Good morning everybody, I'm Nick.
For those who don't know me,
I am one of the Board of Servant Leaders here.
I'm not the pastor, but I'm gonna try my best this morning.
So let's get into my sermon because it's a long one.
This is my fifth or sixth time preaching.
I haven't done it a whole lot,
and I've realized that every time I do preach,
I'm convinced that this is the most important sermon
that I'll ever preach.
And I'll warn you now, I've done it again.
I am convinced to myself that this is the most important
sermon that I'm gonna preach.
So buckle in for it.
The title of my sermon is a bit strange.
If you care to write it down, if you got your thing,
the requests according to God's ultimate end,
or the requests to God's ultimate end.
We've been going over the Lord's Prayer,
and so I wanna say it this morning together.
So let's go ahead and stand.
Do we have the slide for the Lord's Prayer still, Brianna?
Hopefully we do.
I'm pulling a fast one on her.
We don't have the slide, we all know some rendition of it,
and it's gonna be fine.
Okay, so go from memory.
Our Father in heaven, your name be honored as holy.
Your kingdom come, your will be done,
on earth as it is in heaven.
Give us this day our daily bread,
and forgive us our debts,
as we have also forgiven our debtors.
Lead us not into temptation,
but deliver us from the evil one, amen.
Go ahead and sit down.
A routine my wife and I have is that we pray together
right before going to sleep every night.
We've had our ups and downs in our lives,
and in our marriage, and our sleep schedules.
It has been an important routine that we've kept.
We each have a typical way of starting our prayers.
Nothing fancy, I usually pick heavenly father,
because I read this prayer before,
and she often goes with dear Jesus.
My wife then goes with the Sunday school style
for the second line, thank you for this day.
It's a classic, right?
Never goes out of style, thank you for this day.
I, on the other hand, don't have time for such pleasantries.
I got needs, and there's always one need
that I pray for first.
Give me rest.
Give us rest, rest in our house.
And as a father of four kids,
with a long history of uninterrupted sleep,
this is a deep, deep need.
What is your prayer, Joe?
What do you pray?
Do you go with thank you for this day, opener,
or do you keep it short and direct?
Jesus' focus was on much bigger things
than either of those.
This is our third week studying prayer,
and going through the Lord's Prayer.
I have been praying this prayer over and over and over again
last few weeks in preparation.
I wanted to really get it into my bones,
and my meditation on this second line
has drastically altered my prayer life.
And dare I say it, this little line is the key
to unlocking the power of your prayers.
Put my stake in the ground,
and we'll see if I can answer that.
My sermon is gonna focus on three key words this morning,
make, name, and holiness.
My first point for those taking notes is make.
And I put it in parentheses
because I have to admit this actually isn't in the text.
You didn't read it wrong,
but this line is a request, it's not a statement.
We probably all have some sort of knowledge
of the Lord's Prayer, some history with it.
You don't even have to grow up in church to know this.
A friend of mine this week said,
I didn't grow up religious,
but my mom made sure I knew the Lord's Prayer
and recited it.
And for most of us, knowing the Lord's Prayer
means reciting an old King James translation,
400 years old, that says, hallowed be your name, right?
And you probably never used the word hallowed
outside of this statement.
Like, do you even know what it means?
I'll tell you what it means.
It means be made holy, revered and honored.
It's a pretty easy definition, it's not complicated.
To hallow means to make something holy.
But if you're like me, there's a decent chance
that you might have been a little bit off
in your reading of this 400 year old phrase.
R.C. Sproul explained it this way.
We often confuse the words hallowed be your name
with part of the address on the first line,
as if the words were hallowed is your name.
And in that case, the words would merely be
an inscription of praise to God,
which is true, he is holy and it's good to say that.
But these words are actually a request.
The CSP removes the ambiguity by bucking the tradition
and expanding the word count for clarity.
So we read, our Father in heaven,
your name be honored as holy.
I hope you can hear it a little bit more clearly now.
The second line is not a statement of address.
It is a request for God to act.
God, please make your name be honored as holy.
Now, this is how we mean in the other phrases, right?
So this isn't kind of new.
Give us our bread, that's a request.
Your kingdom come, that's a request.
You make this happen.
Is anyone here making Christ's kingdom happen?
Anyone drawing up plans for the new Jerusalem?
Anybody gathering materials to build a throne for him?
