One of the phrases that most Jewish people are familiar with is a Hebrew prayer that begins with the words, Baruch Hashem Adonai. In fact, these words, Baruch Hashem Adonai, form a very common phrase often found in the prayers of pious Jewish people, both ancient as well as contemporary. The words are translated into English as, Blessed be the name of the Lord. And they reflect a great concern that the Jewish community has always had for God's name. And the reason the Jewish people have been so concerned about the name of God, it goes back to their biblical heritage. You see, the Old Testament Jewish prophets often wrote about the name of God, and they called the nation of Israel to praise and honor God's name. For example, we read in Psalm 34, verse 3, which just read earlier the whole psalm, but verse 3 says, O magnify the Lord with me, and let us exalt His name together. Psalm 29, 2 starts off, Ascribe to the Lord the glory due to His name. Psalm 103, verse 1, Bless the Lord, O my soul, and all that is within me. Bless His holy name. And so to Jewish people, especially in biblical times, the name of God was something that was very, very special. A name that was to be revered and a name that was to be honored above all other names. In fact, they were so concerned about the sacredness of God's name that they actually went overboard in trying to refrain from dishonoring His name. And their zeal to revere His name and to avoid desecrating it by taking His name in vain, as the third of the Ten Commandments warns, They took the primary name of God in the Old Testament, which is Yahweh or Jehovah, and they refused to pronounce it. Though the name Yahweh, which means I am that I am, in other words, I am the self-existent one, is mentioned nearly 7,000 times in the Old Testament, about the year 300 BC, the Jewish people decided to stop using this word to express God's name, and they began to substitute other biblical names for God in its place, such as Elohim or Adonai. And the fear of improperly using God's name, I want you to know, continues to this day amongst observant Jewish people. I can recall a religious relative of mine sending me a note in which he purposely omitted the letter O from the name of God so she would not be guilty of misusing his name. Now this passion amongst the Jewish people for protecting God's name from being misused, it forms the background of the very first petition that Jesus mentions in the Lord's Prayer. I would like you to Turn your Bibles to Luke chapter 11. We're continuing our study of the Lord's Prayer. And here's what we read in verse 2. And he, meaning Jesus, said to them, meaning his disciples, when you pray, say, Father hallowed be your name. Now as we discovered last week, the Lord's prayer was given by Jesus, given in response to his disciples asking him to teach them to pray. Having observed the way that he prayed with such spiritual intimacy and warmth and confidence, trust in the Father, the Lord's followers wanted to pray like him. And so in response to their request, Jesus gave them a model prayer known today, it's been known this way for about 2,000 years, known as the Lord's Prayer. However, while this prayer is a model prayer for his disciples, it was never, as I told you last week, never intended to be a prayer to be recited word for word. It's only a model prayer in the sense that it is to guide us with timeless principles that ought to govern the way that we pray. And so as we go through this prayer, what we're looking for are essential core truths of each phrase and petition so that we can learn how to incorporate them into our prayers by expressing them in our own words to fit our own set of unique circumstances. Now last week we began our study of the Lord's Prayer and we spent our time looking at the opening phrase, our Father who is in heaven. And we did this in order to understand key truths about the God to whom we are to speak to, whom we are to pray. In other words, before instructing us on how to petition God, Jesus first tells us about the God who we are petitioning. And we discovered in this opening statement that God is a father to those who believed, who have believed on his son, the Lord Jesus Christ, for salvation. And as a father, our Abba, or our Daddy, our Papa, our dearest father. He loves us and he has our best interests at heart. Therefore, when we speak to him, we are to speak to him with a sense of intimacy, a sense of closeness, a warmth, a tenderness reserved for a loving and a kind father. Now, I realize that some of us did not have the experience of being raised by a loving and kind earthly father. Some were raised by frankly, difficult fathers. And therefore, it is hard and it's a challenge to think of God being a father who tenderly cares about us, as someone who we can speak to with warmth and intimacy and share everything on our hearts with him. But that is exactly what scripture says about God, regardless of what our earthly fathers were like. God is a loving, kind, merciful Father who we can speak to with deep affection and deep warmth. And that's exactly how we are to think about God as we pray to Him. But as we saw last week, he's not only a loving and