August 7, 2025 • 26 mins
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Speaker 1 (00:05):
In a world in which God's name is mocked and trivialized,
it's important that believers take to heart hollow would be
Thy Name from the Lord's prayer. Today on turning point,
Doctor David Jeremiah reflects on the meaning of that phrase
and shares ways for you to put it into practice
in your daily walk from prayer the Great Adventure. Here's
(00:27):
David to introduce today's message, hollow would be Thy name.
Speaker 2 (00:31):
And thank you for joining us. We are studying prayer together.
I know that's a challenge to a lot of people, because,
as I've said, quite often, all of us feel as
if we don't pray as we should, and wish we
could pray better than we do. But that's why the
Bible gives us instruction to encourage us and strengthen us
and help us to pray as the Lord taught us
(00:54):
to pray. In Matthew chapter six, we are in the
very beginning of this series. Today we come to the
phrase in the prayer where we read these words hallowed
be thy name. Hallow's an old English word that appeared
in the King James version of the Bible in sixteen eleven.
Most modern translations have retained it because it's reverential sound
(01:15):
as well as its meaning is it's just part of
our history and reminding us every day of that prayer.
But why is hallowing God's name the first step in prayer?
What does it mean to hallow the name of God?
It's not a word we would discussed very often, but
it's a word we're going to discuss today and again
we'll finish it up on Monday. So glad you joined
(01:35):
us today. I hope you're getting Thirty Points magazine and
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(01:56):
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it will be a source of blessing and will add
value to your Christian life. We are very grateful for
(02:19):
your presence with us today as we continue our discussion
of this prayer. And here we go with hallowed be
thy name. Matthew, Chapter six, verse nine. Donald McCullough has
written a contemporary book which he introduces by telling an
(02:40):
experience that he and his wife had which has been
enjoyed by a number of folks from the West Coast.
He was invited to hear the great tenor Luciano Pavati,
and they were told that the performance would probably be
his last performance here on the West Coast, And so,
even though they knew how much the outrageously priced tickets
(03:02):
had cost, they accepted the invitation and they went to
hear Pavroti sing. In his journal, he said, the concert
exceeded our expectations. We were stunned by the master's of music.
In Aria after Aria, he demonstrated his remarkable talent, talent
(03:23):
that set him apart from the thousands who had come
to hear him. But that set of partness was revealed
in his generous giving. His uniqueness was shown in a
gracious offering of himself. He held back nothing every single
note was filled with boundless passion and glorious beauty, and
(03:43):
we had to respond. We jumped to our feet, said McCullough,
And we clapped, and we hooted, and we whistled, and.
Speaker 3 (03:52):
We did not stop, not for a long time.
Speaker 2 (03:55):
Wave after wave of grateful applause was set up to
the platform, calling for a core after encore. In the
midst of this mayhem of gratitude, when my hands were
beginning to hurt from the pounding they were taking, I
thought to myself, this is deeply satisfying, This is a
(04:16):
profound joy. It felt right to offer praise in response
to such excellence, And this sense of appropriateness created a
congruence in which my life, my little world, at least
for a moment, seemed perfectly ordered. And then mccaulla said,
in a similar way, God's gracious self giving in Jesus
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Christ calls for the response of faith and worship. And
when we worship God for that moment, as we worship,
we find that our lives, our little worlds, at least
for that moment, seemed perfectly ordered. The Lord Jesus is
teaching his disciples to pray, and as he teaches them
(05:04):
we are learning as well. We learned that we come
to address our Father, who art in heaven today. The
phrase which is before us is this one hallowed be
thy name. I must confess that of the seven statements
in the prayer, we know the least about this one,
(05:26):
hallowing the name of the Lord. When we say the
word hallowed, it's an archaic word. It's a word we
don't use in our vocabulary today, But the translators of
most of the various translations of the New Testament have
kept the word in the prayer because of its very
special nature. Actually, the word hallowed comes from the Greek
(05:49):
word hagiadzo, which is a very important word in the Bible.
For the noun hagias means holy. Literally, we could say,
as we pray this prayer, our Father, who aren't in heaven,
Holy be thy name. The word means to be sanctified,
or set apart, or to be praised. John Calvin said
(06:11):
it this way, that God's name should be hallowed is
to say that God should have his own honor, of
which he is so worthy, so that men should never
think or speak of him without the greatest veneration. We
should hold his name in the sense of the holiness
which it represents. But what does it mean to hallow
(06:33):
someone's name? Does that mean that the name God or
the name Jesus has some special significance In the combination
of the letters that make up the word.
Speaker 3 (06:45):
My name is David.
Speaker 2 (06:47):
There are five letters in that word, and we're to
honor the name of David. We would be honoring a
lot of folks, because there's a lot of Davids in
this world. And we don't hold up that little five
letter word and say, isn't that a wonderful name, Let's
hallow that name. Now, when we hallow a name, when
we ascribe praise to a name, what we're doing is
(07:08):
we're ascribing praise to the person who stands behind the name,
and the name represents the person. The name oftentimes gives
us a clue to the kind of person.
Speaker 3 (07:18):
That is.
