Well, if you could keep your Bible open at the
Lord's Prayer be great to have it there in front
of you as we look at it now and It'd be suitable
for us to start by praying. So let's pray Father
we thank you that you speak to us and we ask
father that you would help us now To see what
an amazing God you are please Help us to have
our minds blown this morning By what a great
God you are. And we ask this in Jesus' name.
Amen. Well, for a free cup of coffee, can anyone
tell me who this is? The planets are a bit of
a clue. Galileo's close, not quite. Too much
Bohemian Rhapsody if you think Galileo. That's
Nicholas Copernicus. Now if you know Nicholas
Copernicus, for the longest time people thought
that the earth was the centre of the universe.
They believed that the sun, the stars and other
planets all rotated around the earth. But in
1530, Nicholas Copernicus made a massive discovery.
The sun, not the earth, is at the centre of the
universe. Now that was a massive paradigm shift
for people, wasn't it? It became known as the
Copernican Revolution. It changed the way we
see our place in the universe. Now this might
come across as a bit bold, but I hope today we
have a Copernican Revolution. Not a scientific
one, but a spiritual one. See, our default position
is to put ourselves at the centre of the universe,
isn't it? To think everything revolves around
us, around me. Life is about expressing myself,
my happiness, what's meaningful to me. At our
core, we believe life is better when I'm at the
centre of the universe. But this causes no end
of problems, does it? It causes conflict all
over the world. Because if you think you're at
the centre of the universe and I think I'm at
the centre of the universe, we're going to have
a problem, are we? Anger, violence, wars, all
stem from people thinking that they or their
tribe are at the centre of the universe. See,
putting myself at the centre of the universe
seems like a good idea, but it actually just
causes so much conflict and chaos. It doesn't
really work. And so that's why today I'm hoping
we'll have a Copernican revolution that will
see God is really at the centre of the universe.
That our lives will align with that reality that
he's at the centre of the universe. So why should
my life revolve around God? Why him? That's what
I want to show you today as we look at hallowed
be your name and Here's the big thing. I'm hoping
we'll see from today God deserves to be honored
so pray that he would be God deserves to be honored
so pray that he would be if you're someone who
has God at the center of the universe That's
what you're gonna believe. That's what you're
gonna do God deserves to be honored so pray that
he would be. And there's three aspects to that
that we're going to look at today. Firstly, God
deserves honour. Is he all that he's cracked
up to be? Secondly, we pray for God's fame. That's
one of the ways we pray. And then thirdly, we
praise God's name in our prayers, as well as
in the way we live and sing and other things
as well. So let's have a look. This is what Hello
Be Your Name is all about. And let's start with
the first bit. God deserves honour. Now that's
the assumption that's built into hallowed be
your name. What's hallowed mean? It's not herald
be your name. What's hallowed? Hallowed is to
make holy. It's to treat as special, as precious,
as sacred. Many years ago I would go visit my
grandmother's house. and she had this big cabinet
of fine china that just sat there. We never ate
from it. I think it was there for when the Queen
decided to come over. It was treated as special.
You know, I couldn't go practice my golf pitching
and chipping in that room for obvious reasons.
That was hallowed. That was holy. That was sacred.
The opposite of hallowed would be to treat it
as common, as nothing special. Imagine if rather
than having it in the cabinet, only saving it
for the Queen, if every night we pulled out the
fine china and we had some fast food on it. That'd
be the opposite of hallowed, wouldn't it? That'd
be normal, run of the mill, every day. Now what
does it mean when we say hallowed be your name?
We're saying God's name, the reputation that
reflects his character, needs to be treated as
holy and hallowed. We're praying that we'd honour
God in our own hearts and that others would honour
him too. That his name wouldn't be blasphemed
and besmirched, that it wouldn't be dragged through
the mud. but that it would be adored and loved.
You know, why is it so horrible when Christians
sin? I mean, look, there's not just the human
hurt, which is bad enough, isn't it? What makes
it so bad is that it reflects badly on our God,
doesn't it? It brings His name through the mud.
We love our God. Because he's been so loving
to us. And so that's why we want people to think
highly of him. Imagine you stayed in the most
amazing hotel that you've ever been to. I was
taking my mum for a little drive along the Esplanade
and we were seeing some of the beautiful hotels.