endearing father, he's also a father who is in heaven, which reveals not so much his location, although that's true, but it reveals the truth that he is the exalted one. He is the sovereign one. He's sovereign over everything. He's sovereign over everyone. And knowing this about God means that though we are to speak to Him with intimacy and warmth, we are not to speak to Him flippantly, irreverently, disrespectfully. In other words, though we speak to Him with familiarity as our Abba, our Papa, our dearest Father, we are still to speak to Him with reverence and in a sense of awe because He is the ruler of the universe. And knowing that God is the sovereign ruler of the universe, it encourages us to have confidence in asking Him anything that's according to His will, because there is nothing that is impossible for the God of the universe. All the resources of heaven are at His disposal. He who created the heavens and the earth isn't going to have difficulty taking care of you and your needs, your problems, regardless of how huge those problems and needs appear to you. But it's not only your problems, it's not only your needs that God will take care of, because as we learned Last Sunday, Jesus identified the God we pray to as not my father, but our father, which means that he's the father over a whole family of believers in Christ. Not just me, not just you. And the way that impacts us in our prayer life is that it reminds us to put a lid on self-centered praying and to pray for others in the family of God. So, having told us what kind of person we are praying to, a loving but all-powerful father who is not only interested in our welfare but also in the welfare of all of his children, as Jesus continues instructing his disciples on how to pray, he begins to tell them what to say to their father when they speak to him. And so in the next phrase in the Lord's Prayer, which is the opening petition, of this model prayer, Jesus summed up what should be, under normal circumstances, our first concern as we lift up our hearts to our Heavenly Father in prayer. He said that the foundational petition, upon which all other petitions are built, is summed up in the words, hallowed be your name. Now, I realize that most of us are somewhat familiar with this phrase, especially if you were raised going to a church where the Bible was taught. But familiarity and understanding are really two different things, so that not everyone understands what the phrase, hallowed be your name, actually means. In fact, the words do sound a bit archaic and outdated, since we don't normally use the term hallowed today. But though this particular word may be ancient, this phrase is highly relevant, highly significant, and actually it sets the tone for the rest of the Lord's Prayer. So what does the First Petition of the Lord's Prayer mean? Well, the expression, hallowed be your name, rests upon an understanding of two words, hallowed and name. understand the meaning of these two words and you will not only understand what Jesus was talking about but you will find your prayer life revolutionized. So this morning we want to look at these two key words and see how they fit together in teaching us how to pray to our Heavenly Father. Therefore the first key word that we need to understand is the word name. Name. But today, names are primarily labels to distinguish one person from another. In biblical times, a name was very significant. In the ancient world of the Bible, names described either someone's makeup and character or else what they were to become. in the future. And you can see this very easily in the way that God names certain people in biblical times. For example, we read in Genesis that God called the first man Adam because that was a description of him since the word Adam means earth and he was made from the dust of the earth. Likewise, God called the patriarch of the Jewish people Abraham, which means the father of many nations, because that described what Abraham was to become in the future. as God fulfilled his promise to bless him with many, many descendants. And in the New Testament, we see the Lord Jesus changing the name of one of his disciples, Simon, into Peter, which means rock or a stone, because God was going to transform him from a vacillating individual into a firm, unwavering person with rock-like character. So based on the many examples that God gave, the Jewish people, they understood the concept that a name was more than a mere label. It described someone's character. It revealed what they were really, really like. And nowhere was this more evident than when it came to the name of God. So what is God's name? Well, He doesn't have one name, and that's because He is so glorious and his character and attributes are so multi-faceted, there isn't one name that could capture the range of all that God is. Therefore, the Bible reveals, note this, the Bible reveals about 200 names for God, with each of those names indicating a different facet of his nature, or character, or attributes. For example, one of his name is Jehovah Shalom, meaning the Lord, our peace, because he alone gives peace. He's also called Jehovah Jireh, meaning the Lord will provide, because God