Speaker 2 (07:20):
So, when we pray with reference to Christ or to God,
Hallowed be thy Name, the deep and sincere desire of
all who know the Lord should be that men and
women everywhere would revere his name, and in so doing
we would recognize an honor the one that that name represents,
for he alone is worthy of our adoration. When Jesus
(07:44):
taught his disciples to pray Hallowed be Thy Name, he
didn't specify which of the names. He just said the name,
and behind that name is all that God is. We
know that we're to bring honor and glory and describe
holiness to them the name of God. But how do
we do that when we pray our Father, who art
in heaven, Hallowed be thy Name.
Speaker 3 (08:06):
What does that mean? How do we enact that?
Speaker 2 (08:10):
I've written down in my journal two or three thoughts,
one of which is that when we hallow the name
of the Lord, we do so by rehearsing who he is.
Aw Tozer said that no church will ever be greater
than its concept of God. Unfortunately, in many of our
churches and in many of our own personal lives in
these days, we.
Speaker 3 (08:29):
Do not have a very high view of God.
Speaker 2 (08:32):
That is reflected in the way that we go about
trying to address our expressed feeling toward him. Soren Carecadguard,
a theologian, said, we have gotten very confused about who's
doing what in worship. He said, we think of worshippers
as an audience, pastors as entertainers, and God as the prompter.
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In fact, he said, worshippers are the performers, Pastors are
the prompters, and God.
Speaker 3 (08:59):
Is the audience.
Speaker 2 (09:01):
And when we gather for worship, whether with a handful
and a storefront chapel or with thousands in some large church,
we perform a drama with different parts speaking and singing
and praying and giving money and baptizing and eating bread
and drinking wine. And we do it all for the
delight of God. And at the end of the show,
he said, the only applause that should matter is the
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applause that comes from God. When we worship God, we
ascribe praise to Him, and we lift up all that
we do to his name. It is an interesting thing
that the word name is here, because in the Bible
there are many names for God. Are there not listen
to these names. This is who God is in the
(09:42):
Old Testament. He is Jehovah, said Kinyu Jehovah, righteousness. He
is Jehovah, and keddish Jehovah who sanctifies.
Speaker 3 (09:51):
He is Jehovah Shalom, that one we know.
Speaker 2 (09:53):
Jehovah, who is our peace. He is Jehovah Shama. Jehovah
is there He never leaves us. He is Jehoah raphe
one that I have come to know in love. He
is our healer. Jehovah Jirah, the Lord will provide, Jehovah Nisy,
the Lord my banner. And Jehovah Rohi, the Lord my shepherd.
That's who he is. And the Lord Jesus said, when
(10:16):
you pray, pray like this our Father who out in heaven,
hallowed be thy name. Each one of those names gives
us a little glimpse of something about God that is
not only important for us to know, but it's important
for us to know about us and how we relate
to Him. For instance, I took my notes, wrote down
all those names and was reminded that each of those
(10:37):
names responds to some particular need in my life at
one time or another. Have you ever thought of that
I am a sinful creature and you are too. You're
all sinners, and I'm a sinner. Let's just get that
out of the way right up front. That's what the
Word of God says. Well, when I think about being
a sinner, I think about the part of God that
is Jehovah sid kin you God is my righteousness. When
(10:58):
I think about my need to be holy. I think
of Jehovah and kedish the Lord my sanctification. Once in
a while I have some anxiety, believe it or not.
And when I have anxiety, I like to worship Jehovah Shalom, God,
who is my peace. And there are times when all
of us are lonely, and then we need Jehovah Shama.
(11:19):
When we're sick and we need healing, we need Jehovah Rafei.
When we have needs financially and we don't have enough,
it is Jehovah Jirah, the Lord will provide. And when
we are lacking in self esteem and who we are,
we discover that the Lord is our banner. And when
my life and my direction and my understanding of what's
going on in my life is not clear, I need
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Jehovah Rohi. The Lord is my shepherd. You see, every
part of the name of God, every name that is given,
does not reflect all that he is, but reflects a
little of who he is. And as we focus on
the names, we come to know who the person is
behind the name. When the Lord said, when you pray,
pray like this, our father, who are in heaven Hallowed
(11:59):
be thy name. He wants us to not just know
the name God, but he wants us to know all
we can know about God, so that when we worship Him,
we can lift back up to Him praise for all
that the Word of God reveals.
Speaker 3 (12:11):
Him to be.
Speaker 2 (12:13):
When you come to the New Testament, we discover that
the greatest of the names is Jesus the God Man.
And then a whole new list of names comes through,
doesn't it. He is the Bread, he is the way
of life, he is the Truth, He's the Resurrection, the
good Shepherd, the branch. And all of the New Testament
is filled in the gospels with names to help us
know the one we worship, our Father, who are in heaven.
(12:34):
Hallowed be thy name. And here are the things about
God that we know from the names that have been
given us. I have on occasions selected just one little
name of God and tried to think about it for
a whole week. Jehovah, Jirah, the Lord provides. How many
of you know that God provides that he does. Isn't
that a wonderful thing? And just for one week, just
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say Lord, this week, I'm gonna hallow your name, and
I'm gonna consider for my own praise what you have
done to provide for me.
Speaker 3 (13:03):
You are Jehovah Jirah.
