectly and joyfully we want to see a planet like that brilliant an end of the big part of the prayer that's the breathtaking part of the prayer and when we pray it we're caught up in two great things and glorious things and global things and eternal things and God wants that to happen you you may feel just so absolutely ordinary like I understand the second half of this prayer I'm there I live there and I am in this message saying come on come on up into the first half of the pier as well never take your feet off the ground never think you can go without food never think you can go without being forgiving and forgiving never think that you don't need help in wrestling listen keep your feet on planet Earth but come on up into the first thing because they're not there in vain God means you to taste this to be engaged in this to have your heart taken with his name his kingdom his will he really does no matter how ordinary you feel right now how sinful you feel he knows all that he gave you the second half is just a come on up into this first half and then let's pray the second half father this is verse 11 father I'm not asking for the bounty of riches I just need some bread just enough to give me life I want to live I want to be healthy I want to have a body and a mind that work would you give me enough for my body and my mind so that my mind will work and my body will hold up father he knows what aging is like or disability verse 12 father I'm a sinner and I need to be forgiven every day I can't live and flourish with this guilt I cannot I cannot survive guilt Oh God I will die if I have to bear my guilt every day I have no desire father to hold any grudge I don't deserve be forgiven and therefore I cannot withhold it from anyone God may God do that for you tonight I just know situations where people can't let go and they're killing themselves to kill yourself when you hold a grudge please father have mercy upon me and forgive me and let me live in the freedom of your love that's what he's telling us to pray every day every day do you pray like that letting it go covering a multitude of sins with the love he gets you and then just pleading your own forgiveness now right here before I go on to the last petition right here in the Lord's Prayer we know something that Jesus knew but not everybody listening knew we know that Jesus would say a little while later these words this is my blood of the Covenant which is poured out for many for the forgiveness of sins the forgiveness of sins does not make its way to you straight from the Fatherhood of God it makes its way to you from the Fatherhood of God through the death of his son so that Jesus be honored in the Lord's Prayer not just speaking it but founding holding it up there would be no forgiveness in answer to this prayer had he not finished his course so be honored the Lord Jesus we're not just treating you as a teacher here Oh like when I was in seminary I was taught about the old liberalism then I'm glad I was so that I didn't go there the old liberalism took the Sermon on the mountain said Fatherhood of God brotherhood of man love of neighbor is Christianity it's not the cross is Christianity there is no Christianity if Christ had not gone beyond this prayer to die under it and hold it up so that when we pray it forgive me we're not just saying I hope you're nice hope you're pitying I hope your father like we're saying thank you for showing me what you were willing to do now verse 13 father I don't want to go on sinning I know forgiveness is available I hate sinning and I'm thankful for the forgiveness that you give me but father I don't want a sin so please don't lead me into the places where I'm all entangled with temptation and overpowered deliver me from evil Oh God guard me from Satan and from his works and all his ways I hate my sinning so grab me to walk in holiness this is very very rich prayer and that's just so earthy that's the earthy part he knows where we live we need bread we need forgiveness we need help to fight besetting sins now I think these two halves of the prayer correspond to the way Jesus taught us to address God in verse 9 we skipped over that so let's go back to it verse 9 our Father in Heaven our Father in Heaven I think those two words phrases terms correspond to second half first half I think the word father in the Sermon on the Mount is intended to carry very tender connotations their reasons I'll give you one for example Matthew 6 32 he tells him not to be anxious about food and drink clothing and then he says why because your heavenly father knows you need them all the implicit point there is you don't need to fret about the most nitty gritty things because your dad in heaven is totally there he knows every financial stress and he's on your side he he knows so don't be anxious on the other hand look at verse 34 of chapter 5 do not take an oath by heaven for it is the throne of God don't swear by heaven you don't have any control here that's the feel I get when I hear the word in heaven father tender warm clothes caring attentive intimate in heaven watch out don't treat him lightly his kingdom really matters his name really matters his will really matters and he's a father and he gives you bread and it gives you forgiveness and he helps you fight the fight so I don't think that phrase father in heaven is an accident he is majestic and merciful he dwells in a high and holy place and also with him with as it is of a contrite spirit he's a king and he's a daddy he's holy and he humbles himself he's above and he's ready to come close anywhere anytime you call on him he has plans for the whole universe and he has a plan a really perfect tailor-made plan for your life and every little piece of it so journal entry October 5 last year I wrote my heart's desire is to be used by God for the hollowing of his name and the coming of his kingdom and the doing of his will and to that end I pray for health give me daily bread for hope forgive my sins for holiness deliver me from evil in other words it seems to me that the first three petitions are intended to be served by the last three the reason your bread your forgiveness your battles would see in matter to God is because if you have those if you're alive if you're forgiven if you're growing in holiness you can do the first three you can join him to join it and Kingdom battles and getting his will done magnifying his name around the world so the first three are not trying to do the last the last are are serving and under girding the first three so that's why I prayed it that way now have one more exegetical insight that I got while I was thinking about this Lord's Prayer during the leave there's something unique about petition number one unique it's one of a kind in in these six petitions hallowed be your name in this petition we get the one specific named subjective response of the human heart that God wants everybody to give Halloween how low we that's something you do in here you hallow that is you reverence you sanctify you treasure you esteem you respect you stand in awe this is something goes on in here it's the one request that names what's supposed to go on in in here toward God if you combine that fact with the fact that it's the first one yes why did they name it first and if you combine it with the fact that the term name as opposed to say kingdom and will the term name in the Bible gets a lot closer to the being the personhood the character of God than those other two name is who he is so you say hallowed be your name you mean he'll it'd be you of hallowing treasuring esteeming reverencing honoring Yahweh and he's in and signified by his name so I think we not only have a structure of three