[0:00] Well, good evening. A warm welcome to the service this evening, those who are in the building and those who are online and watching from a distance.
[0:16] We're going to begin this time of worship by singing to God's praise from Mission Praise 327, the words on the screen, a hymn where we are called to look at the wonder, the majesty, the vastness of God, immortal, invisible, God only wise, enlightened and accessible, hid from our eyes, most blessed, most glorious, the ancient of days, almighty, victorious, thy great name we praise.
[0:45] So we'll stand to sing this sermon in just a moment. A mortal, invisible, God only wise, The light in accessor, good head from our eyes Most blessed, most glorious, the ancient of days Almighty, victorious, thy great name we praise Unresting, unhisting, and silent as light Not wanting, not wasting, though rulest in might
[1:48] Thy justice like mountains, high soaring above Thy clouds with sharp fountains of goodness and love To all life thou givest, to both great and small In all life thou livest, the true life of all We blossom and flourish as leaves on the tree And wither and perish but not changeth thee Great Father of glory, good Father of light
[2:49] Thy angels adore thee, all veil in their sight All on we were rendered, O help us to see Tis only the splendor of light, high death, thee Immortal, invisible, God only wise Enrighting, inaccessible, dead from our eyes Most blessed, most glorious, the ancient of days Almighty, victorious, thy great name we praise And now that Ian A sat down, I'm going to ask him to stand back up
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[11:04] . . . To know what's in care, my spirit must be. My debtors all managed before the speedway.
[11:23] My guilty fears managed, with boldness I came. To drink at the fountain, life-giving and free.
[11:39] Jehovah's in heaven, there's no thanks to me. Jehovah's in heaven, my treasure of course.
[11:54] Jehovah's in heaven, I never can be lost. In thee I shall longer, my blood and my heal.
[12:11] My cable, my anger, my breath's great and shield. In dreading the valley, the shadow of heaven.
[12:27] This watch for charmani, my fault there is red. For while from life's people, my God sets me free.
[12:41] Jehovah's in heaven, my treasure of course. I shall be. If you could turn now in your Bibles, please, to Matthew chapter 6.
[13:11] Matthew chapter 6 and verses 5 through to verse 15.
[13:24] Now boys and girls, can you get yourself into a position where you can just look over the shoulder of your mum or your dad or whoever you're sitting beside.
[13:42] So you can see what is it, or even look at the screen there. Jesus here is giving us a lesson.
[13:52] He's teaching us. And what's he teaching us about? Can you just look at these words there? What is Jesus teaching us about in this lesson?
[14:05] Put your hand up if you think you know. What do you think? Yes, Miriam?
[14:20] Not Miriam, Emily, sorry. I keep mixing you up. Pray. That's the key word, isn't it? And when you pray, verse 5. But when you pray, verse 6.
[14:33] And when you pray, verse 7. So we're going to be reading here about prayer. Jesus teaches us how to pray.
[14:46] And it's a wonderful thing to be able to pray. Because we're speaking to God, aren't we, when we pray. And he's the one who knows us. So there might be things that worry us.
[14:58] There might be things that we feel guilty about. There might be things that we need help with. And so we can come to God and we can pray. And even sometimes we're trying to find the right words to pray.
[15:10] We can't get them right. But because God knows us, it says in the Bible, even the sighs and the groans. When we're trying to find words, we can't find them. He hears them.
[15:21] So when we're going to pray and we might want to try and pray and we just go, sigh, we're struggling to find the words. God understands. And so we can pray ourselves.
[15:35] But, you know, just before I came into the service tonight, just at 5.54, I got a message from a man that I knew over in Loch Caron.
[15:46] And his father I used to go and visit, his father's name was Jackie. And his father's name is Jackie. And his brother lived next door to us in Loch Caron.
[15:59] So this guy who messaged me, Fraser, he's just said to me, I'm with my dad in hospital at the moment. He's not very well and is expected to pass away very soon.
[16:11] And he said he's had a good chat with one man who's a minister over in that area. But he says, I'm with him just now. And if you can keep him in your prayers, please.
[16:25] And the amazing thing about prayer is that even though somebody's far away from us, even though we can't reach them, and even if I was in Inverness just now, I couldn't get into the hospital.
[16:36] But with prayer, not just ourselves, but when we hear about somebody like Jackie, who might be coming towards the end, we can carry them in prayer to God.
