I like reading sermon manuscripts! So, I thought it might be helpful for some if I shared some various manuscripts of messages I have preached from time to time. Now, I am not going to do the work of editing them, so please be patient with the presentation, as I type them a certain way to make it easier for me as I preach. It may be a bit annoying for you, but it would take way too long for me to edit! You can listen to the audio here. This particular message is about the second requirement of prayer.
We are looking together at Luke 1.
And talking about.
Prayer.
Specifically, how to pray.
Which
I suppose
Could be offensive to some people
Like
You are going to teach me, how to pray?
I don’t need to be taught how to pray
I just pray
We are going to have a class on prayer
Come on
That’s a class on talking
And
Of course
To a certain extent I understand that
Because
Prayer
Is
Supposed to be something
That you might say
Is
Basic
After all
It’s
Talking
To
God
From the heart
It’s not
A ritual you learn
It’s not a certain formula you have memorize
It is not some secret powerful words
You can use on God
Prayer is talking to God from the heart
And
God’s not interested
At all
In
Being
A vending machine
In the sky
You know
Where you just figure out how to put your money in and out comes what you want
That’s not prayer
You don’t have a relationship with a vending machine
And
God
Definitely wants to
Have
A
Relationship
With you
And
We know
It’s
Supposed to be
A
Loving relationship
As well
Because
Jesus reveals
That to us
When
He says
Like a father child
Relationship
You remember out of all the titles we could call God, He tells us to call Him
Father
And, so obviously
We don’t want to make prayer more complicated than it has to be
Like
If our children came to us
And they say
Daddy
We wouldn’t say, oh, whoop, it’s not daddy, it’s dad.
And if you are going to talk to me
You have to do this dance first
And we don’t say that
Hopefully
Because.
We love our children
And we want to hear from them
And we are glad when they come to us
And God loves you and wants to hear from you
And
So I’m not trying to slow down your prayer life
When I say
I think we need to talk about how to pray
Or that you need to learn pray
Like oh
This is so difficult
And you are never going to get this
And yet
You know
At the same time
While I don’t want to make prayer more difficult than it has to be
The fact is
We do
Need to learn
How
To pray
There definitely
Does need to be instruction
Otherwise Jesus wouldn’t take the time to teach us
And
He does take the time to teach us
When the disciples say teach us to pray, he says to them, this is how you pray
Which means
This was obviously something he thought mattered
Instruction on prayer
And
I think
One reason he thought it mattered
Is because
As we’ve said before
When we pray
We are not just speaking to anyone
We are actually speaking to God
And
While he’s our Father, he’s also still God
And
That’ makes talking to Him
Obviously a big deal
Something we want to learn how to do well
I mean
You can
Imagine
Getting a call
To speak to Parliament
Tomorrow
You are going down to Cape Town and you are going to speak to the members of Parliament
And
Hopefully
That’s something you are going to
Think about
You are going to think about what you are going to say
And even maybe how to say it
And of course members of Parliament
Are
Small in comparison to God
And
So
We are going to want to learn how to pray
Because this is an incredible privilege
And also because it is
An
Amazing
Opportunity
To talk to God
And
We’ve been going back to Lord’s prayer
Here in Luke 11:2-4
And using at it as a kind of model
It’s not words you memorize
It’s a model
Of
How
And even what
to pray
Jesus
Is
Giving us a basic framework for understanding how to approach God in prayer
And
Over past couple weeks
We’ve been begun looking at the way Jesus addresses God and begun laying down some basic principles
We learn
From
Jesus’ prayer
And
The
First
Principle
Was kind of simple
This was last week
We
Said
BELIEVE
That’s where prayer starts
Believe
Specifically
You need to begin by making sure you really are believing the gospel
And
This is like
A get your heart right
Kind of beginning
And
You need to hear that again, your heart right
Because
We like externals
And that’s where we tend to start when it comes to our relationship with God
And Jesus doesn’t
When he talks about how to pray
He doesn’t begin with stuff like posture
If you are going to pray, you always have to get on your knees
And he doesn’t talk about stuff like, place, at least here
He doesn’t say
If you are going to pray
You have to go to the mountain
Or
Talk about what you are supposed to wear
You know you have a special white robe that you put on when you pray
Or even time
He doesn’t say
You have to pray in the morning
Or you have to pray for so long
Instead
Jesus begin
With
What’s going on in your heart
Do you see God as your Father
In other words
Are believing the gospel, and I am mentioning that again
Because it has always man’s tendency to think what matters most
To God
Is
External stuff
And as long as we get that right
We are fine
I mean
You can go back to
The OT
And
The Prophets
See
They are always coming to people
Who are plenty religious
And they make their sacrifices
And pray at certain times
And
Yet
God’s like
What’s going on here
With you
You think I like this
Because
All external
There’s no heart for holiness
It’s just religion
And that’s
Such a powerful temptation
Obviously
To take what’s supposed to be about relationship and honoring God and enjoying God
And
Miss all that
And feel fine
Because the form
The externals are there
And it’s such a powerful temptation
That
Even after all these prophets
Came
And said
All they said
In Jesus’ day
We
Find all these
Religious leaders
Like the Pharisees
And
Their big concern
Seems to have
Been
The externals as well
Like
Where you prayed
And
What you were wearing when you prayed
And the ritual went through as you prayed
And Jesus
Keeps saying
You’re not getting it
This is not God-honoring prayer
And so
From OT to NT
God’s always made it clear
You
Won’t understand
How to pray
Until you understand
That
The externals is not where you start, where you start, if you are going to get prayer right, is with what’s going on in the heart.
