Detailed Notes: COV010       3.9.20

Hallowed be Your Name

Dear brethren,

I have been considering with you the importance of seeing clearly and being deeply convicted it is feasible for believers to learn and grow and have an abiding sense of true peace and well-being under all circumstances

• whether it be the current pandemic or whatever we may have to go through in the future
• and how this can be true for our personal lives and our working out together.

I considered with you one vital area we need to pay attention to: pure in heart.

Nurturing a heart that is increasingly pure in meaning and quality is what the Lord Jesus seeks to bring about in our lives - at the core centre of His preaching and teaching

• including His teaching us how to pray
• what I began to consider with you in my last sharing:

I referred you to an important passage in the Scriptures in the preaching and teaching of the Lord Jesus on the subject of prayer: Matthew 6:9–13.

In the last sharing I considered with you the first part of v.9

“Pray, then, in this way:

‘Our Father who is in heaven

Pray, then, in this way…

• the Lord Jesus is teaching His disciples how to pray and what to pray for.

We need to pay close attention to the meaning and implications of what the Lord Jesus teaches in this passage on prayer.

All true prayer ought to flow forth from and reflect the deep longings, burdens and concerns in our hearts reflected in these verses.

We noted that this teaching on prayer is part of the Sermon on the Mount.

It comes after the beatitudes

• and a key verse in the Scriptures on the pure in heart:

Matthew 5:8

“Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God.

It is the prayer of one who is pure in heart

• the prayer of one who is committed to God, God's name and glory, God's kingdom and God's will.

Today we continue to reflect on the last part of: Mt 6:9

Hallowed be Your name

The Lord Jesus is teaching us the primary longing of our hearts ought to be what is expressed in the words:

Hallowed be Your name.

This ought to be our primary concern

• the desire and longing of our hearts
• that God’s name, God, be properly acknowledged, recognised, honoured
• that God is worshipped
• by all.

It means zeal and fire in our hearts for God’s honour and glory

• exemplified in the life of the Lord Jesus:

Jn 17:4: ‘I glorified You on the earth.’

Its meaning and presence in our hearts is an indication of our spiritual health.

It should be our basic preoccupation in life.

Is this your basic preoccupation in life?

It is a very searching question for each one.

Is God's name, honour, and glory more important to us than all else? - not merely profession of our lips.

How far are we prepared to go to promote God's name, honour and glory – in the way He desires of us?

Are we prepared not to compromise in this area whatever it may cost us?

Reflect on the example of the apostle Paul

• his testimony in

Philippians 1:20–21  

20 according to my earnest expectation and hope, that I will not be put to shame in anything, but that with all boldness, Christ will even now, as always, be exalted in my body, whether by life or by death.

21 For to me, to live is Christ and to die is gain.

For personal reflection

Is God's name, honour and glory more important to us than:

comfort, convenience?

what people may think and say of us?

our own reputation?

our personal desires, inclinations?

That we may honour and glorify the Lord, are we prepared to be misunderstood, maligned, suffer, go through all kinds of difficulties and trials – and even lay down our lives?

Is God's name, honour and glory at the core centre of our life’s motivation?

Helpful to consider:

Why are we anxious/worried?

• exams, future, status, security, what may cause us significant discomfort/deep anguish, what people may think and say of us, how people may treat us?

If God's name, honour and glory is what truly matters to us, it can help us overcome worries and anxiety in all these areas – and in all areas – because we can then meaningfully trust God to sovereignly undertake for us in all areas of life – and we need not be worried nor anxious about anything.

Why are we aroused, angry?

What we are preoccupied with, think, say, do.

In our fellowship, relationship with people

• can they co-exist with and do they reflect our primary concern for God's name, glory and honour?

When we are considering what we should or should not do, seeking God's guidance, God’s will,

do we ask whether it would honour the Lord?

Are we deeply grieved whenever God’s name is dishonoured?

• by others or by ourselves?

How we His children dishonour His name

1. Irreverence - in referring to God - careless, frivolous

Exodus 20:7  

“You shall not take the name of the Lord your God in vain, for the Lord will not leave him unpunished who takes His name in vain.

Obvious: frivolous bringing in God's name in what you say.

More subtle: consider:

a) ‘God spoke to me... guided me...’

yet path chosen is wrong, foolish

• when it is not true God has spoken to you, guided you…

b) Careless handling of the Scriptures

• frivolous use of Scripture verses and phrases
• assertions of what the Scriptures teaches without due care - amounts to ‘This is what God says’.

Many strong but contradictory assertions by Christians of what the Scriptures teaches on various issues is not honouring to God.

All the wrong assertions are dishonouring to God

• it amounts to saying God is teaching us the wrong things in the Scriptures
• that God is teaching us what is not true.

