Today we will be looking at the Lord's prayer. We will be looking at Jesus' model for prayer. Jesus teaches us how to pray and the first thing that Jesus tells us to get to in prayer is "Hallowed be your name." That's the first thing that comes up. What does it mean to hallow? Now the word "hallow" is an old English word and it's not use in our everyday English but it's interesting that the translators of the new NIV version bible still uses the same old word. We don't seem to have an equivalent single word for it. If you look at the dictionary the word hallow means to treat it as sacred, separate as holy. It means to make something your ultimate concern, the most important thing, the most crucial thing, the ultimate thing of your life. And Jesus says this is the first thing we should pray for because it's what life is all about. Life is all about praise and adoration of God. To praise God, to adore him, to see him, to spend time with him and speak to him as the all important one.
So today I would like to talk about why praise and adoration is important, why praise and adoration should be first, and how to praise and adore God.
Part 1, The importance of praise and adoration- In verse 5 Jesus tells us that when we pray, don't be like the hypocrites. Now here Jesus is talking hypocritical prayers. A hypocrite is someone who is not consistent and so Jesus is talking about a kind of prayer that is not consistent. There is a kind of prayer that is done out in the open but not in secret. They want to be seen as spiritual people so they only pray to get something. They don't pray in secret because they get nothing.
But I want to talk more about inconsistent prayer for us know and understand the necessity of praise. There's also a kind of prayer that only happens when you're ultimate concern is in trouble. There is a kind of prayer that only happens when the thing that you really want, the one that's most important to you is in trouble. A true prayer is when you pray because of God, you want to spend with him, so you pray out in the open and in secret because of God and you pray all the time. In fact, you want spend lots of time praying, adoring and praising him. So here we can think about our prayer life. Do we pray because of God? Do we pray to spend time with our Father God, or do we only pray when the things go bad? When things go bad you pray and when things are all good, you stop praying. Do you pray in secret? What do you do in secret?
Perhaps we're adoring and praising something else rather than God. What you do in secret tells you who your God is. Archbishop William Temple says, "Your religion is what you do with your solitude." What do you do in secret is what you adore, it's what you praise and if that thing is in trouble and when it's in jeopardy, that's when you pray. So you become an inconsistent prayer. You only pray when your family is in trouble, when your finances are in trouble, your job situation is in trouble. The consistency of your prayer tells you who you're God is.
Part II - Why is praise and adoration first before petition and confession - So Jesus tells us first to pray, "hallowed be your name" before we ask for things we need like give us our daily bread, which is petition prayer. And we need to pray first "hallowed be your name" before we get to confession which is to forgive us our debts. So petition is how you look at the world and confession is how you look at yourself and Jesus said go to praise and adoration first because all the problems you have in relating to the world and relating to yourself is really a problem of adoration. So when you do a petition prayer, you're saying I've got needs and when you do a confession prayer, you're saying I've got problems and both of those problems come out are really problems of adoration. What is it that you adore the most, What is it that you hallow, is it success? a comfortable life? Is it your family? Is it a love life? Is it approval from people. The one you hallow the most will completely control your view of the world and view of yourself.
Let's talk about petition prayer, you pray "give us our daily bread". Bread problem is what we all are more concern about. To some they say, "I got to have it." "God, you have got to solve my bread problem or my life is over." You pray and still you worry, you pray and still you have no peace. The problem is adoration. You need to demote your career, job security, bread problem and get it out of the hallowed place. Praise and adoration of God is the one that would heal you from your view of the world. When you adore and praise something else, your view of the world is distorted. You worry and you have no peace. Because of your distorted view of the world, it's hard to say, "As we forgive those who trespass us." You can't trust no one.
What about confession. If you hallow success, comfort, family, approval and you fail from any these, you feel like you have failed in life. You hate yourself and you pray "Forgive us our debts" but still you feel you could not forgive yourself, it's misuse of praise and adoration, misuse of your solitude. If you hallow other things than God, it distorts your view of yourself. All our failures are failures of adoration.