[16:51] See, in the football, sometimes the guys get injured, and they go down on the ground, and they can't walk, and so the stretcher comes, and they get carried to the place where they're going to get help.
[17:03] Sometimes I'm not sure they're all that sore. I think they're play-acting. But we can get carried on a stretcher. And I often think that prayer is like a stretcher. Some of our friends who are worried, who are sick, some of our friends who don't know about Jesus, and who won't come to Jesus, we can pray for them.
[17:25] I saw two people walk past the window a minute ago. I was speaking to them on Friday night. They're not Christians. They wouldn't believe me that I was a minister either. But God knows them. And even though they won't come in here, we can pray for them.
[17:41] So, Jesus teaches us in these words about prayer. But before we read them, let's just pray for a moment. And especially, let's pray for Jackie.
[17:52] Our Heavenly Father, we thank you that you have allowed us to call you Father. And we thank you, Lord Jesus, that you've taught us and you teach us how to pray.
[18:05] And we thank you that you've given us the Holy Spirit who guides us in our minds and who takes the words that we speak and sometimes takes the words that we can't find to speak and brings them to the throne of God in prayer.
[18:19] We thank you that we can come to you when we're worried, when we're stressed, when we're feeling guilty, when we have a job to do that we know we can't do in our own strength.
[18:30] And we know we can't do anything really in our own strength. And you've said to us, Lord Jesus, to come to you. Not to be apart from you, but to come to you.
[18:40] And we thank you that we can come to you in prayer. And we can ask you to save us, to forgive us, to help us, to strengthen us as we pray for ourselves.
[18:51] But we thank you that we can pray for others as well. Some of our friends in school that might not believe in Jesus, might not know very much about Jesus, and might not want to hear anything, we thank you that we can carry them to you in prayer.
[19:09] So as we think about the people in our classes in school, we pray for them. And we bring them to you. We name them in the quiet of our own minds just now.
[19:20] And we ask, Lord, that you would be working in their lives, that you would seek them, and that you would save them. And we pray for those who are struggling in hospital.
[19:31] We think especially of Jackie. He's not known to many of us in the room here. But he's known to you, Lord. And we pray for him as he comes, maybe close to the end of his life.
[19:43] We pray that the word that he heard so many times, to look to Jesus, we pray that he would be looking to Jesus. Because we thank you that Jesus is the one who is able to carry us through death into life that's everlasting.
[19:59] So we pray for Jackie. We pray for Fraser. We pray for the family. And we ask that you would be near to them at this time. And that they would know that you are close.
[20:11] And we pray that they would know that they are safe. Because we pray that they would be trusting in Jesus. And we ask now that as we read the Bible, that we would hear the words of Jesus.
[20:25] And that you would teach us, Lord, to pray. We struggle to know sometimes how to pray, what to say. We make a mess of prayers sometimes. Sometimes our prayers, they're all broken up because we think about lots of other things.
[20:40] And we lose that closeness with you. But we pray that you would help us. And that you would teach us to pray as we listen to the voice of Jesus in this passage of Scripture.
[20:53] So hear our prayers. Help us, we pray in Jesus' name. Amen. So Matthew chapter 6 and verse 5 to verse 15.
[21:08] Jesus, speaking to his disciples, says, And when you pray, do not be like the hypocrites, for they love to pray standing in the synagogues and on the street corners to be seen by men.
[21:20] I tell you the truth, they have received the reward in full. But when you pray, go into your room, close the door, and pray to your Father who is unseen. Then your Father who sees what is done in secret will reward you.
[21:35] And when you pray, do not keep on babbling like pagans, for they think they will be heard because of their many words. Do not be like them, for your Father knows what you need before you ask him.
[21:47] This then is how you should pray. Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name. Your kingdom come. Your will be done on earth as it is in heaven.
[21:58] Give us today our daily bread. Forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors. And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from the evil one.
[22:11] For if you forgive men when they sin against you, your heavenly Father will also forgive you. But if you do not forgive men their sins, your Father will not forgive your sins.
[22:25] Amen. And may God help us to understand his word as we've read it. We're going to sing again now to God's praise from Psalm 139.
[22:38] It's a psalm that reminds us of the fact that God knows us. It's a psalm where we come before God and we ask him to be working in our lives. Psalm 139, we'll sing from verses 1 to verse 10.