Speaker 2 (13:05):
The Lord provides, and every day focus on some time
to reflect on his provision. Not only do we hallow
his name by rehearsing their meanings, but we hallow his
name by respecting his greatness. God is uncommon, he's extraordinary,
he's unearthly, he's separated from sinners. He's undefiled, and the
(13:28):
Bible says he's holy. And we are to speak of
God in reverence. We are to sanctify him. To hallow
his name means to hold his matchless being in reverence,
so that you will believe what he says, and you
will obey him, and you will honor his name. We
are given here in this prayer a wonderful tension so
(13:49):
that we don't go off in some crazy direction. When
we talk about our father, who are in heaven, and
remember he's ava father, he is according to the New
Testament language, the daddy.
Speaker 3 (13:58):
He's our daddy. That is intimate.
Speaker 2 (14:01):
But in the same sentence we're told, our father, who
are in heaven, hallowed be thy name. And God is
not pleased when we forget that He is the great
and majestic one to whom we come. He's the creative
of the universe, and he deserves to be treated with
respect and honor. So whatever we may do, whatever we
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may say, that what in any way diminishes greatness, we
ought not to do. We ought to hold him up
with great reverence and respect. We hallow his name by
respecting his greatness. Thirdly, we hallow his name by relinquishing
control over our own lives. Martin Luther said, how is
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God's name hallowed among us? When both our doctrine and
our living are truly Christian? We hallow the name of
God by the way we live, when we give ourselves
totally to Him and allow him to control our lives.
When we say hallowed be thy Name, we are praying
like this, May the whole of my life be a
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source of delight to you, and may it be an
honor to the name which I bear, which is your name.
Hallowed be your Name. Psalm nineteen fourteen is a prayer
that we sometimes pray in church. It goes like this,
Let the words of my mouth and the meditation of
my heart be acceptable in thy sight, O Lord, my Rock,
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and my Redeemer that ought to be the prayer of
each one of us. Every day, Lord, I hallow your
name by giving you the control of my life and
living in obedience to you. Fourthly, we hallow his name
by recognizing his presence in all of our lives. We
hallow his name when we are constantly aware of his presence.
(15:48):
David said in Psalm sixteen eight, I have set the
Lord always before me.
Speaker 3 (15:54):
That's the key.
Speaker 2 (15:54):
We live our lives in the presence of God, and
we honor and respect Him, and we come into his
presence not flippantly, quickly, just sort of with a oh,
by the way, Lord, we come into his presence, We
prepare our hearts to come and to pray and to
honor his name.
Speaker 3 (16:15):
And I want to say to you men and women.
Speaker 2 (16:16):
That if we learn to pray as Jesus taught his disciples,
it will make an incredible difference in the way we live.
That God does not wish us necessarily to always be
rushing into his presence with our grocery lists of things.
God wants to be worshiped. The Bible says he seeks
those who will worship him in spirit and in truth,
and when we come to him, we need to bring
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our gift of worship to him first before we ask
him to fill our hands with other things. I am
so confident that this is a critical part of where
most of us are in our spiritual walk with the Lord.
Speaker 3 (16:50):
And I'm still just learning. I'm a student like the
rest of you.
Speaker 2 (16:55):
And I wrote down six things that entering into the
presence of God with worship changes in everyone's life.
Speaker 3 (17:01):
It will change your life.
Speaker 2 (17:03):
Just as it's changing mind. We're all in the growing process.
We're not there yet, but hopefully we're on the road
toward understanding more and more about who God is and
how He works in our lives every day. And here
are some of the things that I reflected upon. Number One,
when I worship, When I come into the presence of
God with Hallowed be Thy name, worship enhances my appreciation
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and my love for God. I am caused to see
Him as he is is. God's greatness changed by my worship.
Not in the least can I add or subtract one
wit to who he is, not at all. But when
I reflect in my own heart upon His greatness when
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I come in my prayer, and maybe I've learned some
of the attributes of God, some of the names of
God that tell me more and more about who is.
When I reflect those back to Him, something happens within me.
The greatness of God is impressed upon my spirits, so
that I see Him and I understand a little bit
more about who He is, and the greatness of God
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is enhanced in my life. I remember preaching a servant
some years ago talking about a lot of folks who
have a big God and some who have a little God.
And I got all kinds of male when that one
on the radio. Because some people thought I'd gotten into idolatry.
I had to straighten that all out. And that's not
what I was talking about. I was talking about the
fact that sometimes the way people respond to.
Speaker 3 (18:31):
God, their God is very little. He is.
Speaker 2 (18:36):
Circumscribed by their own restrictions. They have never seen God
as the scripture presents him, and they have never worshiped
that God. It's as if God were out there waiting
for us to come and see him, and in the
back of our mind we have an image of who
he is, and it's not a very enhancing image. It's
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sort of a not a very great image of who
God is. And then the day comes and we're allowed
to go into His presence and for one moment we
see Him as he really is, and all of a sudden,
our whole expression and appreciation for God changes. That's what
worship does for me. Every time I really understand what's
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going on in my own heart. As I worship the Lord,
I begin to see God and He is enlarged and
enhanced in my own heart, not as he is, but
in my heart. Number two, When I worship, worship expands
my vision. You know, one of the things we're prone
to do is to look at life in terms of
our own limitations.
Speaker 3 (19:38):
That's the way the average person does.
Speaker 2 (19:40):
When I worship God, I begin to see life not
in terms of what David Jeremiah can do, but I
begin to see life in terms of what God can
do through David Jeremiah. There's a big difference, my friend.