is the great provider of our needs. Another name, El Elyon, means the Most High God. It describes his sovereignty, authority, his power. And on and on it goes with about 200 similar names. And in addition to the 200 names of God revealed in the Old Testament that describe His character, the New Testament lists numerous titles and names of Jesus Christ that reveal His divine nature, His attributes, and His role as our Savior, such as the author and perfecter of faith, the cornerstone. He's called the door of the sheep, the alpha and the omega, the good shepherd, the great high priest, the king of Israel, the lamb of God, the lion of the tribe of Judah, king of kings and lord of lords, the light of the world, the resurrection and the light, the son of God, and the way, the truth, and the life. And just on and on it goes, just naming a few of those. So each of these names, which are found either in the Old or New Testaments, speak of a different feature of God's many attributes. And so when biblical writers spoke of God's name, understand this, they were not referring to a combination of letters in an alphabet that spelled out his name. They were describing a unique aspect of his character. And so, for example, David, We read when he said this to God, Psalm 9 verse 10, and those who know your name will put their trust in you. He didn't mean that everyone who knows the word God will put their trust in him. He meant that those who know what God is like, faithful, gracious, sovereign, righteous, compassionate, loving, and on and on it goes. Those who know this about God, they will put their trust in him. Again, David said in Psalm 20 verse 7, some boast in chariots and some in horses, but we will boast in the name of the Lord our God. Now, this doesn't mean that in time of trouble we should remember a mere title by which God is called, but rather that in time of trouble when others put their trust in human aids, human resources, we who know the Lord, we will put our trust in God whose name reflects all that he is, the one who is faithful, the one who is powerful to deliver and rescue his people from trouble. So according to Hebrew thinking, God's name, God's name spoke of his character and his nature. All that he has revealed in Scripture to be. Now it's in light of that truth that our Lord's Jewish disciples certainly would have understood that Jesus explaining to them when it came to their first consideration in praying, they understood it should not be about themselves. It should not be about them or their needs, but it should be about God Himself and what they should specifically concern themselves with about Him. meaning his name, his name should be hallowed. This is what the Lord was conveying. Your first consideration before ever thinking about yourself is that when you pray it should be that you're praying for God to be treated as hallowed. That brings us then to the second keyword that we need to comprehend if we're to understand what Jesus meant by the phrase hallowed be your name we know that the name now you know the name refers to God's character so what does it mean now to hallow his name now as I mentioned earlier the word itself hallowed it's an old English word it isn't used much today It is derived from a Greek word meaning to set something apart as holy. Do you get that? It means to set something apart as holy. And the basic thought behind the words to hallow is to treat as holy, to honor, to revere. So when Jesus said that our prayer should be marked by hallowing God's name, He was in essence saying, when you pray to your heavenly Father, you must first of all, above everything else, be concerned not only that you recognize Him for who He is, but that others recognize Him for who He is and therefore treat Him as holy and beyond everything that He has created. Above and beyond everything He's created. He's holy. See, Jesus isn't saying that in our prayers we should be asking God to make himself more holy. That would actually be heresy, because God's already holy. He's always been holy, and he can't become more holy than he is. While the Bible commands us to be holy, he has always been by nature intrinsically perfect and holy. However, not everyone recognizes that he's holy. In fact, most people have no interest in God's holiness. They couldn't care less about God being holy. They don't care about him at all. They're not concerned about him. They're not concerned about his standards of holiness. Rebellion, hatred, anger, hardness of heart, defiance. These are the words that describe the way unbelievers think about God and respond to his holy name. Even those who have a God consciousness so that they might want the Ten Commandments to be on public display or taught in public schools often have little concern, little regard about personally obeying those expressions of his holy standards found in the Ten Commandments. So when Jesus tells us to pray, hallowed be your name, he doesn't mean that we say those precise words in our prayers but rather rather that in speaking to God we should be asking him, note this, to change people's hearts so that those who previously haven't treated him as the holy perfect one that he is will begin