[22:53] O Lord, thou hast me searched and known, thou knowest my sitting down and rising up, yea, all my thoughts afar to thee are known. Down to the end of verse 10 to God's praise.
[23:06] We'll stand to sing. O Lord, thou hast me searched and known, thou knowest my sitting down and rising up, yea, all my thoughts afar to thee are known.
[23:44] My first steps and my lying down, thou compasses always, thou am, who has he heard thou papelshσ Cozzy yellow faceLE Then my lying down,행ing there rueful God Ch valued at all that you've seen Not any word than me, but all together, O Lord, it is well unto thee.
[24:52] Behind thee, for thou hast me set, I lay on me thine hand.
[25:09] Such knowledge is too strange for me, too high to understand.
[25:26] From thy spirit will it shine, O, or from thy presence why?
[25:45] Ascent I am, though thou art there, there within thy life.
[26:03] Take I the morning, raise and dwell in utmost parts of sea.
[26:21] In their Lord shall thy hand believe, Thy right and bold shall meet.
[26:39] Amen. We thank you for being part of Matthew, a word which was laid upon the heart of Matthew.
[27:15] We thank you that these words that we have read were spoken out by the Spirit of God. Who brought back to the writers, the minds, the words of Jesus who spoke.
[27:29] We thank you that the scriptures that we read were inspired by the Holy Spirit. and we thank you that he is our teacher and so we pray that we would know the help of the Holy Spirit.
[27:41] We pray that you would hold us, Lord, that you would help us. That as we so often pray, you would give us eyes to see Jesus and ears to hear Jesus. Minds that will understand what has been said and hearts which will be responsive and take hold of the words of Christ by faith.
[28:02] So help us, Lord, we pray. As we look to you and we pray all these things in Jesus' name. Amen. Let me start with the boys and girls again.
[28:17] Boys and girls, is there anything in life that you need help with? Tell me some of the things that you might need help with. Can you always do everything yourself, Michael? Do you ever need help with anything?
[28:30] Do we ever need help with anything? Yeah? What kind of things do we need help with? Anyone might need help, but first of all, when we're younger, to know how to hold the cutlery.
[28:43] We need help at the very beginning to be able to walk. We see babies when they want to walk and they have to be held up first and they start wobbly and then they'll start to take some steps.
[28:56] Does anybody ever need help with their homework? Yes? We might need help sometimes if we're being asked to move a big bit of furniture from one place to another and we know we can't do it ourselves.
[29:10] So we say, can you get on the phone to somebody? Can you come and give me a hand? Can you give me some help? Sometimes we're struggling. We might have a sore knee or a sore foot.
[29:21] I had a sore foot, a sore ankle a couple of weeks back and there was a lady Peggy in here who was a physiotherapist at the Little Fishers and I said, you couldn't help me with this, could you?
[29:31] Tell me what's wrong. There's lots of things that we need help in life. When we're young and as we get older. And the question I want to start with tonight is, do we need help with prayer?
[29:48] What do you think? Boys and girls, first of all. Do we need help with prayer? Yes or no? Andrew?
[30:01] Yes. Yes. It's the right answer. We need help with prayer. And that's clear from the verses that we read tonight.
[30:14] Before Jesus gives us the Lord's Prayer as we know it, he tells us some of the reasons that we need help with prayer.
[30:25] Jesus sees that we need help with prayer and he also sees the reason that we need help with prayer. And the main reason, the main problem that Jesus seemed to see as he looked into the lives of people and then gave this lesson is hypocrisy.
[30:44] And that came through in the morning service. And the first point, the first point that Jesus saw as he looked at people, as he searched their hearts, as he searches our hearts, is he saw the hypocrisy of people.
[31:01] And we see that in verses 5 to verse 8. Jesus says, And when you pray. Notice he doesn't expect that we might pray. He's saying when you pray.
[31:12] Not if you pray, when you pray. He says it three times because he's making clear that those who are Christians, those who believe in him, we pray. So he says to his disciples, And when you pray, don't be like the hypocrites.
[31:27] For they love to pray standing in the synagogues and in the street corners to be seen by men, by people. I tell you the truth, says Jesus, they have received the reward in full.
[31:39] But when you pray, go into your room, close the door, and pray to your father who is unseen. Then your father who sees what is done in secret will reward you. And when you pray, do not keep on babbling like pagans, for they think they will be heard because of their many words.