And the
Most important
Thing
Here
In Luke 11
In terms of what is going on in the heart
Is
That you
Pray
With
Faith
In
The
Gospel
That God
Is for you, because of Jesus Christ
If you don’t have that confidence, you need to get it, and you only get it through Jesus, through what He’s done, through the promises God’s made
To those
Who trust in Him
And
At the end of the day
No matter what you are wearing or where you are standing or what you are saying
There’s
No
Real praying without faith in Jesus and the promises God’s made
I am just standing there talking
If I am not believing the gospel
And we get all this
Of course
From the fact
Jesus tells us to call God
Our Father
In Luke 11
Simply
Father
Which was door that opens up to this whole glorious gospel truth
Of what it means
To be
A Christian
As Christians we
Don’t just pray to God
Like He’s removed from us
And distant from us
Because
We’ve been adopted
And so
We
Now
Pray to a God
Who loves
Us
And
Who
Wants us to know He loves us
And
While I know
That sounds simple
It’s
Also
Key
To experiencing real communion with God
BELIEVE
That’s first
And
Second
We are going to look at a second principle
This afternoon
Which you might call
REMEMBER
Believe
And
Remember
Specifically
Remember you are speaking to God
Which again
I know
Sounds kind of simple
But
It’s
Obviously essential
You know
Who you are talking to you
When you pray
And it’s kind of crazy
Really
How easy
It is to forget
When you are praying
Who you are speaking to
That
You are speaking to God
And
I mean
God
In capital letters
GOD
And
I’m just drawing this principle
From
Jesus’ words here
In
Luke 11:2
Where He says
“When you pray, say Father, HALLOWED BE YOUR NAME.”
And
Another way to say that would be
Father
“Let your name be hallowed”
Which may not mean that much to us at first
Obviously
Because hallowed is an unfamiliar term
Like
Really
Who uses the word hallow or hallowed
Anymore
But even though we don’t use the word that often
The idea really is not that
Complicated
Actually
Because
Hallow
Essentially means, honor
That’s probably the easiest way to say it
In the Old Testament
You can think of how God hallowed
The Sabbath day
He set apart one day
From the rest
That was supposed to be treated as something special
And so
Hallow
Is
Set apart
Reverence
Or
You could even
Say
Put on display
As holy
And
It’s like a request here
Obviously
Lord
Would you hallow your name
But
It
Also
Reflects an attitude
And that’s what I want us think about
Is the attitude
What
Is
Behind
The request
Where is this request
Coming from
It needs to come from a certain attitude towards God
Because
Obviously
The request itself doesn’t mean much
Really
If you just say it
If it doesn’t reflect what’s going on in your heart
If it is just some formality
You say
Because you think you are supposed to
Oh God
Hallowed be your name
You are missing Jesus’ point
Which is
That
What
Is
Supposed to be driving you
As you pray
Is
Really
God
Himself
I mean
An
Awe of God
Where
You come to prayer
Because you know God
And you love God
And
So
When you say
Hallowed be your name
You are
Really
Saying
God
The reason I am here
On my knees
Is because I want your name to be
Honored
And
Reverenced
And
Set apart
From everything else
In other words
I want your name to be hallowed
Because
I know
You
And
Because
I know
You are special
You are unique
You are first
And
You are more important than anything else
And so
As I come to you in prayer the thing that matters most
To me
Is that you
You would
Be glorified
When you say you want God’s name to be hallowed
You are saying
God
You are at the center of the universe
I know that
And
I actually want that
I like you there
I love you being there
And
The thing is
I don’t just want this for myself
Either
I want everyone else to know you are at the center of the universe
As well
It’s a response
Hallowed be your name
It’s like
You are considering the character of God and you are saying
Wow
You are beautiful
And
You are awesome
And
You
Are majestic
And
You are seeing this
And it’s like you are looking around you and you’re saying
I want everyone else to see this
As well
I want everyone else to see you
God
The way I am seeing you
And
This comes first
For you
Really
This comes first
In prayer
And
I guess
I am saying that because
I just love
That Jesus puts this at the beginning of his teaching on prayer
You address God
Father
And then
First
Hallowed be your name
First
Because
You know
Jesus doesn’t start where a lot of people start
Does he
At least in terms of their attitude
In their relationship with God
He doesn’t start with us