I am a very limited, flawed human being, and if
it's just me doing my thing for God, it's not
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going to accomplish very much. But when I worship God,
something happens within me. It expands my vision to think
about what God can do through me, what He can
do through you. I'm reminded often of one of my
favorite stories in the Old Testament about the spies who
went into the land. You remember that story. It's like
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a lot of things that happened. The majority report came
back and they all said, we can't do it. That's
the way a lot of majority reports come back. You know,
we've got the idea that majority's always right, but a
lot of times in the Bible.
Speaker 3 (20:31):
Majority was wrong.
Speaker 2 (20:34):
And the majority came back and they said, we've been
into the Promised Land and we've checked it all out,
and we want you to know what.
Speaker 3 (20:40):
Our appraisal is. Our appraisal is like this. Those are
some big people.
Speaker 2 (20:46):
Those giants were eight feet tall and taller the Anakim
they're called.
Speaker 3 (20:52):
And the majority.
Speaker 2 (20:53):
Report came back and they said, we checked them out,
and we checked them out, and you want to know
what our appraisal is. We are like grasshoppers before them,
and we don't think we should mess with them. We
don't think we should go in. God had told him
to go in. They said, no, we saw them. We
saw us were like grasshoppers. Joshua and Caleb. The minority
report they came back and they said, you know, we
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were in the same land, walked down the same streets,
saw the same giants, saw the same situation. But what
we want you to know is those are some big people,
but they are no match for God. And the only
difference in the majority report in the minority report was
the comparison. The majority compared themselves to the problem and
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the minority compared the problem to God. The large group
had a small God, the small group had a large God.
And what happens when you worship, my friends, when you
come into the presence of God and you say, my Father,
who's in Heaven, hallowed be your name, and you reflect
upon His greatness, all of a sudden, you begin to
(21:58):
see things a much different perspective. Number Three, Worship not
only enhances my appreciation and love for God and expands
my vision, but thirdly, worship eclipses my fears. I was
in Cedarville to speak at the college where I graduated
in Ohio, and I don't know how these things work,
(22:21):
so I'm going to show my ignorance. But in Cedarville, Ohio,
there was a full eclipse of the moon, and we
went out to eat to some ice cream place that
we go out to eat, and afterwards we walked out
and everybody was standing in the parking lot looking up
at the sky.
Speaker 3 (22:38):
And nobody had told me this was happening, so I
didn't know what it was.
Speaker 2 (22:41):
And I walked down and I looked up, and sure enough,
up there, you could barely see the moon.
Speaker 3 (22:48):
You could just barely see the little edges.
Speaker 2 (22:49):
Of white around. It was totally covered. When I worship God.
That's what happens to my fears.
Speaker 3 (22:58):
Any of you.
Speaker 2 (22:58):
Ever have any fear? Are you fearful people?
Speaker 3 (23:02):
You know what?
Speaker 2 (23:03):
We're all fearful people to some degree, aren't we. We
can talk about our bravery, but we have these fears
in us. And I've said this to you before, and
I've discovered this in my own life. And this is
a very practical thing that sometimes if life kind of
piles up on you during the day, you don't really
think about it too much, except you sort of take
it to bed with you at night and it sort
of works on your subconscious and then you wake up
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in the morning and you wake up.
Speaker 3 (23:26):
With this spirit of fear.
Speaker 2 (23:30):
About the day, the appointments, the sickness, the problems, the difficulties,
the children, whatever. I'll tell you the best anecdote. I
know to fear is worship well, hallowing is worshiping. We've
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learned that today, Holy be thy name, undore the name
of the Lord, and you are fulfilling the first phrase
of this prayer. We'll have more about this on Monday,
but let me remind you on this Friday edition of
Turning Point than one of the ways you will grow
in prayer and fellowship with others in prayers when you
go to church. And I know it sounds kind of
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strange to be telling people who listen to a Christian
broadcast that they need to go to church, but far
too many Christians have come through COVID and never recovered,
and they've just stayed home. And I want to encourage
you that the Bible says we're together together as God's
people for sake, not the assembling of yourselves together, says
the Book of Hebrews. So get to church this week.
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You'll find a chance to pray in the service. You'll
be led in prayer by your pastor your Sunday school teacher,
your friends, and you'll discover this is really important part
of walking with the Lord. And we'll see you right
here on Monday.
Speaker 3 (24:49):
Thank you.
Speaker 2 (24:50):
For listening today.
Speaker 1 (24:56):
The message you just heard came you from Shadow Mountain
Community Church, your pastor, Doctor David Jeremiah. Turning Point is
also on radio and TV this weekend. To learn where
to find it, visit our website David Jeremiah dot org,
Slash Radio. That's Davidjeremiah dot org, Slash Radio, or call
eight hundred ninety four seven nineteen ninety three ask for
(25:17):
your copy of David's new book for Strengthening your prayer life,
Everything to God in Prayer. It's yours for a gift
of any amount. You can also purchase the Jeremiah Study
Bible in the English Standard, New International, and New King
James versions, complete with notes and articles from doctor Jeremiah's
decades of study. If God's moving in your life through
(25:38):
this ministry, let us know At Turning Point po Box
thirty eight thirty eight, San Diego, California, nine to one
sixty three. This is David Michael Jeremiah. Join us Monday
as we continue the series Prayer the Great Adventure on
Turning Point with Doctor David Jeremiah.
