A JOURNEY INTO POWERFUL PRAYER
“MAKING GOD’S NAME HALLOWED”
Matt.6:9c
“…Hallowed be Thy name…”

Last week as we looked at God's address—in heaven—we discovered in that particular lesson, that our heavenly Father is not the picture of a mellow old man whose sitting in a rocking chair on his porch. Rather He is the awesome Creator God, who sits on His dazzling, breathtaking throne in heaven.
 In Rev.4:2 John said, “And immediately I was in the spirit and, behold a throne was set in heaven, and one sat on the throne. And He that sat was to look upon like a jasper and a sardine stone…”
Remembering God's address when we pray causes us to say naturally, “Hallowed be thy name” (Mt 6:9c). This is the first of six petitions in the Lord's Prayer. The first three relate to God's GLORY AND WILL; the second three to our GAINS AND WELL-BEING. The principle being taught is this…God FIRST and people SECOND. If we are to have a "journey into powerful prayer" we can never confuse the order!
To understand what Jesus means by the petition Hallowed be thy name, we must answer three questions which will serve as the outline for our lesson tonight: what does the word hallowed mean, what is God's name, and how can we make God's name hallowed.
WHAT DOES THE WORD HALLOWED MEAN

The word “Hallowed” is an out-of-date Old English word, yet most modern versions of the Bible still use it because it sounds so reverent. The word translated hallowed means "to make holy" or "to make separate." The word is used to separate His name from what is common and ordinary. The aim of Jesus when He instructed His disciples to use was for them to count and treat the name of God differently, to set His name apart from all other names.

 1 PETER 1:13-15 (NKJV)
Therefore gird up the loins of your mind, be sober, and rest your hope fully upon the grace that is to be brought to you at the revelation of Jesus Christ; as obedient children, not conforming yourselves to the former lusts, as in your ignorance; but as He who called you is holy, you also be holy in all your conduct,
We can violate this commandment and fail to "hallow" God's name in several ways, by 1) Not RECOGNIZING His holiness, 2) Not REVERENCING His holiness and 3) RESPONDING to His holiness.

1) RECOGNIZE THE HOLINESS OF GOD - Jeremiah 10:6-7 (NKJV)
Jeremiah recognized the holiness of God when he said of God, “Inasmuch as there is none like You, O LORD (You are great, and Your name is great in might), Who would not fear You, O King of the nations? For this is Your rightful due. For among all the wise men of the nations, And in all their kingdoms, There is none like You.”

2) REVERENCE THE HOLINESS OF GOD - Isaiah 6:1-3 (NKJV)
Isaiah noticed that the Seraphim reverenced the holiness of God. He wrote, “In the year that King Uzziah died, I saw the Lord sitting on a throne, high and lifted up, and the train of His robe filled the temple. Above it stood seraphim; each one had six wings: with two he covered his face, with two he covered his feet, and with two he flew. And one cried to another and said: "Holy, holy, holy is the LORD of hosts; The whole earth is full of His glory!"

3) RESPOND TO THE HOLINESS OF GOD - Isaiah 6:8-11 (NKJV)
Isaiah responded to the holiness of God. He wrote, “Also I heard the voice of the Lord, saying: "Whom shall I send, And who will go for Us?" Then I said, "Here am I! Send me." And He said, "Go, and tell this people: 'Keep on hearing, but do not understand; Keep on seeing, but do not perceive.' "Make the heart of this people dull, And their ears heavy, And shut their eyes; Lest they see with their eyes, And hear with their ears, And understand with their heart, And return and be healed." Then I said, "Lord, how long?" And He answered: "Until the cities are laid waste and without inhabitant, The houses are without a man, The land is utterly desolate.”

WHAT IS GOD’S NAME

Is God’s name really GOD? Why do we call him GOD primarily in this Western culture, but others call him JEHOVAH, ELOHIM, or YAHWEH. Or sometimes, we call him, Lord (or LORD). Why all the names and what does the Bible say?