And that’s important
He doesn’t start with you
At the center
Instead
He starts with God
And so
It’s like he’s saying
Listen
As you pray
Obviously
You’ve got things going on in your life
And things you want
And things you are concerned about
And we’ll see
How God wants us to talk to Him about that kind of stuff
Because He does
But
Even with
All those
Problems and pressures
That you feel are so important
Never forget
Your fundamental
Most basic
Longing in prayer
The thing that really should be driving you FIRST AND FOREMOST
Is God
Being glorified
And
You know
I’m kind of going on about this
Because
This is not just a prayer statement
Actually
Like something you just say in prayer
This is a life statement
In fact
This is one of the things that sets real Christianity apart
From fake Christianity
At the end of the day
One of the things that sets real Christianity apart
Is that real Christianity
Has God at the center
And fake Christianity
Has man
At the center
Instead
And so
They both talk about God, but one has God at the center, real Christianity and the other has man, in his place
And
I don’t know, maybe you remember
How we’ve said
Before
In this world everything is either instrument or an end
And I love this so I am going to say it
Because it’s clarifying
And an instrument is something you use to accomplish a certain purpose
And an end is that purpose
So a pen
Is an instrument
You use for the end or purpose
Of writing a letter
And
If you take a step back
Ultimately
There is actually only one great end
There is only one great purpose
To everything in the universe
And absolutely everything else is an instrument to accomplish that purpose
And that purpose is God
God’s glory
God’s reputation
God’s beauty being put on display
That’s what matters
And
If we open up our Bibles
That’s kind of the whole point
Really
This is a book about God
And
It’s showing us how great God is
It’s showing us
God’s glory
And helping us see
That
God’s glory is the goal of all things
And
Actually
It’s hard to understand this book unless you understand
That
That
There’s this God
Out there
Who created everything we see
And who is in a class by himself
And
Deserves praise, honor, worship,
Because
Everything about Him
Is absolutely perfect
And
Is the way it should be
And
Every which way you look at God
He’s just beautiful
And
The whole universe
Was created
To shout out His glory
That’s why He made the world
And
That’s why things happened the way they did
In this world
History
Is about His glory
And He’s even using the way we broke things, to bring Himself glory
Ultimately
You might say His glory is like the ocean, and the things that happen are like rivers, and all those rivers, are flowing one direction, they are all pouring into
The ocean of the glory of God
I mean
That’s the reason we are on the planet
That’s why God saved us
That’s why Jesus died
That’s why He rose again
That’s why He’s coming back
That’s why we are here in church
That’s why, that’s why, that’s why
The glory of God
And yet
Obviously
We know
The problem is
While
The Bible is so clear about all of this
For
A lot of people
Who say they are Christians
They are actually thinking and living is they are living as if
It were ultimately all about them
Instead
As if
God were the instrument
And they were the end
Where
The purpose is their glory
And God is the tool they are using to accomplish that
And
The
Thing is
That
Shows up in the way they pray
First
Because
There’s no passion in their prayers for the glory of God
Though
There is
Lot of passion
For the glory of self
Hallowed be my name
And
It’s almost
Really
As if they are talking to God like they were God
If you are listening closely
Because
Maybe they give some lip service to God
But after that
It’s their interests that are most important
It’s their honor that matters most
That comes first
And you know
There is not much reverence
There is not much awe
And
In fact
If you were going to be straight up
In some of their prayers
There is not much God
And
The sad thing
Is obviously
While
It’s easy to be critical of other people’s prayers
The
Reality is
That’s not just true of people out there
That can even sometimes be true for those of us
Who
Feel like
We have our doctrines down
And
Who say we are serious about what the Bible teaches
We know it’s about God
But too
Often
That’s only theory
For us
We know it’s about God
Theoretically
That’s what we would say
But
I am afraid
That practically a whole lot of times we are living as if it were really about us
And
We are
Praying like that
As well
Paul Tripp writes,
And he’s an author.