I don't know which one's the good one. But imagine
you stayed at the good one. And the staff just
bend over backwards for you. They go above and
beyond, always with a smile. The facilities are
luxurious. There's not even a light switch that
isn't working. Everything works perfectly. The
rooms are palatial. There's games for the kids
in a 24 -7 kids club. That's the dream. There's
a spa that's just heavenly. And the price was
amazingly cheap. And they throw in all these
deals, free ... meals, free minibar, all of it.
And it's so good by the end that you say, well,
I don't normally do this, but I'm going to write
a review. And you give them five stars. You say,
this is the best hotel I've ever been at. Now
imagine next week you go out for coffee with
some friends and they start bagging that hotel
that you went to. What are you going to do? You
jump in and defend it. Oh, what are you talking
about? This is amazing. This hotel is fantastic.
Oh, you should stay there and try it again. I
don't know what happened when you went there.
Maybe you were just a jerk. I don't know. Like,
you'd be defending it and honouring it and promoting
it because you think this is an awesome hotel.
Well, for Christians, that's what it's like with
God, isn't it? God deserves honour because He
is so good. Okay, hang on a sec, Brendan, but
why? What's so great about your God? Well, in
the Bible we find he's an almighty creator. He
made everything, every good gift on planet Earth
comes from him. Whether beauty, art, friendship,
food, morality, games, sex, family, sport, love,
all of it comes from him. What an awesome God.
I mean, here's how the Bible puts it. You are
worthy our Lord and God to receive glory and
honor and power. For you created all things and
by your will they were created and have their
being. Put another way in Romans 1. For although
they knew God, they neither glorified him as
God nor gave thanks to him. But their thinking
became futile and their foolish hearts were darkened.
That's the problem, isn't it? That people look
at God and they go, oh, I don't want to honour
him. Then I've got to kind of like submit to
him and listen to him and treat him as if he's
there. I'm just going to suppress him out of
my life and not give him thanks for all that
he's done for me. No, God deserves to be honoured.
And that's just for the creation he's made. He's
not only the creator, he's a sovereign king.
He's not like the deistic god that people often
talk about, the one, you know, he sets the watch
and it's like he winds up the universe and goes,
okay, let's let it run. I'm off to do other things,
mow the lawn or whatever God's gonna do. No,
he's there intimately involved in every aspect
of creation. He's ruling over every single atom,
every single event. That's who your God is. And
not only that, He's a gracious Saviour, gracious
and merciful, abounding in steadfast love. I
mean, so many, we ignore our Creator and reject
Him every day, even though He's done nothing
but good to us. People all through the world
do it. And does he smite us right away? No, he
gives us opportunity to repent. Actually, he
loves us so much that he sent his son to absorb
the punishment that should have been ours for
our sin and rebellion. I was reading about a
skydiver a little while ago named Aaron Topher,
I think it is. He went on a tandem skydive with
somebody here in Australia. And as they went
down, something went horribly wrong with the
parachute. And they started plummeting toward
the earth. And what Aaron Topher did is he twisted
himself so that he got the full brunt and impact
of the ground. He died so that the guy he was
with could walk away alive. Now, why do I tell
you that? Because that reminds us of the God
we have, doesn't it? We have a God who sent His
Son to absorb the full wrath and judgment, righteous
and holy judgment that should have been ours.
He absorbs that. It's as if He takes us and turns
us to one side and He copps it so that we will
be spared, so that we will escape. Here's how
the Bible puts it. Worthy is the lamb, that's
talking about the Lord Jesus, who was slain to
receive power and wealth and wisdom and strength
and honour and glory and praise. Jesus is the
one who was slain for us. He experienced God's
anger and judgment in our place. That makes him
worthy of power, wealth and wisdom, strength,
honour and glory and praise. He deserves our
worship. But not only that, our God is a righteous
judge. One day he's going to set everything in
the universe right. All the injustices we see,
all the problems in the world, when Jesus returns,
it's all going to be sorted out. Now, honestly,
that's just the tip of the iceberg. We've barely
touched on who God is. We could talk about God's
holiness, God's wisdom. You know, we could talk
about so many more attributes about who God is.
