Insights on "Our Father..."

[00:00:01] Alright, that's kind of a different way of singing, isn't it? [00:00:04] It's not the kind of singing that you hear on the radio, that kind of thing. But you know what it's designed for? [00:00:11] It's made to be like a prayer. When we sing those words, we could say we have an advocate with the Father Jesus Christ, but instead we take a little more time and the music delivers it to us in a bit of a different way. And it helps us to take time and to think about the words and to pray it. [00:00:32] Alright, so prayer, Hallowed be thy name. First of all, did you notice that the words in what we read are a little different from what we pray? Yeah, yeah. So some of the words that we use when we pray the Lord's Prayer are old words. [00:00:48] Not many people say thy anymore. [00:00:51] Like, grant me thy attention, please, if thou wilt. Okay. We could speak with those words, but it would sound like we're from an old book or something like that. Right. But thy. Thy is a respectful way of speaking that used to be used. [00:01:13] And so one of the reasons that we say thy, okay. In the Lord's Prayer is, is that it's a respectful way of speaking. And if anybody deserves our respect and a respectful way of speaking, do you think God deserves our respect? So if saying thy offers any more respect, then it's good for us and good for our hearts to use it, but we wouldn't have to. But another reason to say it is just that these are the words that have been used by Christians for. For generations. And so by saying it this way, you know, our Father who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name. Those words, we're speaking it with our parents and grandparents and great grandparents and great great grandparents. And we're sort of united with them in that. [00:02:07] All that to say. We could say your. All right, okay. So hallowed. Hallowed is another old word. Okay. And another way to say that would be holy be your name. Right? God, may your name be holy. Okay? Now holy means like set apart. Special is God's name. Special is God's name. Set apart. [00:02:31] Yeah, we set it apart. Okay. We don't misuse it. We're careful with the way we use it because we want to honor God. [00:02:40] Okay? [00:02:44] All right. So this is all about sort of respect, okay? But God's name is holy. What we want is in the prayer is for God's name to be holy for us in our lives. And here's why that matters. You have God's name. [00:03:02] You have been named with God's name. Okay, first of all, if you're a Christian. Right, A Christian, right. We're Christians. If we believe in Jesus, Christian means a little Christ. [00:03:20] Well, that's cool. Christ says. Jesus Christ says, here, you belong with me. You belong to me. And then we can say like, I don't even live anymore. Christ lives in me. [00:03:34] We become united to Christ by faith. And so we have his name. We're a Christian. That's really special. [00:03:42] Another way you could think about that is that Jesus, when he told his disciples to go out and baptize. Have you heard this verse before? Jesus said, go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. [00:04:00] So he actually said, baptize them into the name of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit. That's why at the beginning of our services we say, in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Why? Because we've been baptized into the name of the Father and of the Son and the Holy Spirit. And so now we live. We live in the name of the Father and. And of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. [00:04:27] That's pretty cool. It's kind of like. [00:04:30] Lucas, what's your last name? [00:04:33] What is it? [00:04:35] Abram. Abram, what's your last name? Your family name. [00:04:41] Virginia. What's your last name? Ryder. Writer. Okay, so if I say, is there a writer in here? Please raise your hand if you're a writer. [00:04:53] Okay. Yeah. Like the writers know who they are. Right? And then we know who they are. [00:05:01] Yeah, Just. Just if you're a writer. That's all right. That's all right. [00:05:05] So your name, it identifies you. It also says something about you. Okay, now here's another way to think about names. Let's say I have a lump of clay. I have a lump of clay in my hands and I'm. I'm working it and I'm shaping it, can you tell what it's going to be? [00:05:24] No. Right. Partly because it's not actually here, but imagine, you might not know what I'm making. But if I tell you what I'm. If I give it a name, then you know what it's going to be. [00:05:36] So if I say it's a cup, but so far it's just a ball of clay, you know what it's going to look like, Roughly. Or if I say it's a bull or an elephant, that'd be cool. I don't know. That'd be advanced. [00:05:54] So if I give it A name. Then you know what it's going to become, right? [00:05:59] Now think about that. [00:06:02] Jesus said, go make disciples of all nations. Go out to the world and baptize them in the name of the Father and. And of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. [00:06:14] He gave us his name through baptism and by faith. It's like being named a writer or a Vanderheide, okay? Or a Soto or an ortado. Or we could do all the names, right? That says something about you and who you are. In the same way, it says something about you that God has given you his name in baptism. [00:06:43] That's pretty cool. [00:06:46] So. And you know what? Just like the clay, God is shaping you as his children, you are God's children by faith and through baptism, and God is shaping you. And so when we pray, holy be your name, hallowed be thy name, what we're saying is that you've given us your name. We just said, our Father, Our Father. So, like, we're part of the family, and we have the family name, God's name. And so we want God's name to be holy. It's just like you don't want to give a bad name to the writers or the Sotos or the right with your actions, right? You want to say. I could say to my children, you're a Vanderheide. You need to act such and such a way, okay? But God is working. He's working you. He's making you into. He's forming you as his child to be and become what he wants, right? According to his will. And that's a beautiful thing. And so we say, holy be your name. We're praying that God would work in us. [00:07:58] Now, there are a lot of things that are trying to work against that, okay? [00:08:06] God wants to shape us according to his will. And if you want to see what that looks like, it's Jesus Christ. Jesus Christ is like. You want to see what God is shaping us into. [00:08:21] He's making us to be like Christ, like Jesus Christ, which is a beautiful, beautiful thing, to be like his son. [00:08:29] But, you know, there are forces out there and because of sin in here that want something else. They want to shape us differently. [00:08:38] Sin is a good word for that, okay? So that's kind of what sin is. [00:08:44] And so what we need is Jesus to come to our aid, to come to our rescue. Jesus to come and fight for us and to come and shape us and take away what doesn't belong and reform what's not shaped, right? And to be working in us and shaping us. And so that's why we pray. Your kingdom come, Jesus, come and be the king of me. Right? What does the king do? Kind of shapes people around him. Like you do this and you do that and take that out of here. And Right. [00:09:18] And he destroys the enemies and gives safety and peace. That's what he does for you and me, by faith. So we pray. Hallowed be your name, Holy be your name, we're talking about in our own life. [00:09:33] And then we ask for the help. [00:09:35] Your kingdom come, your kingdom come to me. Be my king. Chase away the enemies, destroy the enemies. Take out what doesn't belong. Govern me, order me in peace. [00:09:48] That's what we're praying. And Lent's a good time for that. [00:09:53] So it's just neat, you know. This is a lot to think about every time you pray the Lord's Prayer. You can't think about all these things necessarily. But if we think about them, meditate on what they mean, then you can think of one of those things as you're praying. [00:10:10] And then we know what we're asking for. That God would shape us and mold us to be like what he says he's making us to be like, to be his children with his name. In Jesus name, amen.