“I know for myself – and I know I’m not alone – that so much of my prayer has nothing to do with the glory of God.”
Which is a strong statement.
If you think about it.
Nothing to do with the glory of God.
But.
Honestly
How much of your prayer has to do with the glory of God?
How often are you driven to pray, because of this passion for God to be glorified.
Tripp goes on,
“Unfortunately, in much of our prayer, we’re actually asking God to endorse our pursuit of self-focused little glories.”
And I wonder if you are hearing what he’s saying?
Because.
He’s saying.
In a lot of prayers, it’s not hallowed be thy name.
It’s hallowed be my name.
Only.
Of course.
We are smart.
And so “we phrase it in a way to make it sound not so selfish:
Like.
- “God, give me wisdom at work … “
Which is a fine prayer, if it is God give me wisdom so that you will be glorified, but too often, it’s give me wisdom, so that I can make more money and acquire more power and get a better reputation for myself.
Or.
- “God, alleviate my financial woes …
Which again, could be appropriate, except that too often, the reason we want our financial woes fixed is so that we don’t have to trust God any longer and so that we more money to spend on the pleasure and possessions that we think will make us happy.
Or.
We pray.
- “God, help my child to be more respectful …
Not.
So much for my child’s good or God’s glory.
But instead.
So that my evenings will be more peaceful so I can get the things done that I want to get done.”
And.
On and on we can go, looking at ways, we are actually, driven mostly.
To pray.
Buy.
A passion for us.
And.
Jesus is telling us here.
That.
Needs to change.
We need to change the way we pray.
In that.
The first thing we want is not that God would just make our lives so easy, but that “God would glorify himself, or even love himself, more than anything else.”
In other words.
We.
Are.
To say.
“Hallowed be Thy Name”
And one reason
I think
This
HALLOWED BE YOUR NAME
Is so important
At the beginning of prayer
Is
Because it is like
A big old
STOP
SIGN
For us
Really
At least that’s how I think of it
When I pray
It’s like wait
Before you go any further into the throne room
To talk to the King
STOP
And
Make sure your attitude is straight
By
REMEMBERING
Exactly
Who you are talking to
You are talking to God
You are talking to
And
Of course
I am saying
The problem is
And
The reason why
We are having this whole long sermon on just this one phrase
Is because
I know
There are going to be lots times when you are beginning to pray
And
You are just like blah
Towards God
Or
You are just worked up about yourself
But you are not sitting down
To pray
In awe
Of God
Longing for His glory
The way I am descriving
In fact
I was reading an article
This week
By this author
Who has got a book
Called
AWE.
Why it matters for everything we say, think or do.
And.
I like that
Awe
Matters
And
I think
Jesus would say
He’s right
Awe
Matters
Because
It’s the attitude behind
Hallowed be your name
And
It’s what is missing
A lot of times as we go to pray
There’s just
No
Awe
Awe is a great word
It is seeing something
And being blown away by its greatness
It’s a feeling of “reverential respect mixed with fear and wonder.”
In other words
Awe is what happens
When
You are looking at something and it grips you and your heart is captured
And you think it is so beautiful and valuable and important
And
You are amazed by it
And
So
You can’t help but be passionate about it
And jealous for it
And
Obviously
That’s not the
Way we feel a lot of times about God
Unfortunately
When we go to God in prayer
Instead.
Initially
Honestly
A lot of times
We are cold
Distracted
And
I think
If we are going to learn to pray the way Jesus, wants us to, we need to make a priority out of
Getting
The awe back
Into
Our
Prayers
And
That’s the point, I think behind, Hallowed be thy name
And.
Maybe.
You are thinking.
How?
How do I pursue that kind of attitude in prayer?
And I hope you are thinking that because that is an important question, and so let, me give you four places to look, if you are going to kindle a fire in your hearts, for the glory of God.
First.
Look up.
You need to look up when you pray.