to do so so that they will hallow his name. Practically speaking then to pray for God's name to be hallowed means praying for people to change. It means that we are asking God to work in people's lives, to transform them so that they will be changed from defying and resisting Him to worshiping and glorifying Him. Now, that's the essential principle behind praying, Hallowed be your name. While God cannot become more hallowed or more holy, people can be changed so that they hallow his name by treating him as the holy one that he is. And so we pray for this change to take place in their lives. So the question is, how do we do this? How do we practically put into action the principle of praying along the lines of, hallowed be your name? for us to be obedient to Christ's teaching and thus fulfill his command to pray that the Father's name be hallowed, we need to be praying for two types of people to hallow his name. First of all, we should be praying for believers in Christ, and that includes us, ourselves. We pray for ourselves to be hallowing his name by being obedient to him in every area, every aspect of our lives. And the reason that this is so important, beyond the obvious reason that God is pleased with our obedience, is because it's through our obedience to Him, note this, that unbelievers get a glimpse of who God is. You see, whether we realize it or not, whether we like it or not, people evaluate God by our behavior, by the behavior of His people. by Christians. As those who claim to know Christ as our Lord and Savior, we represent Him in the world and to the world. How we live is supposed to convey truths about God. This is why Paul told Titus that we are to adorn, he said, the doctrine of God. We're to wear it, Titus 2.10. That's to say we are to wear the truths of God in our behavior so that the world will take note that God transforms sinners, sinners like us, by the attractive way that we live. And when we live attractively by being obedient to his word, some, some, not all, but some will recognize this, and God will use your testimony to bring some to faith in Christ. This is exactly what Jesus meant when he said in his Sermon on the Mount, Matthew 5, 16, he said, let your light shine before men in such a way that they may see your good works and glorify your Father who's in heaven. In scripture, light refers to the true knowledge of God, as opposed to error, which is often referred to as darkness. So, what our Lord is saying here is that when we live our lives in such a way that the truth about God is seen through our good works, Some will recognize those good works are results of God transforming our lives. In other words, some will recognize that God is the one who has produced these good works through a life that has been changed through conversion, and they will glorify him by coming to faith in Christ. And as a result, they will treat him as he should be treated, as holy. Apostle Peter said essentially the same thing, 1 Peter chapter 2 verse 12. Keep your behavior excellent among the Gentiles, so that in the thing in which they slander you as evildoers, they may, because of your good deeds as they observe them, glorify God in the day of visitation. What Peter is telling us is that those who glorify God are those who having observed the lives of godly believers were impacted by the testimony of those believers so that they were saved and they now give glory to God by their lives. In other words, they're believers themselves. Now listen closely to what I'm about to tell you. While Jesus taught that unbelievers are supposed to see our good works and Christ honoring lives and as a result glorify God. The sad reality is that when we do not live in a way that honors God, the world takes note of that too. And it brings disgrace. It brings dishonor on the name that we want to be hallowed. Listen to what we read in Ezekiel chapter 36, way back in the Old Testament. Ezekiel 36, starting at verse 16, as God speaks against the nation of Israel. Then the word of the Lord came to me, saying, Son of man, when the house of Israel was living in their own land, they defiled it by their ways and their deeds. Their way before me was like the uncleanness of a woman in her impurity. Therefore I poured out my wrath from them, for the blood which they had shed on the land, because they had defiled it with their idols. Also I scattered them among the nations, and they were dispersed throughout the lands. According to their ways and their deeds, I judged them. When they came to the nations where they went, he means the Gentile pagan nations, they profaned my holy name, because it was said of them, these are the people of the Lord. Yet they have come out of his land. But I had concern for my holy name, which the house of Israel had profaned among the nations where they went." Now the meaning of these words is that during Old Testament times, God's name, his character, his personage was profaned amongst the pagan nations of the world because of his people Israel's sinful behavior. The Gentiles looked at the behavior of Israel and they refused to honor their God because Israel didn't honor their own God. In other words, regardless of what the Jewish