Longing for More | Rediscovering the Lord's Prayer | Episode 4

What does it mean to hallow God’s name? In this study, Pastor Jim Thomas journeys into the first petition of The Lord's Prayer: "Hallowed be Thy name." We explore what it means to treat God’s character as holy, set apart, and worthy of honor.

Drawing insights from A. W. Tozer, Justin Brierley, and Tish Harrison Warren, Pastor Jim invites us to step out of spiritual boredom and learn how to "surf the teeming waves of wonder" in an enchanted cosmos ruled by the great "I AM."

Transcript

Copy

SPEAKER_01 0:00

I'm a generally positive person. As a pastor and Bible teacher, I've often said I feel like a dog with his head out the window most of the time. But I know life is not that way for everyone. Have you ever wondered why there's such a prevailing sense of emptiness and meaninglessness out there in the world, and if there is any way to restore the wonder and joy that so many people feel they've lost. Well, we're walking line by line through the traditional version of the most well-known prayer in the history of the world. It's called the Lord's Prayer, and it's found in Matthew's Gospel chapter six. And I wonder if, as we get started here today, you'd say this prayer with me. Our Father, who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name, thy kingdom come, thy will be done, on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread, and forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us, and lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil. For thine is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever and ever. Amen. So the phrase I want to focus in on today is the one, hallowed be thy name. I think a lot of us might skip right over that, just kind of runs right we run right past it oftentimes, I think. What does this term hallowed mean? Sounds a bit old and perhaps a bit religious. To call God's name hallowed means to treat it as holy, to reverence and consecrate it, to set it apart as sacred. What does it mean for there to be something so good, so beautiful, so totally other transcendent and set apart that we call it Hallowid? And what happens to us when we finally recognize there is something sacred and holy about the name of God? Well, some have dismissed the idea of anything transcendent or higher than humanity or than themselves. And I think it's because of this that many folks have sagged into a kind of spiritual ennui, maybe become entirely disenchanted, if you will, in life. I believe it is this loss of wonder that has led to a prevailing meaninglessness in our time. The Old Testament book of Ecclesiastes, the Bible teaches us that God has put eternity in our hearts, and that is to say that God has designed us with eternity in mind. We have a capacity to live in a wonder-filled life with the God who made us. And sadly, I think a lot of folks just are trying to keep finding satisfaction in finite or temporal things, while our deepest longings are really for the eternal and infinite God who created us. We are literally pining for him. We just don't know it. It's this kind of disenchantment. It's one of the reasons the British author Justin Brierly has argued that as Christians seek to become effective witnesses in the world, we need to embrace mystery, expect the supernatural, and keep Christianity weird. Yeah, weird. That's what he said. That's by the way from his book, The Surprising Rebirth of Belief in God. Excellent book. Grab a copy of it and read it. I'll put this in the show notes for you if you want to reference it a little bit later. But by weird, Justin Brierly doesn't just mean be annoying or just weird for the sake of being weird. If you read the rest of the book, you see he means keep Christianity about the God who transcends our categories and all of our predictable norms, because the God of the Bible does do that. And in the context of the Lord's Prayer, hallowed is used in its verb form. It means to treat as sacred. God, I treat your name as sacred. It's a word that has had a long history of being all about sacred, all through its English use anyway. And it's connected usually with the idea of reverence, holiness, if you will. So this idea of hallowing God's name, viewing it as unique, as worthy of deep respect, captures really the essence of what we are praying and what we are saying in the Lord's Prayer when we pray. Hallowed be thy name. A.W. Tozer once said, What comes to mind when we think about God is the most important thing about us. That's from his book, The Knowledge of the Holy. And Tozer would agree God's name is above all names because this God of the Bible is sovereign. He's holy, he's all powerful, he's untamable. And those are just some of his attributes. His name encompasses his entire being, his beauty, his majesty, his love, his power, his justice, his compassion, and his mercy. By praying, hallowed be thy name, we're expressing our desire that God be known, honored, and glorified for all of who he is. We're praying that God would be recognized and acknowledged in the world and that his reputation would be proclaimed, preserved, and honored in our lives. In the Old Testament, God the Father reveals his personal name to Moses. He tells Moses early in the book of Exodus that his name is, his personal name is I am. I know that's kind of strange, but