[31:55] Do not be like them, for your father knows what you need before you ask them. So Jesus, he says there at the beginning of that short section, Don't be like the hypocrites.
[32:09] Don't be like the hypocrites. And hypocrisy is something. Does anybody know what that means, by the way? The younger ones. Let's keep you awake just now.
[32:20] What does it mean to be a hypocrite? Anybody used to sing that in the holiday club? Don't want to be a hypocrite. Do you know what that means? To be a hypocrite is to be a pretender.
[32:34] Somebody who pretends. It's actually the same word, if you go back to the language that Jesus spoke. It's the same word that we could use for wearing a mask. We wear a mask this much.
[32:46] But sometimes in films you see people, and they've got masks that cover their whole faces. They're mask wearers. We don't know who they really are. And that's a hypocrite. A hypocrite is someone who has a mask.
[33:00] And they show the world one picture of themselves, but underneath something different is going on. And Jesus says, Don't be like the hypocrites. Don't wear masks.
[33:10] I'm not talking about these masks. Don't wear masks that cover your faces. Don't try and tell people that you're something when you're not that thing. And we thought about this a bit in the morning, so I'm not going to take too much time and sort of go back over it again.
[33:28] But hypocrisy was something that Jesus saw in the religious leaders, the people that everybody thought were good. Jesus was looking into their hearts, and he was saying, they're not that good.
[33:39] In fact, there's a lot of bad stuff going on in there. And Jesus, he speaks to the Pharisees, the teachers of the law, and he challenges them over their hypocrisy.
[33:52] Remember what we were talking about last week? He says, You're washing your hands all the time. Your hearts are dirty. You've got all these rules to try and make the outside clean, but the inside is full of rubbish.
[34:03] And hypocrisy was a problem, and it is a problem. And hypocrisy is something that's highly infectious. It moves through the whole system.
[34:16] We don't just keep it in one little part of our lives. It goes all through our lives. And hypocrisy is something that can be passed from person to person, like a virus spreads. And it brings spiritual decay.
[34:30] It brings damage to our heart. And it seems that as Jesus moved around in towns and villages, one of the places that he saw and heard hypocrisy was in prayer.
[34:48] And he would wander through a particular place, and he would see the people who were known to be religious leaders, and they would be standing on street corners where everyone would see and hear them.
[35:01] And they would be standing up in the churches and the synagogues, and they would be praying. Why? To speak to God? Well, Jesus says, no, to be seen and heard by people.
[35:15] And they used to use many words to pray, and people would say, oh, can't they use, can't they make amazing, long, beautiful prayers? They had very great eloquence.
[35:25] People were impressed by the words that they used. But Jesus saw the heart, and he said to the disciples, don't be like that.
[35:42] And what he was saying was, don't be trying to use words, don't be trying to put on a performance, because it's not real if you're having to try to do that.
[35:54] Jesus was saying, essentially, these people that you're hearing, they're not praying, they're performing. They're not speaking to God, they're speaking to you.
[36:09] So what's at the heart of hypocrisy? That's what I want to think about for a moment. Well, at the heart of hypocrisy is a desire for people to be impressed by us.
[36:22] Hypocrisy is driven by a personal pride. It's driven by the ego. And what we want when we're being hypocritical is we want the approval of people.
[36:41] And when hypocrisy is something that is infecting us, we want the approval of people more than we want the approval of God. That's at the core of it.
[36:54] And it's a subtle danger. You know, there are some things that are dangerous, we recognise them. There are other things and they kind of creep into us. We don't realise they're there until they are there.
[37:09] I was thinking about this, if I could be personal just for a moment. I was thinking about how this this kind of thing can affect us. And I was thinking about how I can sometimes be asked to pray in places.
[37:27] And as I begin to pray, I'm focusing on God. And I'm wanting to speak to God. I'm praying that I'll be able to see God clearly.
[37:40] And then I can get partway through the prayer, if I'm honest. And in some places, it can be difficult to pray. And in some cases, halfway through my prayer, I can start to become aware of all the people that are around.
[37:56] And I can start to worry about what they're thinking of my prayer. And I can start to think, oh, they'll be judging me with my poor, short, simple prayer.
[38:06] Now, when that's going through my mind, that's hypocrisy. Because I'm not thinking in these moments about speaking to God because all of a sudden, I'm more aware of the people who are listening in to my stammerings in prayer.