2. Bankrupt lives of God's children

a) do not reflect His character

• self-centred, selfish, worldly, fleshly indulgence, inconsiderate, quarrelsome, unkind, arrogant, covetous, envy, greed…

b) ineffective lives

• aimless, idle, worldly ambitions, spiritual poverty
• not good testimony to the great and majestic God – who is our heavenly Father.

May there not be any justification for others to say of any of us the underlying principle reflected in what Paul wrote in:

Rom 2:24: ‘The name of God is blasphemed among the Gentiles because of you.’

3. Negative testimony in the spiritual realm

• we are to honour God’s name not only in relation to mankind but also in the spiritual realm
• to angels and the forces of darkness.

We dishonour God’s name when we yield to the temptations of the forces of darkness, allow them to manipulate, use us, have dominion over our lives.

Note:

How we live our lives affect not only what God thinks of us but affects God’s name - what others think of God

• a major aspect of God’s revelation of Himself to mankind is through His children.

Are we faithfully representing or misrepresenting God?

• in our words, conduct and motivation.

Are we living lives befitting God's children in God's kingdom?

We are to communicate the gospel by words and life

• we are to be the salt of the earth and light of the world
• at the heart of true mission, evangelism is glorifying God by our lives
• the goal - that God be properly acknowledged, honoured, worshipped
• God reigning in the hearts of men
• men who truly submit to God and worship God.

Two good examples in the Scriptures

• Daniel and his three friends.

The positive impact of the testimony of Daniel’s three friends on Nebuchadnezzar.

Daniel's three friends were prepared to be cast into a furnace of blazing fire - rather than fall down and worship the golden image set up by Nebuchadnezzar

→ God delivered them

→ significant positive testimony/impact on Nebuchadnezzar:

Daniel 3:28–29  

28 Nebuchadnezzar responded and said, “Blessed be the God of Shadrach, Meshach and Abed-nego, who has sent His angel and delivered His servants who put their trust in Him, violating the king’s command, and yielded up their bodies so as not to serve or worship any god except their own God.

29 “Therefore I make a decree that any people, nation or tongue that speaks anything offensive against the God of Shadrach, Meshach and Abed-nego shall be torn limb from limb and their houses reduced to a rubbish heap, inasmuch as there is no other god who is able to deliver in this way.”

Likewise, the positive impact of the testimony of Daniel on king Darius:

Daniel 6:25–27  

25 Then Darius the king wrote to all the peoples, nations and men of every language who were living in all the land: “May your peace abound!

26 “I make a decree that in all the dominion of my kingdom men are to fear and tremble before the God of Daniel; For He is the living God and enduring forever, And His kingdom is one which will not be destroyed, And His dominion will be forever.

27 “He delivers and rescues and performs signs and wonders In heaven and on earth,

Who has also delivered Daniel from the power of the lions.”

We should not be waiting for dramatic situations

• but learn to honour and glorify God in our daily lives
• to learn to ‘do all to the glory of God’
• what the apostle Paul exhorts us

1 Corinthians 10:31  

Whether, then, you eat or drink or whatever you do,

do all to the glory of God.

How?

By seeking to understand what God has revealed in the Scriptures – then living our lives accordingly

• looking to the Holy Spirit to grant us insight into the truths, guiding and enabling us to live out the will of God.

The Holy Spirit who has come to glorify Christ/God

• renews our minds, transforms our hearts and enables us to live out and accomplish what God has entrusted to us – following the example of the Lord Jesus – Who glorified God the Father on earth by accomplishing the work entrusted to Him by God the Father: John 17:4.

The Lord Jesus told His disciples:

Acts 1:8  

but you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you shall be My witnesses both in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and even to the remotest part of the earth.”

The Holy Spirit has been poured forth

• so that all believers can be filled with the Spirit
• and be empowered to be effective witnesses to the truth - in words and life.

Concluding remarks

 ‘Hallowed be Your name’

This is the teaching of the Lord Jesus

• how to begin our prayer to our Father in heaven
• that God’s name may be honoured and glorified.

The Lord Jesus Himself is our perfect example: Jn 17:4.

Is this the consuming passion and burning desire of our hearts?

Is God’s honour and glory what truly matters to us?

This is the meaning and implication of commitment to God

• ought to be at the core centre of our life’s motivation.

For your reflection

• When the lives of God's children are continuing expressions of worship of God, God's name is continually honoured and glorified

• The meaning and quality of our worship of God is directly related to the meaning and depth of God's name being honoured and glorified in our lives

• When a man learns truly to honour and glorify God, he experiences true fulfilment, and a life of blessedness and fruitfulness

In fellowship

Kou