Still today God sets things apart to be holy to Himself. And in the center of them was the Holy of Holies-a room where God dwelt in the Ark of the Covenant and in the shining cloud. The tabernacle and the temple in the Old Testament were set apart as holy buildings for the worship of God. One of the twelve tribes of Israel, the Levites, were set apart from all the other tribes to offer sacrifice and worship to God. Old Testament Israel was separated by God from the other nations to be a people holy unto the Lord. There are many examples of this in the Bible. It is to be separated from things that are common and ordinary in order to be devoted to God’s service. To understand this petition, we have to understand what it means to be holy, what the name of God is, and how God makes His name holy. When we pray for the hallowing of God’s name and the coming of His kingdom and the doing of His will, we are praying these for ourselves-that we hallow God’s name, that His kingdom may come to and in us, and that His will may be done by us. Even though the first three petitions have to do with God, they are yet, in a very real sense, for us. The first petition that Jesus teaches us to make in our prayers is this: “Hallowed be Thy name.” As we come to this first petition, you might be thinking that this is rather abstract and distant from your life, that it is not very practical.

But the wonder of prayer is that, through Jesus Christ, we can make our requests known to God and He is ready to hear us in our needs. And we do not deserve to be heard by God. Really, we do not deserve anything from God. It is a wonderful thing that we can make requests known to God and that Jesus teaches us to make petitions in our prayers.

Our prayers should include confessions of sin and of our unworthiness.īut prayers may also include petitions. In our prayers we should be expressing our thankfulness to God for all that He has done.

We should also make prayers of praise and adoration. And they divide nicely into two groups of three-the first three dealing with God, His name, His kingdom, and His will and the second three dealing more directly with our needs.Īs we begin to look at the petitions of the Lord’s Prayer, let us remember that our prayers should include more than just petitions and requests. Today we will begin to look at the petitions of the Lord’s Prayer. Last week we considered the introductory address of the Lord’s Prayer: Our Father which art in heaven. You can find that prayer in Matthew 6 and Luke 11. We have begun looking together at the subject of prayer from the point of view of Jesus’ own instruction in the Lord’s Prayer.

Hallowed be thy name sermon