and three but one and five so here's another journal entry October 9 my one great passion nothing and remember writing the sentence I mean sometimes I mean I read it now and just didn't have the same clout they did then you know God just says things to you and you feel like a moment of clarity has happened and all the clouds have been blown away and you know something with such crystal clarity you wish it would always be that way nothing is more clear and unmistakable to me than that the purpose of the universe verse is for the hallowing of God's name his kingdom comes for that his will is done for that humans have bread sustained life for that sins are forgiven for that temptation is escaped for that say cy5 one in five all five serve that view if you press up as far as you can go into the mind and the intention and the purpose of God for all things petition one nails it you can't go any higher you don't hello God's name because something else better higher more important should happen the hollowing of God's name is the termination of everything so he starts with the biggest request of all pray that that happen in everything so one last journal entry October 10 and you see the sequence going here as day after day I'm thinking about this I just wrote this prayer Lord grant that I would in all my weaknesses and limitations remain close to the one clear grand theme of my life Your Magnificence sooner or later in your life young people heads up will people know this sooner or later in your life pressures and problems become almost overwhelming physical problems give me bread relational and mental problems please forgive me moral problems don't let me go into that temptation again and what I want you to see is this you have a father he's a thousand times better than any earthly good father or bad father you have a father and this father cares about every one of us you can't pray about a problem he doesn't know and care about none small they are and he beckons you to come to him and to talk to him in prayer about them because he knows what you need and he's not surprised by anything now that's the usual way we attack our problems directly god help me got a problem and all the attention begins to focus on the problem and yes God you're saying come but but you you're starting your life you're starting to shrink up around the problem or the set of problems you wake up thinking about you go to bed thinking about it and your life is shrinking little by little down around this cluster of pain and problems marriage problems are kid problems or health problems or work problems your life is just shrinking down and you hear all the while you're calling on the last three petitions god help me I need some bread I need some money I need some forgiveness I need some help morally and you're crying out and and your life is just shrinking down yeah when I say it that way I don't mean stop doing that okay I do not mean stop crying out to God I don't mean stop knowing your problems are there and saying I need help here's here's where I'm closing and where I'm going in my conclusion I want you to see that God offers you another strategy of victory it's not different that is it's not contradictory it doesn't replace what I just described but it is indirect its indirect there's a direct way if I've got a problem going after it and then and then there's something indirect and here I'm thinking about the first three petitions of the Lord's Prayer God made you to be a part of something big he made you to be a part of something spectacular and magnificent and you're allowing perhaps you're allowing your life to just shrink down around these problems and gods in it and he's patient he's loving and he provides help but but they I just say there's another there's another strategy there's another way to add it's a supplemental remedy for life namely to be drawn up let yourself be drawn up into the first three petitions of the Lord's Prayer God made you to be a part of hallowing his name and extending his kingdom and seeing his will be done he made you for something magnificent something my dane as well oh yes he made that cares about that wants you to live there but what we fail to see I speak from experience what we fail to see often is that when we lose our grip on the greatness of God and his name in his kingdom in his global will we lose a divine equilibrium in life and we become increasingly vulnerable to those problems overwhelming us that was a complicated sentence probably go by again when we lose our grip on his name his kingdom his will the big universal global glorious awesome magnificent purposes into which we have been caught up when we lose our grip on that and life begins to shrink down around even a god pursued problem-solving we lose an equilibrium a divine equilibrium I've called it ballast before in life in your boat you get this little boat and the waves are and your ballast heavy deep I'm just shifting images here to to go up into those first three petitions I'm pleading with you as I close that you not lose your grip on the supremacy and sensuality of hallowing the name of God in your life I'm urging you from the Lord's Prayer and from experience that you do go to God for bread and you do go to God for forgiveness and you do go to God for overcoming besetting sins and you do go to God to advance his will and to seek his kingdom and you do all of it for the hollowing of his name the gray value in your life in your marriage in your parenting in your single life in your friendships and your studies the great value is I will live so that both my heart and other hearts hallow esteem reverence lift up honor value treasure the name of God over all things keep your feet on the ground we live there we will never not live on the ground with it's mundane aspects but you may not see it clearly now but I testify this is my last sentence you may not see it clearly now but I testify and I say from Scripture there is more deliverance more healing more joy in that in the hollowing of God's name as your supreme goal and priority than you ever dreamed it's so indirect it just feels often irrelevant I've got this massive problem and you're telling me hallow the name of God plead it is a request hallowed be thy name means let your name be hallowed and who needs to do it more I do it's a global prayer but it starts right here when I wake up in the morning I'm not hollowing the name of God most mornings I'm thinking about my problems and they seem to be bigger than God so I pray this this is a prayer isn't that encouraging that Jesus would tell us ask the Father to help you hallow him so I invite you beckon you 2011 go deep and go high in the Lord let him be a sweet close tender warm need meeting caring father to you and on that rise up and join him through prayer and life in the seeking of his kingdom and the doing of his will all to the end that his name be hallowed pray father in heaven I know that the answer to this sermon would be a gift of the Holy Spirit not just a persuasion with words and so I ask you to come on the friends who have heard me here come and open their eyes to the power of the indirect remedy for a thousand problems that comes from being swept up into the glory of Halloween your name I ask this in Jesus name [Music] [Music] you

Channel: Desiring God

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Keywords: Desiring God, John Piper, God, Jesus Christ, Christianity, Christian Hedonism, Prayer, Glory of God, Joy, Dependence, Faith, Trust, Belief, Request, Delight, Satisfaction, Lord’s Prayer, Supremacy of God

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Length: 45min 8sec (2708 seconds)

Published: Fri May 25 2018