In a world in which God's name is mocked and trivialized,
it's important that believers take to heart hollow would be
Thy Name from the Lord's prayer. Today on turning point,
Doctor David Jeremiah reflects on the meaning of that phrase
and shares ways for you to put it into practice
in your daily walk from prayer the Great Adventure. Here's
(00:27):
David to introduce today's message, hollow would be Thy name.
Speaker 2 (00:31):
And thank you for joining us. We are studying prayer together.
I know that's a challenge to a lot of people, because,
as I've said, quite often, all of us feel as
if we don't pray as we should, and wish we
could pray better than we do. But that's why the
Bible gives us instruction to encourage us and strengthen us
and help us to pray as the Lord taught us
(00:54):
to pray. In Matthew chapter six, we are in the
very beginning of this series. Today we come to the
phrase in the prayer where we read these words hallowed
be thy name. Hallow's an old English word that appeared
in the King James version of the Bible in sixteen eleven.
Most modern translations have retained it because it's reverential sound
(01:15):
as well as its meaning is it's just part of
our history and reminding us every day of that prayer.
But why is hallowing God's name the first step in prayer?
What does it mean to hallow the name of God?
It's not a word we would discussed very often, but
it's a word we're going to discuss today and again
we'll finish it up on Monday. So glad you joined
(01:35):
us today. I hope you're getting Thirty Points magazine and
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(01:56):
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magazine in your home as soon as possible. I know
it will be a source of blessing and will add
value to your Christian life. We are very grateful for
(02:19):
your presence with us today as we continue our discussion
of this prayer. And here we go with hallowed be
thy name. Matthew, Chapter six, verse nine. Donald McCullough has
written a contemporary book which he introduces by telling an
(02:40):
experience that he and his wife had which has been
enjoyed by a number of folks from the West Coast.
He was invited to hear the great tenor Luciano Pavati,
and they were told that the performance would probably be
his last performance here on the West Coast, And so,
even though they knew how much the outrageously priced tickets
(03:02):
had cost, they accepted the invitation and they went to
hear Pavroti sing. In his journal, he said, the concert
exceeded our expectations. We were stunned by the master's of music.
In Aria after Aria, he demonstrated his remarkable talent, talent
(03:23):
that set him apart from the thousands who had come
to hear him. But that set of partness was revealed
in his generous giving. His uniqueness was shown in a
gracious offering of himself. He held back nothing every single
note was filled with boundless passion and glorious beauty, and
(03:43):
we had to respond. We jumped to our feet, said McCullough,
And we clapped, and we hooted, and we whistled, and.
Speaker 3 (03:52):
We did not stop, not for a long time.
Speaker 2 (03:55):
Wave after wave of grateful applause was set up to
the platform, calling for a core after encore. In the
midst of this mayhem of gratitude, when my hands were
beginning to hurt from the pounding they were taking, I
thought to myself, this is deeply satisfying, This is a
(04:16):
profound joy. It felt right to offer praise in response
to such excellence, And this sense of appropriateness created a
congruence in which my life, my little world, at least
for a moment, seemed perfectly ordered. And then mccaulla said,
in a similar way, God's gracious self giving in Jesus
(04:39):
Christ calls for the response of faith and worship. And
when we worship God for that moment, as we worship,
we find that our lives, our little worlds, at least
for that moment, seemed perfectly ordered. The Lord Jesus is
teaching his disciples to pray, and as he teaches them
(05:04):
we are learning as well. We learned that we come
to address our Father, who art in heaven today. The
phrase which is before us is this one hallowed be
thy name. I must confess that of the seven statements
in the prayer, we know the least about this one,
(05:26):
hallowing the name of the Lord. When we say the
word hallowed, it's an archaic word. It's a word we
don't use in our vocabulary today, But the translators of
most of the various translations of the New Testament have
kept the word in the prayer because of its very
special nature. Actually, the word hallowed comes from the Greek
(05:49):
word hagiadzo, which is a very important word in the Bible.
For the noun hagias means holy. Literally, we could say,
as we pray this prayer, our Father, who aren't in heaven,
Holy be thy name. The word means to be sanctified,
or set apart, or to be praised. John Calvin said
(06:11):
it this way, that God's name should be hallowed is
to say that God should have his own honor, of
which he is so worthy, so that men should never
think or speak of him without the greatest veneration. We
should hold his name in the sense of the holiness
which it represents. But what does it mean to hallow
(06:33):
someone's name? Does that mean that the name God or
the name Jesus has some special significance In the combination
of the letters that make up the word.
Speaker 3 (06:45):
My name is David.
Speaker 2 (06:47):
There are five letters in that word, and we're to
honor the name of David. We would be honoring a
lot of folks, because there's a lot of Davids in
this world. And we don't hold up that little five
letter word and say, isn't that a wonderful name, Let's
hallow that name. Now, when we hallow a name, when
we ascribe praise to a name, what we're doing is
(07:08):
we're ascribing praise to the person who stands behind the name,
and the name represents the person. The name oftentimes gives
us a clue to the kind of person.
Speaker 3 (07:18):
That is.
Speaker 2 (07:20):
So, when we pray with reference to Christ or to God,
Hallowed be thy Name, the deep and sincere desire of
all who know the Lord should be that men and
women everywhere would revere his name, and in so doing
we would recognize an honor the one that that name represents,
for he alone is worthy of our adoration. When Jesus
(07:44):
taught his disciples to pray Hallowed be Thy Name, he
didn't specify which of the names. He just said the name,
and behind that name is all that God is. We
know that we're to bring honor and glory and describe
holiness to them the name of God. But how do
we do that when we pray our Father, who art
in heaven, Hallowed be thy Name.