And.
Obviously.
I don’t mean, physically look up, of course.
I mean, you need to look up spiritually, and think about the character of God.
The reason a lot of us are lacking a passion for the glory of God is because we are not really thinking about God.
We are thinking about us.
We are thinking about our problems.
But we are not thinking about God.
And unfortunately, for some of us, that’s because we don’t really know Him that well in the first place.
If I ask you, what is that you love about God, is there anything that comes to mind, and really there is a lot that should come to mind because there is a whole world that is revealing His beauty and a whole book that He wrote to tell us what He is like, and yet, sometimes, even though people are Christians, they only know God superficially, and so there’s not much that comes to mind when they think about God, and so obviously, there’s not much of a passion, for Him to be glorified.
On the other hand, others of us, do kind of know God, but it’s like we are great at forgetting.
With children sometimes you will call them to come to you, when they are little, and they are easily distracted, and they start by coming across the room, but then they see something else, and off they wander, and so you have to constantly be like, hey, look at me.
Come.
Come.
And with God, we’ve like that all the time, even if we’ve seen His beauty in the past, we get distracted, and forgetful, and that’s again, why.
We need to work.
As we pray.
If we don’t know God very well, or even if we do, it’s not that different, we need to look up as we pray, we need to come back to what the Scripture teaches us about God, and think about that and pray about that until we are enjoying Him and fired up about Him.
Being set apart.
Hallowed.
Maybe you take a list of God’s attributes, that means God’s character qualities as revealed in Scripture, and you start praying through them.
God is good.
God is holy.
God sees everything.
God knows everything.
God is all powerful.
And on and on we could go, but you take a list like that, and maybe you start by defining what each word.
God you are good.
What does it mean that you are good?
It means this.
And what difference does it make that you are good?
It matters because.
And.
Where in the Bible do we see your goodness?
Oh we see how good you are here.
And.
How have you been good to me?
God, you have been so good, hallowed be your name.
Or.
Another approach would be just take God’s names, you can find a list of names of God in the Bible, somewhere on the internet, maybe, and for a whole month, one day at at a time, you could praise God, for one of His names.
Like.
El Shaddai.
The Lord Almighty.
Or.
El Olam.
The everlasting God.
Or.
Yahweh Jireh.
The Lord will provide.
Or.
Yahweh Shalom.
The Lord is peace.
Or.
Adonai.
Lord.
Master.
And obviously again.
We could go on and on and the point is not to use these names like they are magical, the letters or something.
Oh, just repeat them over and over, but instead, to prayerfully reflect on what the names tell you about God.
Until.
You’re filled up with a passion.
For.
His glory.
Or.
You could take a prayer you find in your Bible.
And a lot of times, you’ll see them doing this.
1 Kings 8.
For example.
When Solomon’s praying at the dedication of the temple.
Listen to how begins.
Verse 22.
“Then Solomon stood before the altar of the Lord in the presence of all the assembly of Israel and spread out his hands toward heaven, and said, ‘O Lord, God of Israel, there is no God like you, in heaven above or on earth beneath, keeping covenant and showing steadfast love to your servants who walk before you with all their heart; you have kept with your servant David my father, what you declared to him. You spoke with your mouth, and with your hand have fulfilled it this day.”
And what’s he doing?
He’s reflecting on the uniqueness of God, on the character of God.
Verse 27.
He goes on.
“But will God indeed dwell on the earth? Behold, heaven and the highest heaven, cannot contain you, how much less this house that I have built, yet have regard to the prayer of your servant, and to his plea, my Lord my God.”
And if you need help, you can pray along with Solomon, taking his words, understanding what they mean, and using them, in prayer yourself.
This is what I mean.
When I say.
If you are going to hallow God’s name, you need to look up.
Very often.
You need.
To begin prayer by remembering who God is.
Second.
Look in.
If we are going to pray hallowed be thy name and really mean it, obviously it starts with looking at God and who He is and what He deserves, but second, we can also look at ourselves, and evaluate, are we, actually, hallowing God’s name?
John Piper’s preached a sermon on Hallowed be Thy name and he walks through some passage in Scripture that talk about what it means to hallow God’s name.
And first.
He says.
It means to believe God’s Word.
And he gets this, actually, from Numbers 20:12 where God rebukes Moses.
And says.
“Because you did not believe in Me, to hallow me in the eyes of the people of Israel.”