No, it's a request.
Lord, you make your kingdom come.
You bring your kingdom to this earth.
I don't wanna vote anymore.
I can't handle any more political issues.
I can't handle any more political ads.
I don't care about these ballot measures.
Please come.
And this point is simple, but it's foundational.
Make, it's a request.
Jesus is teaching us to request things from God,
and not just small things, but the most important things.
So now that we know it's a request,
let's find out what we've actually been praying
all these years.
So first point, make, second point, name.
Reading the verse again.
Our Father in heaven.
I'm gonna add the word.
We can bring up that slide.
Make your name be honored as holy.
The first request of the Lord's Prayer
is for God's name to receive honor.
We don't have time to follow the rabbit hole of God's name.
There's too much to say there.
It is a glorious thing.
But I want to highlight just the one thing
for this morning.
Jesus is telling us to ask God to value his reputation.
We are told to pray and request that God would act
so his name be honored.
The good news is that God has always been concerned
about his reputation.
He has been concerned about his name.
The Lord cares deeply for his reputation
and is willing to defend it.
Let me give you a few examples.
Let's start with the rescue of Israel
out of slavery in Egypt.
The most important event in the Old Testament.
It was accomplished not because of Israel,
but God's great name.
For his namesake, hear this, Exodus 9 16.
But for this purpose, I have raised you up
to show you my power so that my name
may be proclaimed in all the earth.
Later on in the story, God spares Israel
from judgment after repeated and repeated disobedience.
Not because of something he could solve.
Not because of something he saw in them.
But for his namesake, we're reading Ezekiel.
I acted for the sake of my name,
that it should not be profaned in the sight of the nations
in whose sight I had brought them out.
One last one.
In Psalm 106, we read a retelling of Israel's gory history.
A history of terrible sin, of abundant idolatry,
and continued rescue from annihilation.
We are told why God protected and saved Israel
again and again and again.
Reading, our ancestors in Egypt did not grasp
the significance of your wondrous works,
or remember your many acts of love.
Instead, they rebelled by the sea, the Red Sea.
Which means God did a thing, and immediately afterwards,
they rebelled against him.
Verse eight, yet he saved them for his namesake,
to make his power known.
I could go on all morning long.
There are 22 times God's name is labeled as his holy name.
37 times where God is concerned
about his name being profaned.
44 times the phrase namesake is used about God.
Conclusion, God really cares about his name.
He defends himself from reputation attack.
He acts to protect his reputation
from being dragged through the mud.
His motivation for mercy and salvation is not you.
It's his namesake.
I am the Lord, that is my name,
and I will not give my glory to another.
We read in Isaiah.
If this is the first time you're hearing this idea,
stated so clearly, this may sound petty, and I get that.
Here's some questions you might be asking.
Why is God so concerned about his reputation?
Is he really concerned about his status
in front of us humans,
like he's a needy celebrity or something?
He is the creator and sustainer of the universe,
spinning galaxies on his fingers,
playing Legos with little corks particles.
He has all power and knowledge.
What does the opinion of a group of humans matter to him?
Good question.
And lucky for you, and for me,
I have the answers.
But with big questions come big answers.
So point number three, holiness.
Holy, holy, holy is what the angels cry to the Lord
in the heavenly temple, according to Isaiah.
Holy, holy, holy, repeated three times
to signify completeness and fullness.
And when a person sees a glimpse, just a glimpse,
just a speck of God's holiness,
what is their response every time?
I'm gonna go ahead and lay down,
and I'm just gonna die now, okay?
I'm done.
I'm utterly ruined, I got nothing.
Experiencing holiness immediately exposes a human,
completely opens them up and says,
this is what you're worth, and it's nothing.
And it affects you so deeply that the only thing
you expect to follow is complete
and utter destruction of your being.
Every single person in the Bible
that experiences God's holiness, that is what they do.
They choose to do that.
Nobody tells them they have to do that.
This isn't bowing before a king.
So that is what holiness is like to experience.
Let's look at just briefly what it means.
The biblical dictionary definition of holy is set apart,
transcendent, holy other.
It's just a weird play on words,
but it works in English, holy other.
This definition is clear enough, it's not hard to get.
Scholars agree on it, and it makes sense.
God is completely separate from us and our sin,
and so from everything else, and so we see him,
and he is holy in his being, and we're not,
and we're not in his presence.