The name “GOD”, simply, is just the English word for the monotheistic god of the Bible. The word God comes from the Gothic translation of the New Testament to represent Greek Theos and Latin Deus. But God, Theos, Deus, Lord, or even Yahweh is not his name.

CR. EXODUS 3:13-14 - Moses said to God, “Suppose I go to the Israelites and say to them, ‘The God of your fathers has sent me to you,’ and they ask me, ‘What is his name?’ Then what shall I tell them?” God said to Moses, “I AM WHO I AM. This is what you are to say to the Israelites: ‘I AM has sent me to you.’”

“I AM”, is derived from the verb “to be.” GOD JUST “IS.” He self-existed, exists and will always exist eternally. He has no beginning and no end. He wasn’t created, He wasn’t formed, and He is unlike anything we can see, explain or imagine. To put it another way, God was saying to Moses, “I am everything, I own it all, I created everything, I give life, I sustain life, I sustain everything, I AM!” How do you name that or Him!?

The Hebrew word for “I am” is pronounced Eh-Yeh. However, the Hebrew people would not say this name or write it in full because they felt as mere mortals, human beings should not say His name (although that is not instructed in the Bible). Thus, instead of writing or saying Eh-Yeh, they wrote the four letters YHWH (known as the tetragrammaton) to represent His name. YHWH is not pronounceable because the vowels have been removed, so the word “YAHWEH”, is how they eventually began pronouncing YHWH. However, Yahweh too, was considered too holy to say, so Adonai is what the Jewish people called Him. Adonai is the Hebrew word for Lord, which translated means, “someone who was over another person,” like a master.

English translators of the Old Testament from Hebrew translated YHWH as LORD (all capitals) out of tradition and reverence for God’s name instead of writing YHWH or Yahweh. Thus, when we see the word “LORD” in all capitals in our English versions of the Old Testament, that is the name Yahweh (or YHWH) we are reading from the Hebrew. When we read the word, “Lord” (lowercase) in our Old Testament, with just the “L” capitalized, that is the name Adonai in the Hebrew Bible.

 The name Jehovah is a combination of the consonants of YHWH and the vowels of Adonai. It became a way to distinguish between when YHWH (LORD) was written and when Adonai (Lord) was written.

WHAT’S IMPORTANT TO REALIZE IS THAT GOD IS ABOVE ANY ONE NAME, MEASUREMENT OR WORD. He is Holy, He is Just, He is our Creator, our Savior, our Lord, He is our everything! So what should be our “official” way to name, title, call…God?


HOW DO WE MAKE HIS NAME HALLOWED
When we pray hallowed be thy name, we are making a commitment to live in a way that brings honor to God's name. If God's name is hallowed in our lives, we must do at least five things:
1. TALKING ABOUT GOD RESPECTFULLY. This means we treat God's name with the utmost honor and reverence. We must never use God's name carelessly, which is called "profanity." The dictionary defines "profanity" as "showing disrespect or contempt for sacred things." When we use any name for God, we should do it to honor and exalt Him.
2. REJOICING IN GOD'S BLESSINGS CONTINUALLY. We can also make God's name hallowed by praising Him and giving Him due credit for all our many blessings, abilities, and achievements.
3. GIVING TO GOD GENEROUSLY. Nothing reveals how much we really revere God's name like how we use our money. Jesus says, “For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also” (Matt. 6:21).
4. OBEYING GOD TOTALLY. Nothing brings dishonor to God's name like violating His Word. When Joshua succeeded Moses as the leader of Israel, God said to him: “Only be thou strong and very courageous, that thou mayest observe to do according to all the law, which Moses my servant commanded thee: turn not from it to the right hand or to the left, that thou mayest prosper whithersoever thou goest” (Josh. 1:7). If we are to be successful in making God's name hallowed, we must obey all of His Word.
5. TRUSTING GOD COMPLETELY. Each time we doubt God, we tarnish His name. Trusting God completely is what the Bible calls "faith." Without faith, it is impossible for us to please God because a lack of faith means we doubt God's character and His Word. Our faith reveals what we really believe about God and His name.