Holy is Your Name

Our theme for 2024 is “Possessing the Land”

Last week we began a summer series on The Lord’s Prayer.

I wanted to take some time to slow down, to focus on a shorter passage of scripture and to really mediate on it.

Ken Eberly preached on four words “Our Father in Heaven” and covered the entire Bible!

That’s what you do when you meditate.

You don’t just focus on the words you are saying, but what they really mean.

What do they call to mind?

How do they challenge you, inspire you and transform you?

The Lord’s Prayer is a well known prayer taught by Jesus to His disciples.

Many of us can say it by heart.

In this series we want to move through the prayer slowly and repeatedly.

We want to, not just speak the prayer, but let it speak to us.

The second line of the prayer is “Holy is your name.”

Or in the ESV or King James, we say “Hallowed be your name”

The ESV has a footnote with a few alternate translations

“Or Let your name be kept holy,

or Let your name be treated with reverence.”

So our first point is just a clarification:

We don’t make God holy, He is holy!

Exodus 3:15 ESV

15 God also said to Moses, “Say this to the people of Israel: ‘The Lord, the God of your fathers, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob, has sent me to you.’ This is my name forever, and thus I am to be remembered throughout all generations.

One of the ways that God is identified and know is by his revelation to Abraham and his covenant with the patriarchs.

God’s name is His identity.

Another way, which he gave to Moses was by his name.

Exodus 3:13–14 ESV

13 Then Moses said to God, “If I come to the people of Israel and say to them, ‘The God of your fathers has sent me to you,’ and they ask me, ‘What is his name?’ what shall I say to them?” 14 God said to Moses, “I am who I am.” And he said, “Say this to the people of Israel: ‘I am has sent me to you.’ ”

The name that God gave to Moses consisted of four consonants in Hebrew YHWH.

The name was so powerful that they eventually refused to pronounce it - the surviving manuscripts have no vowels.

Later translators substituted the word “Adonai” which means Lord.

Eventually the vowels for “adonai” were used to complete the name making “Yehowah” or “Jehovah”.

Most scholars today think that “Yahweh” is actually a better reconstruction of the name.

It sounds just like breathing.

Breath in - YAH.

Breath out - WEH.

When God breathed life into humanity - He was breathing himself into us.

There are also scientists who claim that the letters YHWH are a secret code contained in our DNA

The DNA is composed of 4 elements hydrogen, nitrogen, oxygen, carbon, when put together form Y-H-W-G. Carbon is what makes us physical and earthly beings. When carbon is replaced with nitrogen, we have all colorless, odorless, and invisible gases! They form the letters Y-H-W-H which is the name of God.

God’s name is His signature that he puts on His creation.

God’s name is His character.

Exodus 20:7 ESV

7 “You shall not take the name of the Lord your God in vain, for the Lord will not hold him guiltless who takes his name in vain.

When we say God is holy what does that even mean?

We thing of righteous perfection.

We think of God’s goodness - we would even know what good is apart from God.

We think of God’s transcendence - His ways are higher than our ways.

What holy means is “set apart” it is “totally other!”

If I put a sign on a chair in the front row with this word on it - RESERVED - what does that mean?

It means don’t sit there. Why? Because someone else is supposed to sit there.

Do you know who is supposed to sit there? No? But you can assume it is someone other than you.

Would you say that space is “holy” set apart for “otherness” some purpose beyond your knowledge?

When God says, keep my name holy, don’t use it in vain - He is saying you have no idea what you are saying when you use my name.

It doesn’t mean that we don’t even pronounce the name of God as the Jews once did.

What it means is that we respect that God’s name is not like any other ordinary name.

And that is also a way of saying that God who is represented by that name is not any ordinary being.

God’s Name is an Invitation.

When someone uses your name and it is within your hearing - what do you do?

You answer. Are you talking to me? Or about me?

What if we recognized that when we use God’s name - He shows up!

I’m serious! And God’s name is serious!