Last month my sister called me very early morning and told me a sad news. I had no idea she was six months pregnant to twin boys. When she called, she was crying and said that her water broke and because she was crying all I could hear was that she's going lose her baby. I didn't what to say so I just said not don't give up and then she hanged up. After that I started praying and crying out to God why this had to happened. My sister really wants to have children. I started crying and then my wife woke up and I told her what happened. I started complaining to her and blaming God. Helen kept saying, "Trust God" but I didn't want to listen. I went downstairs for a while and just sat on the couch and then suddenly God spoke to me. I started to think about God and who he is. God who is Almighty Created God, maker of the heavens and earth. The God who holds all creations on the palm of his hand. When I just focused on this, my complains went away and were replaced with adoration, praise, and trust. Finally I prayed, "Lord Heavenly Father, please be with my sister." Praise and Adoration of God heals us. Adoration enables us to see who we are and yet accept it. Adoration enables us to see the world as it is and yet we trust.
Part III. How I can praise and adore God- Jesus said "Go to your room and pray to your Heavenly Father." Our God is our Father and the more we know his love for us the more we see his greatness and glory. I'm a father of two and even though I'm an imperfect father, I yearn for my kids to be successful and to be happy. I want the best for them. I'm sad when they're sad. I will give all my human ability to make them happy. But our Father God is not just a Father, but an omnipotent Father and so all the good things, all the happiness he wants for his children will happen and will put into completion.
Praise and adoration is important, Praise and adoration should be first and what creates praise and adoration is when we look at Jesus. Jesus said in Matthew 11:27, "No one knows the Son except the Father, and no one knows the Father except the Son and those to whom the Son chooses to reveal him." Some may say, "Well you can know God by looking at his creation, the sun, moon and stars and the huge mountain." You can but Jesus said you won't know my Father as he is but only on the cross. On the cross we can know a Holy God and a loving God. Only on the cross we know a loving God who was willing to do anything to save us.
Jesus said to go to your room and pray to your heavenly Father. When we pray we know God will answer our prayer. You know why? because of one unanswered prayer. God didn't answer Jesus prayer so that he can answer ours. God didn't answer Jesus cry for help so that he can answer our cry for help.
I chose this to give this message because I realized that I have not been adoring and praising God but something else. Lately I've been praying at night and after praying I said to myself, "Wow, it's been a while since I prayed like this. It's been a while since I spent time with God like this. I realized that God wants a relationship. God wants a marriage relationship. God gave us the Ten Commandments because of relationships, First our relationship with God and with others. How does a relationship work? it works when you spend time with someone. It's important to spend with your family, with your spouse and your kids. Am I only to spend time with my wife and buy her flowers when I get her mad, or when I say something stupid which I always do? Should I only spend time with my son and play ball or play catch because he did well in school or because I hurt his feelings? Should I have a father and daughter date with my daughter only because I hurt her feelings and need to win her back? No, I should spend time with them to build relationships and deepen my love for them. Sometimes when I give either my son or daughter a hug and kiss, the other one would say , "my turn", or "what about me?" And sometimes my wife would say it too. But what about God?
I could almost hear God when I pray and spend time with him saying to me, "I like it Art." I like when we spend together. When you pray or when you read your bible. I really like it." Prayer and bible reading is not about doing them to feel better but to fully realized that this is what we are designed to be. We are made to hallow God. Unless I hallow God, my view of the world and myself is would only be distorted.
In this passage Jesus teaches that importance of praise and adoration of God. It is the one that will heal us of our distorted view of the world and view of yourself. Praise and adoration of God is what we are design for.. Now days corporate praise and praise nights are popular in churches. Many enjoy this kind of prayer gatherings and it's good. But it's possible that we only pray out in the open and I think Jesus is concerned about that. Jesus is saying that it's not enough. We also need to have a strong personal prayer life, just you and God and spend time with him. We need to spend with God to get to know him more, to build up your relationship with him and deepen your love relationship with him. Father God, hallowed be your name.