Speaker 3 (08:06):
What does that mean? How do we enact that?
Speaker 2 (08:10):
I've written down in my journal two or three thoughts,
one of which is that when we hallow the name
of the Lord, we do so by rehearsing who he is.
Aw Tozer said that no church will ever be greater
than its concept of God. Unfortunately, in many of our
churches and in many of our own personal lives in
these days, we.
Speaker 3 (08:29):
Do not have a very high view of God.
Speaker 2 (08:32):
That is reflected in the way that we go about
trying to address our expressed feeling toward him. Soren Carecadguard,
a theologian, said, we have gotten very confused about who's
doing what in worship. He said, we think of worshippers
as an audience, pastors as entertainers, and God as the prompter.
(08:54):
In fact, he said, worshippers are the performers, Pastors are
the prompters, and God.
Speaker 3 (08:59):
Is the audience.
Speaker 2 (09:01):
And when we gather for worship, whether with a handful
and a storefront chapel or with thousands in some large church,
we perform a drama with different parts speaking and singing
and praying and giving money and baptizing and eating bread
and drinking wine. And we do it all for the
delight of God. And at the end of the show,
he said, the only applause that should matter is the
(09:22):
applause that comes from God. When we worship God, we
ascribe praise to Him, and we lift up all that
we do to his name. It is an interesting thing
that the word name is here, because in the Bible
there are many names for God. Are there not listen
to these names. This is who God is in the
(09:42):
Old Testament. He is Jehovah, said Kinyu Jehovah, righteousness. He
is Jehovah, and keddish Jehovah who sanctifies.
Speaker 3 (09:51):
He is Jehovah Shalom, that one we know.
Speaker 2 (09:53):
Jehovah, who is our peace. He is Jehovah Shama. Jehovah
is there He never leaves us. He is Jehoah raphe
one that I have come to know in love. He
is our healer. Jehovah Jirah, the Lord will provide, Jehovah Nisy,
the Lord my banner. And Jehovah Rohi, the Lord my shepherd.
That's who he is. And the Lord Jesus said, when
(10:16):
you pray, pray like this our Father who out in heaven,
hallowed be thy name. Each one of those names gives
us a little glimpse of something about God that is
not only important for us to know, but it's important
for us to know about us and how we relate
to Him. For instance, I took my notes, wrote down
all those names and was reminded that each of those
(10:37):
names responds to some particular need in my life at
one time or another. Have you ever thought of that
I am a sinful creature and you are too. You're
all sinners, and I'm a sinner. Let's just get that
out of the way right up front. That's what the
Word of God says. Well, when I think about being
a sinner, I think about the part of God that
is Jehovah sid kin you God is my righteousness. When
(10:58):
I think about my need to be holy. I think
of Jehovah and kedish the Lord my sanctification. Once in
a while I have some anxiety, believe it or not.
And when I have anxiety, I like to worship Jehovah Shalom, God,
who is my peace. And there are times when all
of us are lonely, and then we need Jehovah Shama.
(11:19):
When we're sick and we need healing, we need Jehovah Rafei.
When we have needs financially and we don't have enough,
it is Jehovah Jirah, the Lord will provide. And when
we are lacking in self esteem and who we are,
we discover that the Lord is our banner. And when
my life and my direction and my understanding of what's
going on in my life is not clear, I need
(11:39):
Jehovah Rohi. The Lord is my shepherd. You see, every
part of the name of God, every name that is given,
does not reflect all that he is, but reflects a
little of who he is. And as we focus on
the names, we come to know who the person is
behind the name. When the Lord said, when you pray,
pray like this, our father, who are in heaven Hallowed
(11:59):
be thy name. He wants us to not just know
the name God, but he wants us to know all
we can know about God, so that when we worship Him,
we can lift back up to Him praise for all
that the Word of God reveals.
Speaker 3 (12:11):
Him to be.
Speaker 2 (12:13):
When you come to the New Testament, we discover that
the greatest of the names is Jesus the God Man.
And then a whole new list of names comes through,
doesn't it. He is the Bread, he is the way
of life, he is the Truth, He's the Resurrection, the
good Shepherd, the branch. And all of the New Testament
is filled in the gospels with names to help us
know the one we worship, our Father, who are in heaven.
(12:34):
Hallowed be thy name. And here are the things about
God that we know from the names that have been
given us. I have on occasions selected just one little
name of God and tried to think about it for
a whole week. Jehovah, Jirah, the Lord provides. How many
of you know that God provides that he does. Isn't
that a wonderful thing? And just for one week, just
(12:56):
say Lord, this week, I'm gonna hallow your name, and
I'm gonna consider for my own praise what you have
done to provide for me.
Speaker 3 (13:03):
You are Jehovah Jirah.
Speaker 2 (13:05):
The Lord provides, and every day focus on some time
to reflect on his provision. Not only do we hallow
his name by rehearsing their meanings, but we hallow his
name by respecting his greatness. God is uncommon, he's extraordinary,
he's unearthly, he's separated from sinners. He's undefiled, and the
(13:28):
Bible says he's holy. And we are to speak of
God in reverence. We are to sanctify him. To hallow
his name means to hold his matchless being in reverence,
so that you will believe what he says, and you
will obey him, and you will honor his name. We
are given here in this prayer a wonderful tension so
(13:49):
that we don't go off in some crazy direction. When
we talk about our father, who are in heaven, and
remember he's ava father, he is according to the New
Testament language, the daddy.