But don't you reckon a God like that deserves
honour, praise and worship? Imagine for a second
you were going to start a religion. Maybe some
of you have thought about doing that. I don't
know. Please don't. It's probably not going to
end well. But say you were going to start a religion
and you had to dream up a god for everyone to
follow. Do you reckon you could design a god
as good as the god I've just explained to you?
I think what happens when people dream up religions
is they end up with a God who's just a bigger
version of themselves, limited by their values,
their concepts, their thinking, who doesn't blow
your mind, who doesn't challenge your thinking,
who doesn't make you go, wow, he's infinitely
greater than I ever imagined, I need to worship
him. They're just bigger versions of themselves.
That's what the gods of other religions are like.
Man -made gods that people have dreamed up. Have
you ever thought about, you know, jihad in Islam?
72 virgins for the jihadists. Now, you can't
tell me that doesn't sound like a man -made god
to you. But the God of the Bible is so radically
different. He wasn't dreamt up. He came down.
He revealed himself in the Lord Jesus. And he
showed us that he's infinitely greater than anything
we could concoct. At the same time, he's holy,
he's merciful. At the same time, he's good, he's
powerful. He's just better than we could ever
dream up. He's infinitely great. And that's why,
by the way, heaven won't be boring. You know,
sometimes my kids say to me, Dad, isn't heaven
going to be really boring? No. Because what are
we going to be doing in heaven? We're going to
be getting to know and enjoying that God who
is infinitely good for all eternity You're never
going to sit there in heaven after a billion
years and go Yeah, right. I think I get God now.
Is there anything else? No, it's always going
to be mind -blowingly epic See, the God of the
Bible deserves honour. He deserves to be the
centre of the universe. And if you don't think
he does, if you're still here and you're thinking,
I should be at the centre of the universe, I
actually doubt you know God very well or yourself
very well. You're thinking too highly of yourself
and too little of God. I mean, think about it.
You're essentially saying, who does God think
he is? God or something? That's kind of silly,
isn't it? If that's where you're at, can I ask
you to do something? Come read the Bible with
me. Let's go have a coffee and if not with me,
find another Christian here at church, but come
read the Bible with me and let's go through and
see together how awesome this God is. I want
to show you that he's better than you ever thought.
But if you're here today and you know that God
is worthy of honour, worship and praise, if you
know that He rightfully should be the centre
of the universe and is, then what are you going
to do? I know, live a life that glorifies Him.
Fantastic answer, that's brilliant. But you know,
as good as that is, even that's beyond us. I
can't worship God properly unless He saves me,
helps me. I mean, He's worthy of greater worship
than my little life on earth can ever give. So,
yes, let's worship God with our lives, but first
and foremost, we need to acknowledge that God
is greater than we could ever worship Him. We
need to ask God to actually glorify His own name.
And that's our second thing. Yes, God deserves
honour. So what should we do in response? First
and foremost, pray for God's fame. Pray for God's
fame. See, when we stop and pray, hallowed be
your name, we're praying to God for God. Because
we know He's the only one who can truly do this.
See, when we pray like that, such prayer is putting
God at the centre instead of us. It's like if
my kids were to buy me a Father's Day gift. You
know what has to happen when my kids buy me a
Father's Day gift? They say, Dad, I want to get
you a Father's Day gift. Here's what has to happen.
I need to give them the money. I need to take
them to the store. At least Laura does. And I
need to tell them what to buy. No, please, I
don't want another pair of socks. Actually, it's
okay if they do. But they need me to actually
honour me properly. And it's like that with glorifying
God. We need his help to honour and worship him.
And so that's why we need to pray about it. Prayer
is us acknowledging our dependence upon him.
So what will it look like? Do we just need to
every day wake up and say, hallowed be your name?
No, I think we need to pray into that more. We
can go through the Bible and see concrete examples
that align with that. I mean, the one we looked
at today from Exodus 33, 18. Moses prays to God,
please show me your glory. That's hallowed be
your name, isn't it? Then God puts Moses in the
cleft of a rock, passes by proclaiming his name,
gracious, merciful yet just. But I love that
prayer. What a prayer. Please show me your glory.