it's not I was, it's not I hope to be, but God says to Moses, My name is I am. Moses had asked the question, you know, um, who do I tell the children of Israel, or who do I tell Pharaoh? Uh, who do I tell sent me? Who do I tell them that has sent me to preach this word? And God says, just tell them, I am sent you. And I think that's amazing. But it does, when you think about it, it indicates God's eternal, unchanging, self-sufficient otherness. He's completely other than anything else in all of creation. And he revealed his name to Moses that way. There are other names or title names of God throughout the Old Testament as well. We read of God as El Shaddai, meaning God Almighty. We read of God as uh Jehovah Jirah, He's the Lord who provides. And all of these things tell us about God's faithfulness, his power, his provision, uh, his providential care watching over us. And all of those things are important highlights in a unique aspect of God's character, each of them a unique aspect of God's character, and reveal what kind of God He is. And that's one of the reasons we want to hallow his name. We want to say, hallowed be your name, O God. The Bible wants us to know that our hope and our help are in the name of the Lord our God. And that is one of the primary reasons that we take time to hallow his name. It reminds us of how supreme, how other, how holy, how compassionate, how tender, how merciful he is, because his name really is something we refer when we want to talk about his essence, his character, that's what we talk about, his name. So our hope is not in our scholastic achievements, it's not in our financial um success. Our hope is not in our sexuality, our hope is not in our politics, our hope is not in our social media prowess, it's not in our pastor, it's not in our priest if you're Anglican, it's not in your Pope if you're Catholic. Our hope is in the name of the Lord our God. And our hope and help is in this God of the Bible, whose name we hallow and revere. So hallowed be thy name is both an act of worship, and also I would say this: it's an invitation for God to shine in and through us. When we pray, hallowed be thy name, we're offering all of who we are in this moment, on this day, and for the rest of our lives, in service to God's glory. We're committing ourselves to live in ways that bring honor to God. So, hallowed be thy name in all of creation, that's true, and all of space-time history, that's true, but also quite personally inviting God to hallow his name in my life, in your life, as we pray, hallowed be thy name. I love the way R. C. Sproul said this. He says it should be a priority for the church and for every individual Christian to make sure that the way in which we speak of God is a way that communicates respect, awe, adoration, and reverence. How we use the name of God reveals more clearly than any creed we ever confess our deepest attitudes toward the God of the sacred name. Yeah, that'll be in the show notes too. But that's what it means to live out, Hallowed Be Thy Name. There's a writer named Tish Harrison-Warren who has uh written a book called Prayer in the Night. Really another great book. I feel like I'll I'll tell you what, I'll put this quote in there as well in the show notes and the name of this book. But you want to go out and get all three, all of these books and all of these quotes that I've offering you. You want to read these authors. Um, Tish Harrison Warren in Prayer in the Night, she says, if we do not embrace an enchanted cosmos, the weird stuff, we miss the fullness of reality, the fullness of God. So she's making the argument here that the world is not just flat and physical in the context of her book. She's arguing for us to open our eyes and see that this world, this universe, this reality is actually enchanted by God because it's inhabited by God, because it was created by God and it's for his glory. She says, if we do not embrace an enchanted cosmos, the weird stuff, we miss the fullness of reality, the fullness of God. And we will never be able to embrace the mystery of our own lives, our tangled questions that will not find answers. To endure a mystery, we have to learn to surf the teeming waves of wonder. I love the way she said that. We have to learn to surf the teeming waves of wonder. And she's right. Today, let's do that by living out how it be God's name. The name of Jesus, the name above all names. Let's pray to him in closing right now. Lord, Jesus, thank you for the Lord's Prayer. Um, thank you that you've revealed yourself throughout Scripture as God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit. We pray in your name and ask, Lord, this day that we might walk with you in the light of your grace and for the purpose of glorifying your hallowed name. Pray this in Jesus' name. Amen and amen. God bless you. Have a great day.

SPEAKER_00 12:28

Thank you for listening to today's episode of Timeless Truth. Be sure to subscribe so you don't miss future episodes. Wherever you are in your walk of faith, we're glad you joined us today. And we hope this conversation encouraged, challenged, or inspired you. At the Village Chapel, we believe God's word is unique in its source, timeless in its truth, broad in its reach, and transforming in its power. To find more resources or support our ministry, visit the Villagechapel.com.