Speaker 3 (13:58):
He's our daddy. That is intimate.
Speaker 2 (14:01):
But in the same sentence we're told, our father, who
are in heaven, hallowed be thy name. And God is
not pleased when we forget that He is the great
and majestic one to whom we come. He's the creative
of the universe, and he deserves to be treated with
respect and honor. So whatever we may do, whatever we
(14:22):
may say, that what in any way diminishes greatness, we
ought not to do. We ought to hold him up
with great reverence and respect. We hallow his name by
respecting his greatness. Thirdly, we hallow his name by relinquishing
control over our own lives. Martin Luther said, how is
(14:43):
God's name hallowed among us? When both our doctrine and
our living are truly Christian? We hallow the name of
God by the way we live, when we give ourselves
totally to Him and allow him to control our lives.
When we say hallowed be thy Name, we are praying
like this, May the whole of my life be a
(15:04):
source of delight to you, and may it be an
honor to the name which I bear, which is your name.
Hallowed be your Name. Psalm nineteen fourteen is a prayer
that we sometimes pray in church. It goes like this,
Let the words of my mouth and the meditation of
my heart be acceptable in thy sight, O Lord, my Rock,
(15:26):
and my Redeemer that ought to be the prayer of
each one of us. Every day, Lord, I hallow your
name by giving you the control of my life and
living in obedience to you. Fourthly, we hallow his name
by recognizing his presence in all of our lives. We
hallow his name when we are constantly aware of his presence.
(15:48):
David said in Psalm sixteen eight, I have set the
Lord always before me.
Speaker 3 (15:54):
That's the key.
Speaker 2 (15:54):
We live our lives in the presence of God, and
we honor and respect Him, and we come into his
presence not flippantly, quickly, just sort of with a oh,
by the way, Lord, we come into his presence, We
prepare our hearts to come and to pray and to
honor his name.
Speaker 3 (16:15):
And I want to say to you men and women.
Speaker 2 (16:16):
That if we learn to pray as Jesus taught his disciples,
it will make an incredible difference in the way we live.
That God does not wish us necessarily to always be
rushing into his presence with our grocery lists of things.
God wants to be worshiped. The Bible says he seeks
those who will worship him in spirit and in truth,
and when we come to him, we need to bring
(16:37):
our gift of worship to him first before we ask
him to fill our hands with other things. I am
so confident that this is a critical part of where
most of us are in our spiritual walk with the Lord.
Speaker 3 (16:50):
And I'm still just learning. I'm a student like the
rest of you.
Speaker 2 (16:55):
And I wrote down six things that entering into the
presence of God with worship changes in everyone's life.
Speaker 3 (17:01):
It will change your life.
Speaker 2 (17:03):
Just as it's changing mind. We're all in the growing process.
We're not there yet, but hopefully we're on the road
toward understanding more and more about who God is and
how He works in our lives every day. And here
are some of the things that I reflected upon. Number One,
when I worship, When I come into the presence of
God with Hallowed be Thy name, worship enhances my appreciation
(17:26):
and my love for God. I am caused to see
Him as he is is. God's greatness changed by my worship.
Not in the least can I add or subtract one
wit to who he is, not at all. But when
I reflect in my own heart upon His greatness when
(17:49):
I come in my prayer, and maybe I've learned some
of the attributes of God, some of the names of
God that tell me more and more about who is.
When I reflect those back to Him, something happens within me.
The greatness of God is impressed upon my spirits, so
that I see Him and I understand a little bit
more about who He is, and the greatness of God
(18:10):
is enhanced in my life. I remember preaching a servant
some years ago talking about a lot of folks who
have a big God and some who have a little God.
And I got all kinds of male when that one
on the radio. Because some people thought I'd gotten into idolatry.
I had to straighten that all out. And that's not
what I was talking about. I was talking about the
fact that sometimes the way people respond to.
Speaker 3 (18:31):
God, their God is very little. He is.
Speaker 2 (18:36):
Circumscribed by their own restrictions. They have never seen God
as the scripture presents him, and they have never worshiped
that God. It's as if God were out there waiting
for us to come and see him, and in the
back of our mind we have an image of who
he is, and it's not a very enhancing image. It's
(18:57):
sort of a not a very great image of who
God is. And then the day comes and we're allowed
to go into His presence and for one moment we
see Him as he really is, and all of a sudden,
our whole expression and appreciation for God changes. That's what
worship does for me. Every time I really understand what's
(19:19):
going on in my own heart. As I worship the Lord,
I begin to see God and He is enlarged and
enhanced in my own heart, not as he is, but
in my heart. Number two, When I worship, worship expands
my vision. You know, one of the things we're prone
to do is to look at life in terms of
our own limitations.
Speaker 3 (19:38):
That's the way the average person does.
Speaker 2 (19:40):
When I worship God, I begin to see life not
in terms of what David Jeremiah can do, but I
begin to see life in terms of what God can
do through David Jeremiah. There's a big difference, my friend.
