Patterns of Prayer: Hallowed Be Your Name // Travis Cook
Channel: Park Cities Baptist Church
Date: 2022-01-18

Primary Scripture
Isaiah 6:1-13 NIV

Key Points
·      “Hallowed” means to honor as set apart or holy.
·      All that we know about God is what God has chosen to reveal to us, and anything God reveals to us is an aspect of God’s holiness.
·      When we come to God in prayer, God is always seated on his throne, high and lifted up.
·      Whenever we come face-to-face with our sin, we encounter God’s holiness.
·      After first acknowledging that in Christ, God is our Father, Jesus teaches us in the Lord’s prayer to acknowledge God is holy. We are to get right-sized before God before we continue in prayer.
·      We are not destroyed by God’s holiness. Instead, we are transformed by God’s holiness.
·      Our sin should not cause us to run from God, but to God.
·      Worship is to be the whole of life in Christ, not a momentary event in church.
 
Memory Verse
Ask God to write this word on your heart this week:
 
“Pray then like this: ‘Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name. Your kingdom come, your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread, and forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors. And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil.’”
-Matthew 6:9-13 ESV*
 
*Note: Through the rest of this sermon series, “Patterns of Prayer,” we will be working together as a faith family to memorize and regularly pray the Lord’s Prayer in Matthew 6:9-13 three times each day (morning, noon, and night). We invite you to pray with us in Ellis Chapel Monday through Friday from 11am to 1pm through April 15, 2022.
 
Questions for Reflection
Take time to reflect and respond to these questions on your own in the presence of the Holy Spirit, or with trusted friends or family members:
 
1: Every time we pray, “hallowed be your name,” it should cause us to pause and worship God.
 
·      Why do you think that is?
·      Now, try it yourself. “Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name.”
·      How did pausing to worship God before continuing in prayer change your perspective in prayer?
 
2: What is the difference between God revealing his holiness and us recognizing God’s holiness?
 
3: How are we transformed by God’s holiness?
 
4: Review Isaiah 6:5-7 and consider how God comes to Isaiah. Then, compare that to how God comes to us collectively in Christ. Finally, contemplate how God has personally come to you by his Spirit this week.
 
5: Charles Spurgeon preached, “You stand before God as if you were Christ, because Christ stood before God as if he were you.” What does Spurgeon’s proclamation from 1867 have to do with today’s message?
 
6: Albert Haase wrote, “To hallow God’s name is to walk the way of humility as we adore God’s presence with the awareness of our sinfulness. Praying the name of Jesus has the power to open us to the experience of unceasing prayer.”
 
Take a moment to sift through the layers of this statement. How do Haase’s words help you understand Jesus’ prayer, “Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name?”
 
7: Now that you recognize God’s holiness, how will you respond?
 
Pray
Lord, hallowed be your name in all the earth. You are holy, holy, holy. No one and nothing compares to you. And yet, by your grace and in your great pleasure, you have made us holy. In Christ, we are forever holy before you – not because of anything we have done or asked, but because of who you are. Our Father in heaven, you are holy. May your name be hallowed in our hearts, our lives, and all the earth.
KN