[38:28] Or sometimes we might be asked to pray in a place and refuse to pray. The question is, is why? And sometimes the answer is because we're fearful of making a mess of the prayer.
[38:44] And then we think about, well, why are we fearful of making a mess of the prayer? And the answer sometimes is because of the people around us. We don't want the people around us to see us getting tongue-tied.
[38:59] We don't want to look bad and be embarrassed. Now, what is that? That's hypocrisy. See, when we pray or hold back from prayer because we are thinking about the people around us rather than thinking about God, we're veering into the area of hypocrisy.
[39:27] and Jesus sees it. And notice, it's Jesus that sees it. We don't always see it. You know, we can't point at people who pray long prayers and say that's hypocrisy because their long prayers may be absolutely sincere and earnest and acceptable to God and not have a trace of hypocrisy in it.
[39:53] And we can't point at people who don't pray in certain situations and say, well, that's hypocrisy that they're not praying. There may be perfectly valid reasons for their silence.
[40:04] We don't see the heart. We don't get to make judgments. But Jesus does. And he warns us about the hypocrisy that spoils prayer and spoils that relationship with him.
[40:23] So, in the same way that we looked at this this morning, we come back to it this evening because we see this is the context in which Jesus teaches. And the answer is the same answer as this morning.
[40:37] We say to God as we reflect on this, search me. We don't look at anybody else, but we say to God, search me.
[40:48] show me. Show me if there is this sin, this hypocrisy that's lurking within me and if we see it.
[41:01] And if we're honest, we so often do. We repent. We ask God to purify us, to take away any of that and to fill us with his spirit so that we are focusing on him and not focusing on those who are around us.
[41:20] We're seeking his approval and not looking for the approval of this world. So, first of all, the hypocrisy of people. The second point that we come to in this passage is the help of God.
[41:36] We have the problem which is the hypocrisy that Jesus saw and then we have the help of God. and I think we've already established from the wider context and if we know ourselves at all, we realise we need help in prayer.
[41:55] We need a teacher. Now, some of the younger people in the congregation want to learn to drive just now and they have been wanting to learn to drive for the best part of a couple of years.
[42:10] But with all the limits of what we can and can't do and where we can and can't go, there's been no one to teach them. And it's frustrating when we want to learn but we have no teacher.
[42:25] Other times it can be frustrating where we have a teacher but they don't seem to know the subject and they don't seem to have any interest in the students in the class. you know, what we want is a teacher who is willing to teach us, who knows the subject and who cares for us.
[42:45] And the amazing thing about these verses is that on the subject and the discipline of prayer we have a teacher and that teacher is Jesus.
[42:58] the one who teaches us to pray is the Son of God. Not some spiritual guru with questionable credentials but the Son of God.
[43:13] We have the help of God in prayer. And Luke tells us in his account of this that we were in a few weeks back that it was the disciples that asked for help.
[43:26] Luke chapter 11 verse 1 it says one day Jesus was praying in a certain place when he finished one of his disciples said to him Lord teach us to pray as John taught his disciples and so then Jesus gives this teaching and he says to them he says to us this then is how you should pray and he begins with these words our Father and in these opening words that we looked at last Sunday we see God in Christ reaching down to us with such warmth giving us every encouragement to pray and as we pray we're taught to use that word Father Abba it's a word that we find hard to define in English it's like daddy but it's got a bit more of a sense of awe within it
[44:28] Jesus says this is how to pray this is how to come to God come to him and say Abba Father we're promised such intimacy such love if we are the children of God and I want to just ask the question that I touched on last Sunday evening are you a child of God to those who are here to those who are listening are you a child of God which family do you and I belong to because there are only two families there are only two fathers in this world and Jesus taught that crystal clearly in John chapter 8 he was speaking to the religious leaders and he challenges them and he says to them in
[45:38] John chapter 8 verses 42 to 44 Jesus said to the religious leaders if God were your father you would love me for I have come here from God I have not come on my own God sent me why is my language not clear to you says Jesus then he answers because you are unable to hear what I say you belong to your father the devil it's very stark it's very disturbing but there are only two families we have a father the question is who who is our father that's right God because the alternative is dark the alternative is disturbing the alternative is the devil those who reject
[46:42] Jesus those who push back God's son have the devil as their father but those who trust in God's son Jesus we are brought into the family of God we are saved we have the help of God in prayer and we are taught to call God our father which is a huge privilege it's a huge blessing that we must not take for for granted and we must not lose that sense of of reverence and awe I think this is something that we so quickly lose grasp of God is our father he's our daddy Abba father but he's still