We know that God is all seeing and all knowing - He hears us.

Do you think that when we use His name it gets His attention?

Do you want to be getting God’s attention when you are being careless with His name? When you don’t know or care about God?

Building a House of Prayer: 18 Prayer Models for Approaching God’s Throne The Glory of God: “Hallowed Be Your Name”

“To hallow God is to treat God as God,” as Pascal said. Nominalism in Christianity weakens the power of evangelism and trust in the Church. Ultimately, it perverts God’s glory. Thus, you have to pray like this: “Lord, I repent for not raising your name through my life. Please let the remainder of my life truly reveal the glory of the Lord. Let me not be a nominal Christian but a sincere disciple of Jesus.”

When you know God and love God, you want His attention and you reverence His name.

You don’t take it lightly, but you do invoke His name - often!

We recognize and proclaim who God is.

1 Peter 3:15 ESV

15 but in your hearts honor Christ the Lord as holy, always being prepared to make a defense to anyone who asks you for a reason for the hope that is in you; yet do it with gentleness and respect,

Prayer should be from the heart.

When we pray “holy is your name” that statement is not for God as much as it is for us.

God doesn’t need us to tell Him how holy He is - but we need to remember it.

The problem is that we forget what we are saying.

They become just words - we forget what they mean.

We pray the prayer over and over so many times that we can do it without thinking - and we do it without even thinking!

One way that you can take God’s name in vain is to say it without meaning it or even considering what it means.

Building a House of Prayer: 18 Prayer Models for Approaching God’s Throne Checkpoint for Our Praying Attitude

Jeremiah noticed that the most wicked form of prayer is a perfunctory prayer. People’s lips speak to God, but their hearts are far from God. (See Jeremiah 12:2.)

Prayer is serious business - not the words, but the heart.

We think people who say the right words pray well, but its not about the words - its about the heart.

Jesus was not teaching us a prayer, but teaching us about prayer.

Building a House of Prayer: 18 Prayer Models for Approaching God’s Throne How You Should Pray

As Martin Luther mentioned, the Lord’s Prayer may be the greatest “martyr.” Many people recite the Lord’s Prayer from memory yet lack understanding of its true meaning. Ultimately, it suffers martyrdom. Jesus did not say, “This is what you should pray,” but said, “This is how you should pray.”

What are some other ways to say “holy is your name?”

Go ahead shout out your declarations!

Let’s tell God who He is to us and what He means to us.

What happens inside of you when you make those declarations?

You are getting your mind off of yourself and your problems and on to God.

You are reminding yourself and everyone else who God is and how great He is.

It’s energizing to declare God’s character and his attributes!

There is a connection that happens in the spirit.

So when you pray the Lord’s prayer don’t just pray “holy is your name.”

Don’t stop there - tell God what he means to you.

What are the characteristics of God that you are counting on right now?

What do you want to declare about God, hoping that it rubs off on you?

Remember that praise service we had a few weeks ago?

We were declaring the glories of God and guess what? - God showed up!

People were coming to the altar - not because of a sermon, but because we were engaging the attributes of God directly through our proclamation.

Seeing God as He is changes us.

John 17:6 ESV

6 “I have manifested your name to the people whom you gave me out of the world. Yours they were, and you gave them to me, and they have kept your word.

Jesus says that he manifested the name of God - what does that mean?

Jesus made God’s name visible.

He was and is God incarnate - God made flesh.

Have you ever someone in person that you thought you knew, but you really only knew their name. Now you meet them in person ad you have a face to associate with the name.

You may have heard of them, but you can’t really say that you know them until you actually meet them.

Jesus manifested God to His disciples - and we manifest God to the world.

What does the average person know about Jesus?

They think about religious symbolism.

Maybe they have seen a documentary on TV or read a magazine article.

What if they have a friend, relative or neighbor who professes to be a Christian?

How much does their perception of their Christian friend or neighbor shape what they think about Jesus?

More than you may think!