people said about God's name being holy, nobody cared. Nobody cared because they reasoned that if their God was so holy, then they would have honored Him. They would have obeyed Him. Instead, Israel brought disgrace to the name of God and the Gentiles simply had no regard for the God of Israel. The Jewish people had no credibility, no matter what they said about God, because of the way they lived. Now, the Apostle Paul, many years later, picked up on this truth found in Ezekiel 36, and he wrote these words in Romans chapter 2, verse 24. He said, for the name of God is blasphemed, it's disgraced, it's profaned amongst the Gentiles because of you. In other words, the Gentiles evaluated the God of Israel by evaluating the lifestyle of His people, and they weren't impressed at all. Their attitude was, why should we honor His name when His own people don't even honor His name? If the God of Israel was so wonderful, so great, so holy, then we would see His greatness in the way His people revered and worshipped Him. But all they saw in Israel was disobedience and rebellion. And so they continued in their own rebellion to him by blaspheming the Lord. Returning, though, to Ezekiel 36, I want you to see what the passage goes on to say, picking up Verse 22 of Ezekiel 36, we read this. Therefore, the Lord is telling Ezekiel, therefore say to the house of Israel, thus says the Lord God, it is not for your sake, O house of Israel, that I'm about to act, but for my holy name, which you have profaned among the nations where you went. I will vindicate the holiness of my great name, which has been profaned amongst the nations, which you have profaned in their midst. then the nations will know that I am the Lord, declares the Lord God, when I prove myself holy among you in their sight. For I will take you from the nations, gather you from all the lands, and bring you into your own land. Then I will sprinkle clean water on you, and you will be clean. I will cleanse you from all your filthiness and from all your idols. Moreover, I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit within you, and I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh and give you a heart of flesh. I will put my spirit within you and cause you to walk in my statutes and you will be careful to observe my ordinances. You will live in the land that I gave to your forefathers so you will be my people and I will be your God. Now these words refer to a future date, a future time when God will establish the new covenant, the new covenant with Israel by changing their hearts and saving them. In other words, they'll be converted. He is going to cleanse them from their sin. He is going to put his Holy Spirit within them. In other words, he's going to bring about their conversion as a nation, their salvation in Christ, And when he does that, he says the Gentile nations will also recognize God for who he is, the one who is holy. That is to say, when transformed Israel treats God's name as holy, then unbelievers will be attracted to the Lord and will begin to treat his name as holy too. Now, listen, even though this passage speaks of a future time at the end of the tribulation, When Israel will be saved, when Israel be converted, Paul speaks about this in Romans chapter 9, Romans chapter 11. It still illustrates a timeless truth and principle that unsaved people ought to be able to look at the lives of us, people who have been converted to Christ now, and not be turned off to Christianity by our behavior, but be attracted to Christ by our behavior. Now, folks, this is a critical truth. It affects every one of us in the way God's name is treated. The New Testament specifically addresses this very issue, not just in a general way, but there are some very real specifics, knowing how important this is. For example, 1 Timothy 6, verse 1, and when Paul speaks about slaves, we apply it today to employees. Here's what the apostle said. All who are under the yoke as slaves are to regard their own masters, we could say employers, as worthy of all honor so that the name of God in our doctrine will not be spoken against. Listen, how you behave at work, at school, it makes a difference. Makes a difference whether God's name is hallowed or spoken against. You don't want someone you work with saying, well, if he, if she's a Christian and has that kind of an attitude, then I'm not interested in hearing about their faith. That goes on far too many times, far too many times. Again, we read in Titus chapter 2, verses 3 through 5. Paul writes, older women, likewise. Notice he didn't say old women. He said older women, mature women. likewise are to be reverent in their behavior, not malicious gossips, nor enslaved to much wine, teaching what is good, so that they may encourage the young women to love their husbands, to love their children, to be sensible, pure, workers at home, kind, being subject to their own husbands, so that the word of God will not be dishonored. How you, as a Christian woman, how you behave in your home, how you conduct your life, how you treat and speak to your husband, the way you raise your children, all of this, all of this has a bearing on whether God is dishonored or treated as