[47:43] God he's the awesome holy majestic God and as Jesus continues to teach us he emphasizes that we see the holiness of God and that's our final point we start with the problem the hypocrisy of people the hypocrisy of our own hearts then we have the help of God as Jesus says to the disciples then and today this is how you pray our father but then as this prayer continues Jesus he emphasizes the fact that although God is our father he is holy he says this is how you pray our father in heaven hallowed be your name that's as far as we'll get this evening so let's just take these two sections we see that God is our father but he's our father in heaven and his name is hallowed so first of all we see that God is our father in heaven
[48:51] Jesus teaches us to say our father in heaven so as we pray we're not addressing a this worldly father we've all had different experiences of what it is to have a father some have had good experiences some perhaps have not had so good experiences but when we pray our father we're not praying to a this worldly father we're not praying to a sinful fallen father like me we're not addressing a father who's undeserving of our respect but we are coming to our perfect sinless holy father in heaven so there's a balance here there's the intimacy of God as our father but there's the majesty of the fact that he's our father in heaven give you two quotes here pink says these words which art in heaven should serve as a guide to direct us in our praying heaven is a high and exalted place and we should address ourselves to
[50:02] God as one who is infinitely above us so we don't rush into God's presence we don't come to him casually like we might come to a friend who is at the same level as us we always remember he's above us he's our father in heaven and John Stott says take these two things together our father in heaven never separate these two truths remember that you are approaching the almighty eternal ever blessed God but remember also that God in Christ has become your father so Jesus he teaches us here as he reminds us of where our father is he teaches us about the holiness of God he's our father in heaven and then as Jesus goes on he says as you pray say this our father in heaven hallowed be your name and that's where we bring our thoughts to our conclusion this evening we think about the name of
[51:17] God a name is an important thing boys and girls when you have your blue jumpers on what do your blue jumpers say in front of them this is in school time Michael yeah it's an East Scottish school don't it yeah you have the name of the school on the front of your jumpers and so I've heard it said at assemblies before when you go out and you've got your jumpers on when you've got your uniforms on remember you're going out with the name of the school on your jumper so make sure and give the school a good name don't give them a bad name or think about police officers they have a uniform or fire officers they have a uniform and when they have that uniform on they're representing the name of the police force or the fire service they go out under these names now disciples of Jesus now we don't have uniforms but we have a name people say of us if we are believers in
[52:33] Jesus they say there's the Christians they're Christ's ones they're Christians Jesus name Christ's name is associated with our lives and the way that we behave says something to the people around us about the name of Jesus about the name of God and so Jesus teaches us this lesson on prayer and he reminds us that we are to pray hallowed be your name to hallow simply means to make holy and God's name is holy his name is precious and God he reveals himself to to us through his name we have names and we don't really communicate with our names something about who we are we use names to identify each other but as
[53:40] God reveals to us his name he's telling us about who he is John MacArthur says God's name represents all that he is his character his plan and his will and if we were to go through the Old Testament and look at the different names of God he reveals himself to us to the names that he tells us are his so let me give you just a few of the names of God in the Old Testament his name is Elohim which speaks of his strength and his power and God tells us that his name is Jehovah which means the self existent one he's the only one who can say I am that I am and God his name is Jehovah Jireh which means the Lord will provide his name is Jehovah
[54:40] Rapha which means the Lord that healeth his name is Jehovah Nisi which means the Lord our banner our protector his name is Jehovah Shalom which means the Lord our peace his name is Jehovah Ra'ah which means the Lord our shepherd his name is Jehovah Saint Kenyu as we sang which means the Lord our righteousness his name is Jehovah Shama which means the Lord is present he's with us and that's just a sample of a few but as we search the scriptures of the Old Testament we see God we hear his name and his nature is revealed to us he's the eternal strong mighty God who needs no one who's entirely self-existent but who chooses to be there for us he's the God who chooses to heal us in our brokenness he's the God who chooses to provide for us in our poverty he's the God who chooses to protect us in our weakness who chooses to be our peace in the chaos of life he's the God who chooses to shepherd us through the futility and the hopelessness of our life without him and take us into the joy and security of a life with him through the books of the