And obviously not believing there, equals not hallowing, and so if I am going to pray this request, hallowed be thy name, I think, I need to stop and say, well, am I living a life that shows, I.
Actually trust.
God’s Word?
Second.
Am I fearing God or am I fearing man?
In other words, what is driving me, man’s approval or God’s?
In Isaiah 8:12,13.
God says.
To the prophet Isaiah.
“Do not call conspiracy all that this people call conspiracy, and do not fear what they fear, nor be in dread. But the Lord of hosts, him you shall regard as holy (or: literally) hallow); let him be your fear, let him be your dread.”
And.
Not hallowing there, means being afraid of what everyone else is afraid, and hallowing, is basically, fearing God instead.
And so, as I am praying hallowed be Thy name, and I am not necessarily feeling it, I don’t feel a passion for God’s glory, I think about what it means to hallow God’s name, and I look at my life, and if I am not trusting God or not fearing God, then I am like wow, what’s going wrong.
I really need God.
To answer this prayer.
Starting in my life.
This is not just a throw away prayer.
Father, hallowed be your name.
I don’t hallow your name.
The way it deserves.
Lord, work this in me.
Third, you can look back.
You can look up.
To remember how great God is.
You can look in.
To begin feeling a need, that He would help you hallow His name.
And you can look back.
On.
How God has acted.
To save you.
If you are going to sort of kindle a passion, that He be glorified.
And this is something you see all the time in the psalms.
Psalm 103.
Great example.
“Bless the Lord, O my soul, and all that is within me, bless his holy name.”
Which is basically.
Another way of saying, Lord, hallowed be your name.
And.
How does he stir himself up?
Verse 2.
“Bless the Lord, O my soul, and forget not all his benefits, who forgives all your iniquity, who heals all your diseases, who redeems your life from the pit, who crowns you with steadfast love and mercy, who satisfied you with good, so that your youth is renewed like the eagle.”
And what he’s doing.
Is remembering.
Some of the things God has done for him, and throughout the rest of the psalm, you find him, talking about the ways in which God has been kind.
Until.
The end of the psalm.
When.
He’s basically shouting out.
“Bless the Lord, O you his angels, bless the Lord all his hosts, bless the Lord, all his works, bless the Lord, O my soul.”
And there are other places, where he doesn’t start out so excited.
And it’s more like.
He’s concerned and worried, and you’ll see if you read the psalms, he works his way through that, and one of the ways he does, is by going back, and saying, God this is who you are and this is what you have done for me.
Until by the end.
He’s like.
Yes.
Lord.
Hallowed be Thy name.
And that of course, is something you and I can do as well.
You might.
Make a list, and set a goal for yourself, I am going to write down twenty ways, God’s shown His love for me, through Jesus.
And then pray, through them.
God, I was out there and I was as self-centered as I could be, and completely living this stupid life, that was hurting me and hurting everyone else around me, and then you showed me Jesus.
Hallowed be Thy name.
Are you hearing what I am saying?
This is a statement that shows us what we should want most, but a lot of times, it’s not something that is driving us as we pray, because we are just talking, we are not remembering that we are talking to God, and.
There’s little awe.
And so of course, we need to pray, God would give us that awe back, while at the same time, working, to be amazed by God, by.
Thinking about who God is.
And thinking about what God deserves.
And thinking about what God’s done.
Look up, look in, look back.
One more.
Look forward as well.
And.
That’s because.
Fundamentally, what we are praying when we pray, hallowed be Thy name.
Is.
Not as much.
God.
Help us hallow your name, though of course we want that.
As it is.
God.
Please.
Hallow your name.
In other words.
As we are looking around.
And seeing all this rebellion and sin, and God-hating, really going on all around us, we are.
Longing for.
God to act in this world
And keep His promises
That.
We read about in the Bible.
Where He judges sinners and reverses the way this world is going.
So that everyone sees.
Who really is king.
Who really is God.
And how great.
He really is.
In fact, you know, we were reading through the Old Testament book of Micah in our Bible Training Centre class.
Recently.
And Micah is a prophet, and if you are familiar with the prophets.
In the Old Testament.
You’ll know they spend a lot of time lamenting.
Or.
Being sad.
About how.
Wicked it seems everyone is.
And.
And Micah’s no different.
And as you read this book.
You’ll find.
He’s almost acting like a lawyer for God and coming to God’s people and saying.
God’s going to judge you.
And this is why.
And, even as he’s warning them.
They are not taking it seriously.