holy. So please don't think that whatever goes on in your life is between just you and God. It has far-reaching implications in the way people respond to God. And so if we know this, then how should we be praying? We should be praying for our own personal holiness as well as the holiness of other Christians. And that means that we should be very specific in asking God to help us and to help other believers to obey him in the various areas of life. This is the area of sanctification. It is an ongoing process and we all have struggles in areas that we need his help and enablement with. Like our marriage. We should be praying for our marriage. That we would love our spouse in a deeper, more Christ-like way. That we would be kind and caring and attentive to their needs. We should be praying for our attitudes at work. We should be praying for the way we handle stress, the way we handle pain, adversity. We should be praying for moral purity. We should be praying for the way we speak to people so that we'll be, as the New Testament tells us, to be gracious and kind and patient with our words. We should be praying for financial dealings, for our integrity, honesty, the way we treat others, all of these things and so many more. These are the things that you should be praying about for yourself and for other people. And so if we are going to hallow God's name, then we need to be praying for us, for other Christians concerning areas that we see we need to be changed and we see changes needed in their lives too. so that not only do we treat the Father with reverence and honor, but also that our testimony before a skeptical world would enhance his reputation and not hurt it. I want you to notice how Jesus put this very principle of praying for God's name to be hallowed, how he put it into practice in his own life. Now the Lord certainly had no sin. He had no sin struggles to pray about. He was perfect. But he did face adversity, and in his adversity we see his primary consideration was for God's name to be glorified. Notice what we read in John chapter 12, verses 27 and 28. Now my soul has become troubled. And what shall I say? Father, save me from this hour, but for this purpose I came to this hour. Father, glorify your name. Then a voice came out of heaven. I have both glorified it and I will glorify it again." Now notice that in spite of the Lord's soul being troubled by his upcoming crucifixion, Jesus didn't ask the Father to eliminate His suffering, but rather to glorify His name in His suffering. Now I realize that Jesus was referring to redemptive suffering that he would face on the cross, and that's something we will never experience. But still the principle is the same in the sense that even when we are suffering and going through a very painful situation, our primary consideration should be always that God's name be glorified and not our own personal relief. And we do this by responding properly to suffering, so that instead of growing bitter, angry towards God, we hallow His name by trusting Him. And it's in our prayers that we need to be asking, and this is the point, it's in our prayers that we need to be asking the Lord to help us to respond properly to our pain and suffering. And in that way, we are praying for His name to be hallowed. Because others will take note of this, And in our testimony, they will see the reality of our trust in God. So the first way that this principle of praying for God's name to be hallowed can be applied to our lives is to pray for our own behavior. as well as the behavior of other Christians to reflect God's holiness by the way we live. Because how we behave has a direct bearing upon whether others hallow God's name or continue to hate his name. Now the second kind of people that we should be praying for, for God to change so that his name would be hallowed, is unbelievers. That is to say, we should be praying for lost, rebellious, unsaved individuals to come to faith in Christ, and thus be transformed from haters of God into lovers of God. Now, I would assume that most of us, if you know the Lord, I would assume that most of us do pray for the unsaved to be saved, especially our unsaved loved ones, because we are concerned where they will spend eternity. However, as I told you last week concerning my praying for the salvation of my own mother when she was dying, our primary motivation in praying for the lost, as well as every other prayer, should be for God to be glorified. Meaning for Him to receive the honor and glory by someone who didn't know Him now becoming a trophy of His grace. This is precisely what Jesus taught about prayer. John 14, 13. Whatever you ask in my name, that I will do so that the Father may be glorified in the Son. That's our primary motivation. Nobody in the ancient world, and perhaps no one in church history, had a greater burden to evangelize the lost than the Apostle Paul. Yet although Paul had a great concern that unsaved people should be rescued from going to hell, it was his concern for God's name to be hallowed that moved him to evangelize the unsaved whenever he would come into a city. And we see that especially when he came into the city of Athens and he saw all the idolatry of