I am a very limited, flawed human being, and if
it's just me doing my thing for God, it's not
(20:01):
going to accomplish very much. But when I worship God,
something happens within me. It expands my vision to think
about what God can do through me, what He can
do through you. I'm reminded often of one of my
favorite stories in the Old Testament about the spies who
went into the land. You remember that story. It's like
(20:22):
a lot of things that happened. The majority report came
back and they all said, we can't do it. That's
the way a lot of majority reports come back. You know,
we've got the idea that majority's always right, but a
lot of times in the Bible.
Speaker 3 (20:31):
Majority was wrong.
Speaker 2 (20:34):
And the majority came back and they said, we've been
into the Promised Land and we've checked it all out,
and we want you to know what.
Speaker 3 (20:40):
Our appraisal is. Our appraisal is like this. Those are
some big people.
Speaker 2 (20:46):
Those giants were eight feet tall and taller the Anakim
they're called.
Speaker 3 (20:52):
And the majority.
Speaker 2 (20:53):
Report came back and they said, we checked them out,
and we checked them out, and you want to know
what our appraisal is. We are like grasshoppers before them,
and we don't think we should mess with them. We
don't think we should go in. God had told him
to go in. They said, no, we saw them. We
saw us were like grasshoppers. Joshua and Caleb. The minority
report they came back and they said, you know, we
(21:15):
were in the same land, walked down the same streets,
saw the same giants, saw the same situation. But what
we want you to know is those are some big people,
but they are no match for God. And the only
difference in the majority report in the minority report was
the comparison. The majority compared themselves to the problem and
(21:37):
the minority compared the problem to God. The large group
had a small God, the small group had a large God.
And what happens when you worship, my friends, when you
come into the presence of God and you say, my Father,
who's in Heaven, hallowed be your name, and you reflect
upon His greatness, all of a sudden, you begin to
(21:58):
see things a much different perspective. Number Three, Worship not
only enhances my appreciation and love for God and expands
my vision, but thirdly, worship eclipses my fears. I was
in Cedarville to speak at the college where I graduated
in Ohio, and I don't know how these things work,
(22:21):
so I'm going to show my ignorance. But in Cedarville, Ohio,
there was a full eclipse of the moon, and we
went out to eat to some ice cream place that
we go out to eat, and afterwards we walked out
and everybody was standing in the parking lot looking up
at the sky.
Speaker 3 (22:38):
And nobody had told me this was happening, so I
didn't know what it was.
Speaker 2 (22:41):
And I walked down and I looked up, and sure enough,
up there, you could barely see the moon.
Speaker 3 (22:48):
You could just barely see the little edges.
Speaker 2 (22:49):
Of white around. It was totally covered. When I worship God.
That's what happens to my fears.
Speaker 3 (22:58):
Any of you.
Speaker 2 (22:58):
Ever have any fear? Are you fearful people?
Speaker 3 (23:02):
You know what?
Speaker 2 (23:03):
We're all fearful people to some degree, aren't we. We
can talk about our bravery, but we have these fears
in us. And I've said this to you before, and
I've discovered this in my own life. And this is
a very practical thing that sometimes if life kind of
piles up on you during the day, you don't really
think about it too much, except you sort of take
it to bed with you at night and it sort
of works on your subconscious and then you wake up
(23:24):
in the morning and you wake up.
Speaker 3 (23:26):
With this spirit of fear.
Speaker 2 (23:30):
About the day, the appointments, the sickness, the problems, the difficulties,
the children, whatever. I'll tell you the best anecdote. I
know to fear is worship well, hallowing is worshiping. We've
(23:53):
learned that today, Holy be thy name, undore the name
of the Lord, and you are fulfilling the first phrase
of this prayer. We'll have more about this on Monday,
but let me remind you on this Friday edition of
Turning Point than one of the ways you will grow
in prayer and fellowship with others in prayers when you
go to church. And I know it sounds kind of
(24:14):
strange to be telling people who listen to a Christian
broadcast that they need to go to church, but far
too many Christians have come through COVID and never recovered,
and they've just stayed home. And I want to encourage
you that the Bible says we're together together as God's
people for sake, not the assembling of yourselves together, says
the Book of Hebrews. So get to church this week.
(24:35):
You'll find a chance to pray in the service. You'll
be led in prayer by your pastor your Sunday school teacher,
your friends, and you'll discover this is really important part
of walking with the Lord. And we'll see you right
here on Monday.
Speaker 3 (24:49):
Thank you.
Speaker 2 (24:50):
For listening today.
Speaker 1 (24:56):
The message you just heard came you from Shadow Mountain
Community Church, your pastor, Doctor David Jeremiah. Turning Point is
also on radio and TV this weekend. To learn where
to find it, visit our website David Jeremiah dot org,
Slash Radio. That's Davidjeremiah dot org, Slash Radio, or call
eight hundred ninety four seven nineteen ninety three ask for
(25:17):
your copy of David's new book for Strengthening your prayer life,
Everything to God in Prayer. It's yours for a gift
of any amount. You can also purchase the Jeremiah Study
Bible in the English Standard, New International, and New King
James versions, complete with notes and articles from doctor Jeremiah's
decades of study. If God's moving in your life through
(25:38):
this ministry, let us know At Turning Point po Box
thirty eight thirty eight, San Diego, California, nine to one
sixty three. This is David Michael Jeremiah. Join us Monday
as we continue the series Prayer the Great Adventure on
Turning Point with Doctor David Jeremiah.
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