Show me what you're like. Show me how great you
are. Make your name known to me. Imagine for
a second if everyone at Northern Hope woke up
each day and prayed, our Father in heaven, hallowed
be your name. Father, please show me your glory.
Humble me. Open my eyes. Help me to see new things
about you today, about how great you are. Help
me to savour the things I already know about
you. Help me to grasp more of your love. What
do you think would happen if we all did that?
I suspect God might actually answer that. I think
we might get a deeper hunger for God. It would
mean more people are at growth groups. It might
mean we'd have to order in a bunch of books about
God so that people could get to know Him better,
so that they could understand their Bibles better.
I think we'd have to put out more chairs at church
because wow we've just got more people coming
in because these Christians they're so joyful
and magnetic as they come to know their God.
I think we'd all have a deeper joy and contentment.
Think people would leave church and come to church
with a spring in their step and a deep anticipation
as to what's going to happen when they come.
I think you'd find there'd be less little squabbles
in church. in friendships, in marriages, because
people be thinking less of me and more about
their Father in Heaven who deserves to be worshipped
and praised. And I reckon there'd be a greater
servant -heartedness because we know a God who
doesn't sit in an ivory tower and let us suffer.
We know a God who comes into our world and bears
the punishment we deserve, suffers with us, That
creates joyful service and a loving community.
Wouldn't that be great? But it starts with praying,
hallowed be your name. Praying into that. And
that's just if we pray this for ourselves. What
about if we prayed this for others too? What
if we prayed, Father, may your name be honoured
not just in my heart, but in the heart of my
family members, my spouse and my kids. And please
glorify your name at Northern Hope this weekend
in the preaching, in the activities, in the services,
in the kids' church. And Father, not just at
Northern Hope, enable your name to be praised
in Cairns, in Australia, all over the world.
People marvel at your majesty. Father, please
plant churches throughout Cairns. We want to
see people adore you, Father, because you're
worthy of it. What would happen if we prayed
that? I wonder if God's answer would be that
His Word dwells more richly in our homes, as
people read their kids' Bibles together at the
dinner table, as they talk about God, that there'd
be more excitement about what's going on. I think
we'd be more bold in our evangelism because we'd
see that people don't just need Jesus as much
as that's true but that God is worthy of their
worship. Praying like this would be immensely
powerful. It would change us, it would change
others and it would bring God glory. In their
book, A God -Sized Vision, Colin Hanson and John
Woodbridge survey revivals in the last 300 years.
And at the end of the book, they list five traits
that happened in every one of these revivals.
It's kind of like the pattern. And topping the
list is persisting in prayer. Some prayed for
a decade until revival broke out. It wasn't easy.
Some, it was just a few who got together and
prayed but they persisted in prayer because they
yearned for God to be glorified and so they prayed
and they prayed and they prayed and they prayed
that he would be. Do we yearn for God to be glorified
like they did? Do we look around and see people
ignoring God when we go to the shops and think,
that's criminal. I need to pray about that, that
these people would become worshipers of the one
true God. Is the heartbeat of our prayers God's
glory and that we'd know him better or is it
our earthly desires for the stuff that we want?
Hallowed be your name. It does so much. It gets
our priorities right. It gets our hearts seeing
that God is at the centre of the universe, not
me. But not only should we pray for God's name
to be hallowed, you know what we should do when
we pray? We should actually spend time hallowing
it. Here's our third point. When we pray, praise
God's name. Praise God's name. If you're someone
who uses the Lord's Prayer as a template, this
is a great time to praise God for who He is and
thank Him for what He's done. And this shouldn't
be done begrudgingly. Actually, when we do this,
it's a delight. Here's how C .S. Lewis put it.
He says this. I think we delight to praise what
we enjoy because the praise not merely expresses
but completes the enjoyment. It is its appointed
consummation. It's not out of compliment that
lovers keep on telling one another how beautiful
they are. The delight is incomplete till it's
expressed. It's frustrating to have discovered
a new author and not be able to tell anyone how
good he is, to come suddenly at the turn of the
road. Did I jump ahead? To come suddenly at the
turn of the road and upon some mountain valley
of unexpected grandeur and then to have kept
silent because the people with you care for it
no more than a tin can in the ditch. Or to hear
a good joke and find no one to share it with.