that city. Notice what we read in Acts 17, 16. Now, while Paul was waiting for them at Athens, his spirit was being provoked within him as he was observing the city full of idols. Now, what we read here is that while Paul was waiting for his missionary colleagues to arrive and to meet him in Athens, while he was alone, he looked around, he walked around this magnificent city, and he was terribly bothered by what he saw. He was provoked We read, the word provoke carries the thought of being deeply disturbed. Paul was deeply troubled by all the idolatry in that cultured city of philosophy, arts, literature, democracy. And it was this idolatry which had no regard for the one true glorious God. It was this idolatry that pushed Paul to preach the gospel there. See folks, Paul didn't see Athens as simply a city, a city of lost people. He saw it as a city where God's name was not being hallowed there by lost people. And knowing the kind of man that he was, no doubt this moved the apostle to pray for the lost to come to know Christ, so that whereas they were once idolaters, some would now hallow the one true God's name. So what does it mean to pray hallowed be your name? It means that you care about how God is treated. And because you care about how he's treated, you pray that he first will change believers, both yourself and others. Therefore, you need to consider what areas of your life you need to be praying about. What are those areas that you struggle in? What are those areas that you know you need help in? What attitudes need to change? What actions need to change? What thoughts need to change? These are the things you should be praying about on a regular basis. We also pray for unbelievers to become believers so that they will start to hallow God's name by treating Him as holy. So I ask you, what unbelievers are you praying for? Are you praying for the lost? Do you care about God's name being hallowed by them? And if you are not yet a believer, then become one. Become one for His sake. Become one for His glory. Yes, your soul will be saved, but it's for His glory. And I say this again, I say it every Sunday morning. If you would like to speak to one of our pastors about this, please see me after the service. But I want to close with something interesting that I read this week. R.C. Sproul, in his commentary on Luke. He tells the story of the time when the German reformer Martin Luther was asked by his barber, Peter, how to pray. knowing that Luther was not only a brilliant theologian, but also a man of prayer who spent two to three hours every day praying. Do you get that? He spent two to three hours every day praying, knowing this, his barber, like the disciples of Jesus, wanted instruction on how to pray, he asked Luther. to teach him to pray. In response to his barber's request, Luther wrote a small booklet. I understand it can still be purchased today. He wrote it just for his barber. It's entitled, A Simple Way to Pray. Writing about Luther's instruction on prayer, R.C. Sproul said this, When Luther taught Peter to pray, he encouraged him to focus on the majesty of God. to get on his knees and say, oh God, you are from everlasting to everlasting. You are immortal, invisible, the only wise God. You are infinite, eternal, immutable, omniscient, and omnipresent. You are all of these magnificent things, oh God. You transcend us by your majesty to such a degree that we are absolutely overwhelmed that we can come into your presence and say, Abba, Father. Your being fills every corner of this universe, and there is nowhere we can flee from your presence. You are here and there and everywhere at every moment. Yet your natural habitat, O God, is not this world, for you dwell in heaven. We are of the earth, earthly, but you are of heaven, heavenly. Listen, when you see God like this, for who he is, the glorious one, Not only will your praying be transformed by speaking to him as the Holy One, but your life will be transformed by treating him as the Holy One in the way that you live. Let's bow for prayer. Oh, our Father, we hear a prayer like this and we see how puny our prayers really are. But Lord, you are everything that Luther taught his barber to pray about and to recognize and so much more. Lord, our desire is to do just what Jesus taught us to do, to pray for your name to be hallowed in our own lives, in the lives of other believers, in the lives of unbelievers, to become believers and to treat you as holy. Lord, may you make us aware of areas in our lives that are not right, but need changing. And may we be diligent to humble ourselves before you by praying for those things. You resist the proud, but you give grace to the humble. So Lord, we ask you to help us to obey, to obey you, that when we approach you as our dear, our dear Abba Father, that we would approach you with a warmth, and yet in awe of you, knowing that we want to treat you as holy. So help us, Lord. And may some who sit here week after week or watch on live stream who've never trusted you. May they come to you recognizing who you are and who they are as sinners in need of a savior. May they come to you and bring glory to your name. All of this we pray in Jesus name. Amen.