My point is this - you can pray “hallowed be your name” but what most people will think about God has more to do with how you live your life than what you pray.

If you want to reverence God’s name it will take more than just words.

Beholding, we are changed.

2 Corinthians 3:18 ESV

18 And we all, with unveiled face, beholding the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from one degree of glory to another. For this comes from the Lord who is the Spirit.

So this is the story of Moses again, who wanted to know God’s name.

Well God told Moses his name.

In fact, God hid Moses in the crevice of a rock and caused all of his goodness to pass before Moses, including a generous description of His character.

And what happened to Moses? Moses began to glow with the radiance of the presence of God.

So much so, that they had to put a veil over Moses’ face.

Moses was changed by beholding God.

Now Paul says that the same thing happens to us, believers in Christ.

Except we don’t have to veil our faces.

We see Jesus, the expressed image of God.

We know His name, his attributes and his character.

We see the glory of God.

We have the glory of God - the Holy Spirit - living in us.

If Moses glowed with the radiance of God’s presence, surely we ought to shine in some way or another.

Reverencing the name of God is something in which we participate by extension.

That name is part of our identity as well.

Matthew 18:20 ESV

20 For where two or three are gathered in my name, there am I among them.”

God doesn’t just show up when we invoke his name.

We carry His name with us wherever we go.

And when we come together, just like merging flames, we burn brighter and stronger.

His identity is our identity.

When we pray “holy is your name” it is a statement of identity, not just of God, but of us as His children.

Children bear the name and the identity of their father.

NT Wright, New Testament Scholar, give the following insight:

The Lord and His Prayer Chapter One: Our Father in Heaven

We, too, need to learn what it means to call God ‘Father’, and we mustn’t be surprised when we find ourselves startled by what it means. The one thing you can be sure of with God is that you can’t predict what he’s going to do next. That’s why calling God ‘Father’ is the great act of faith, of holy boldness, of risk. Saying ‘our father’ isn’t just the boldness, the sheer cheek, of walking into the presence of the living and almighty God and saying ‘Hi, Dad.’ It is the boldness, the sheer total risk, of saying quietly ‘Please may I, too, be considered an apprentice son.’ It means signing on for the Kingdom of God.

We pray, “holy is your name” and then we also bear that name.

By putting God in His rightful place, we find our place in God.

God, not only created, but He is also redeeming and restoring.

To honor God as He is is to participate in His creation and in His restoration.

The Lord and His Prayer Chapter One: Our Father in Heaven

Our Father in heaven, may your name be honoured. That is, may you be worshipped by your whole creation; may the whole cosmos resound with your praise; may the whole world be freed from injustice, disfigurement, sin, and death, and may your name be hallowed. And as we stand in the presence of the living God, with the darkness and pain of the world on our hearts, praying that he will fulfill his ancient promises, and implement the victory of Calvary and Easter for the whole cosmos—then we may discover that our own pain, our own darkness, is somehow being dealt with as well.

One of the ways that we experience the holiness of God is by remembering Christ’s sacrifice and taking communion.

Communion

1 Corinthians 11:23–24 ESV

23 For I received from the Lord what I also delivered to you, that the Lord Jesus on the night when he was betrayed took bread, 24 and when he had given thanks, he broke it, and said, “This is my body, which is for you. Do this in remembrance of me.”

1 Corinthians 11:25–26 ESV

25 In the same way also he took the cup, after supper, saying, “This cup is the new covenant in my blood. Do this, as often as you drink it, in remembrance of me.” 26 For as often as you eat this bread and drink the cup, you proclaim the Lord’s death until he comes.

The Lord’s Prayer (Matthew 6:9-13)

Our Father in heaven,

hallowed be your name.

Your kingdom come,

your will be done,

on earth as it is in heaven.

Give us this day our daily bread,

and forgive us our debts,

as we also have forgiven our debtors.

And lead us not into temptation,

but deliver us from evil.

For yours is the kingdom and the power and the glory, forever. Amen