Because, they are all religious and prosperous and Micah’s like.
It’s coming.
Judgment’s coming.
There’s no way of getting around it.
And finally.
In chapter 7.
This kind of breaks Micah.
Actually.
Micah 7.
It’s like he’s listening to what he’s saying, and he starts weeping.
Because.
These are his people.
And they are going to be judged, and it feels almost hopeless.
Micah 7:2.
“The godly has perished from the earth, and there is no one upright among mankind.”
And he describes them in.
7:3-6.
“Their hands are on what is evil.”
Their leadership is corrupt.
You can’t trust anyone, because they are all only looking out for themselves.
And.
As you are reading.
You kind of feel like Micah.
What are you going to do, in the middle of all this?
How are you supposed to handle this, because this is how it feels for us, a lot of the time, as well.
And Micah says.
Verse 7
Trust God.
“But as for me, I will look to the Lord; I will wait for the God of my salvation, my God will hear me.”
And.
Then you know.
He actually starts talking to God’s enemies, because he knows what is going to happen is that as God judges His people, God’s enemies are going to start thinking that judgment.
Says something about God.
As God’s people are judged, God’s enemies aren’t going to know why He’s judging them, and so they are just going to think, God’s a failure. And so Micah’s like, don’t get too excited.
Verse 8
“Rejoice not over me, O, my enemy, when I fall, I shall rise, when I sit in darkness, the Lord will be a light to me.”
And.
So in the middle of this chaos.
I just wait content
Verse 9
Because I know.
What’s coming.
Is.
A great reversal
Verse 10
“Then my enemy will see, and shame will cover her who said to me, ‘Where is the Lord your God?”
Instead of getting discouraged, what Micah’s doing.
Is looking to the future.
He’s thinking about the promises God’s made and what it means.
About.
What’s ahead.
And he sees, what’s ahead.
Is this great reversal, where God turns everything upside down.
Judging.
His enemies.
Blessing.
His people.
This is.
Verse 11 through 13.
And as Micah thinks about all this, it’s like he prays in verse 14.
He begins praying. And his prayer is basically.
“Hallowed be thy name”
With a little bit of thy kingdom come
Thrown in as well.
Verse 14.
“Shepherd your people with your staff, the flock of your inheritance.”
Come.
Be King.
In other words.
Save us.
The way you did.
Back.
In the time of Moses.
And this is so sure.
Micah doesn’t pray it, God promises it.
Verse.
15,
“As in the days when you came out of the land of Egypt, I will show them marvelous things.”
And.
You know what’s going to be the result of all this?
Verse 16
“The nations shall see and be ashamed of all their might; they shall lay their hands on their mouths, their ears shall be deaf; they shall lick the dust like a serpent, like the crawling things of the earth, they shall come trembling out of their strongholds.”
Verse 17
And the important phrase is right there at the end.
“They shall turn in dread to the Lord our God and they shall be in fear of you.”
In other words.
Micah’s looking to the future.
And he’s seeing.
As God enacts this great salvation for His people.
Through judgment.
On His enemies.
He’s going to hallow His name.
Even God’s enemies are going to see, how great and glorious He is, and it’s going to cause them to fear and tremble.
And.
As we are living in this wicked world, sometimes, we get so wrapped up in what’s happening right now.
We’re not crying out hallowed be thy name, because it doesn’t seem possible, and that’s one reason.
We need to.
Study God’s promises.
And remember.
Who we are talking to.
We are talking to God.
And God’s got.
A plan.
And the ability to accomplish His plan, and His plan is right.
On track.
Even as we speak.
And so when we pray, hallowed be Thy name, really.
We are affirming.
Our faith.
In God.
And saying.
Lord.
Right now.
It kind of seems like.
Everybody
Thinks the gospel’s a joke.
And Jesus.
Is gone.
And that judgment is.
A fairy tale.
And.
In the middle of all that.
It seems a little difficult, but I am going to trust in you.
And wait.
Patiently.
Because.
I know.
What I am seeing right now, is not how it’s all going to end.
Because.
I know.
A great reversal is coming, where you are going to keep all those promises.
You made throughout Scripture.
And glorify yourself.
And.
That all.
Those who are mocking you now, are going to be ashamed, because they are going to see you for who you really are.
And God.
That’s what I want most.
More.
Than my own comfort.
More than my own.
Pleasure.
More than my own.
Glory.
Father.
Hallowed.
Be your name.
Joshua Mack 