The Scotch Catechism, that's not a whiskey that's
talking about a Scottish Catechism, says that
man's chief end is to glorify God and enjoy him
forever. But we shall know then that these are
the same thing. Fully to enjoy is to glorify.
In commanding us to glorify him, God is inviting
us to enjoy him. Don't you love that? Enjoying
God is how we glorify Him. Praising Him completes
our enjoyment. If you want deep satisfaction,
joy and delight, there's no getting around this.
You need to know God well. Know what He's done
for you. Know how good He is. And then praise
Him for it. That will bring you deep delight.
Thanking Him will take your joy to a whole other
level. So, what's this look like? Well, it's
to get to know God. To meditate on the scriptures.
Yes, even read a good theology book. See what
God is like. And then it's to do things like
each day count your blessings. And I mean that.
Literally count them. You can get your fingers
out if that helps. Count up your blessings and
thank God for them. Lord, thank you so much that
you sent your son to diamond for me. Thank you
so much for the greenery and the ocean and the
barrier reef and there's just so many wonderful
things that I get to enjoy here in Cairns. Thank
God for the things around you. And then praise
God for an attribute. and adore Him for it. Father
I praise you that you are wise, that you know
better than I do. You're an awesome God. And
if you do those things, you're actually letting
God take centre stage in your life. And worshipping
Him won't be a drudgery, it will be a delight.
Okay, let's recap. We started by asking, why
should my life revolve around God? And we saw
it's because God deserves to be honoured and
so pray that he would be. That's what we're meant
to believe, that God deserves to be honoured
and what do we do? We pray that he would be.
And we saw three things. We saw that God does
deserve honour. We saw that we need to pray for
God's fame and that we need to also praise God's
name. That's what hallowed be your name is all
about. So what's this all mean for us practically
though? Well there'll be some of us here today
in church who've never had a Copernican revolution.
Your heart is still putting yourself at the centre
of the universe right where God belongs. I mean
he's there but in your heart you've got it all
distorted. And I hope you've seen today, not
only is that dangerous because it means you're
not in right relationship with God, but it's
actually robbing you of joy and satisfaction.
Because each one of us is built to enjoy that
God and to know Him more. God deserves to be
the centre and it's better for you if He is.
So if you don't know that God, Make today the
day that you have a Copernican revolution or
at least start working out whether you should
have one. Maybe talk to God about it. Say to
Him, Father, if you really are there, if you
are the centre of the universe, if you deserve
to be worshipped, please make that clear to me.
But for many of us here, we have experienced
this Copernican revolution a long time ago. You
know that God deserves honour, that He's infinitely
greater than you know, and that each day you're
going, yes, I know that's what you like, God,
and I need to know more of you. And you've seen
the way it's changed your life when you've had
God at the centre. But you also know it's hard
keeping Him there, isn't it? There's a tug of
war for every Christian, isn't there? God's spirit
lives within us, but we also have a sinful nature.
And these two are pulling against each other
all the time. And we need God's help to keep
in step with the spirit, to keep pulling back
towards God at the centre of my life. And the
way we do it, one of the key ways is to pray
into hallowed be your name. That's the heartbeat
of a healthy Christian life. You know, like they
used to say, all roads lead to Rome. Well, all
roads lead to glorifying God, don't they? To
hallowed be your name. So I want to ask you,
how can you do that better this week? Is there
just one thing from today's sermon that you can
try? How can you pray into hallowed be your name?
more consistently. Because God is at the centre
of the universe and you know it's such a delight
when you live with Him there. Let's pray. Father
we want to thank you so much that you're an awesome
and wonderful and powerful God. And we pray that
you would help us to bask in who you are, to
savour it, to enjoy it, to never tire of it.
Please Father, we need you to soften our hearts,
that we may honour you and worship you as you
deserve. And Father, we ask that you would glorify
your name, not just here at Northern Hope, not
just here in Cairns. but all throughout the world.
Please, Father, bring glory to your name, which
you rightly deserve. And we ask this in Jesus'
name. Amen.