[56:23] Old Testament God tells us his name he shares with us his character he shows us who he is and he points us forward to Jesus the Saviour the Christ the Messiah the Promised One the Son of God the One who it says in Colossians 1.15 is the image of the invisible God all these names are fulfilled in that one name that is above all names the name of Jesus and Jesus teaches us to pray when you pray say our Father in heaven holy is your name hallowed be your name and we might think that's a statement we might think that as we pray this we're saying in adoration
[57:41] God your name is holy but actually this isn't a statement this is the first petition of this prayer this is the first request of this prayer we are asking God when we say this to show people that his name is great that his name is holy that he is good that he is glorious and because this is a personal prayer we're asking God to do this in and through our lives we're saying to God hallowed be your name in my life holy be your name through my life John MacArthur again says to truly hallow his name is to consciously draw him into every thought every daily word and every daily action to have a constant awareness of his presence that's what it means to say hallowed be your name in my life and Jesus is teaching us not just to say that but to to pray
[59:10] Lord show people that you're good and gracious and glorious through my life not just in me but through me and note the order of this we're just finishing don't worry boys and girls but note the order of this this comes before anything else this is the first petition before we ask for daily bread before we consider our material or our physical or our spiritual needs we're directed to think about the glory of God the holiness of his name connects with the first catechism man's chief end first purpose first petition is to glorify God so Jesus says in this lesson put this at the top of your prayer petition list ask the father to hallow his name through your life now just as we finish let's look around us for a moment think about the school playground think about the classroom think about what's on our television screens think about what we hear in the workplace on the golf course on the football pitch in the office is the name of
[60:53] God hallowed the answer is no the name of God is constantly abused is the name of Jesus lifted up within our hearing and the answer is no the name of Jesus is so often used as a curse and a joke so this prayer is a prayer that is so crucial for us to pray and to live out when we think about our lives as Christians there are seasons when we can drift there are seasons when we can lose focus and direction we're like children who get halfway through a summer holiday and they say one morning
[61:54] I'm bored nothing to do if we're Christians God has put us in this place at this time for one main reason with one main job to do and that is to hallow his name to lift up to glorify his name to tell people about the name of Jesus the name that is above all names that's your job if you're a Christian and mine we pray it and we live it you know in John 17 I'll finish with this John chapter 17 verses 27 and 28
[62:56] Jesus is coming very close to the cross he feels the weight of our sin on him the suffering that that sin would bring was starting to bite and Jesus says in prayer now my soul is troubled and what shall I say father save me from this hour but for this cause came I unto this hour father father glorify thy name and having prayed that he persevered to the cross and he died and he rose for our salvation salvation and if we are saved we are adopted into the family of
[64:06] God and we are taught in lesson one to pray our father in heaven hallowed be your name let's pray our heavenly father we we thank you for the privilege of being able to call you our father we thank you for the intimacy for the joy for the love that we find at the throne of grace and we thank you that we bow not before one who is our equal but we bow before one who is great who is glorious who is holy to give to us we pray increasing measures of that sense of your holiness and that awesomeness of God enable us to pray and enable us to live out lives which will say to the people around us and say to you our father in heaven hallowed be your name and we pray this in Jesus name amen we'll sing to conclude mission praise 237 237 in mission praise that great hymn we usually sing it in the morning but we can sing it in the evening as well holy holy holy lord god almighty early in the morning our song shall rise to thee holy holy holy merciful and mighty god and three and three persons blessed trinity
[65:56] Аn holy god madre horn Holy, holy, Lord God Almighty, early in the morning our song shall rise to Thee.
[66:29] Holy, holy, holy, merciful and mighty, God in three persons blessed Trinity.
[66:50] Holy, holy, holy, all the saints are glory, passing down their golden crowns around the glassy sea.
[67:12] Children and seven falling down before Thee, which wears the dark but never more shall be.
[67:32] Holy, holy, holy, though the darkness guide Thee, though the eye of sinful man Thy glory may not see.
[67:55] Holy, holy, holy, holy, holy, holy.
[68:25] Lord God Almighty, all Thy works shall praise Thy name in earth and sky and sea.
[68:40] Holy, holy, holy, holy, merciful and mighty, God in three persons blessed Trinity.
[69:02] Amen. And now may the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ and the love of God the Father and the fellowship of God the Holy Spirit be with us all now and forevermore. Amen.