He is holy in his being, and we're not,
and so we just crumble under him.
And I've heard this definition many, many times,
but I've always felt that this definition
didn't go far enough to describe how God is holy.
Like I just wanted something a little bit more clear,
and I've had this burning question in my mind
for a very long time.
God has always been holy, which I believe,
I am not trying to say otherwise.
How could he be set apart, according to the definition,
when nothing else existed except for him?
How is he set apart from the nothing that is not there,
and it's just him?
And I feel like using set apart in this definition
is kind of like using the word in the definition of the word.
You know, that thing that we all learned in English,
which is a big no-no,
you can't use the definition in the word.
So I got hung up on this question for a really long time,
but not until I was struggling through a short book
by a guy named Jonathan Edwards,
who was a theologian from the 1700s,
did I finally hear a definition of holiness
that brought clarity.
In the book, The End for Which God Created the World,
Jonathan Edwards writes this.
The moral rectitude of God chiefly consists
in a regard to himself,
infinitely above his regard to all other beings.
None of us here is from the 1700s,
we don't use English this way.
So here's my paraphrase.
God's holiness is the infinite worth
that God has for himself.
God's holiness is the infinite worth
that God has for himself.
The word holiness is the infinite worth
that God has for himself.
So, what's the meaning of this?
Well, in this day and age,
we're getting into a time where God's holiness
that God has for himself.
This is the thing, this is it.
This is the insight that has affected me
and changed my prayer life.
And for us here, it's going to unlock your prayer life too.
Meditate on this thought.
God is valuing himself infinitely above everything else.
And then go and pray and ask him to keep doing that.
Everywhere.
And you will always pray according to the Lord's will.
And if you're trying to grasp this idea,
it's totally normal.
I've been shopping it around this week
and it's taken people time to get it.
And this may be the first time you're hearing this.
So let's unpack Jonathan Edwards' thesis a little bit.
The first question most people have when they hear this
is something like, that sounds like God is self-centered
and self-absorbed.
Elevating himself so highly, right?
Wouldn't it be sinful for God to think of himself so much?
Let's answer this important question
and I will start small and then build up.
So track with me.
We'll start with man, then move to God.
Simple question for all of us.
Is it good for us to sing songs to God?
Yes, we just did it.
Simple answer, yes.
Actually, it's commanded 15 times in the Bible
for us to worship and praise God.
And why is it good to sing worship songs?
Why do we need to do those specific songs?
A worship song is a song that ascribes worth to God.
Like the song, Jesus, name above all names.
Apologize for my terrible singing.
Or, hey, how great thou art.
Both songs elevate God to the highest position
we can imagine, above all other names.
Unspeakably, unfathomably great.
It's good for us humans to sing these songs
because through them we ascribe worth or value to God.
We identify and praise his attributes and accomplishments.
Let's take it one step further.
Let's get really difficult.
How would you feel if God sang
either of these songs about himself?
Would it be good for God to praise himself
for being unfathomably great?
You just did.
How about him singing about how he is worthy of praise
for rescuing us from sin?
Would it be boastful or prideful for him?
That's a hard question.
But it wouldn't be.
He's not proud.
It would be good.
It is good for God to accurately esteem his worth and value.
Since he is infinitely greater than all other beings,
it is good for him to recognize that about himself.
He needs to see that in himself.
And since he did save us from our sins
and defeated death on our behalf,
he can correctly acknowledge his accomplishments.
Is he not the most worthy of all beings?
Is he not of infinite worth?
His glory, his glory, his glory,
his love, joy, and greatness are infinite,
and so is his worth.
Any greatness or worth compared to this infinite God
should be considered like nothing.
Jonathan Edwards says, it's like dust left on the scale.
Here are two quotes from Jonathan Edwards to drive it home.
God must chiefly consist in giving due respect
to that being to whom most is due, which is God.
For God is infinitely the most worthy of regard.
And another, if God respects things
according to their nature,
he must necessarily have the greatest respect to himself.
It would be against the perfection of his nature,
his wisdom and holiness and perfect rectitude
to suppose otherwise.
Meaning, because God is God,
he must value his infinite worth greater than anything else.
He must do it.
Doing otherwise would be a misjudgment on his part,
and he would fail to be God thereafter.
He is the only being with infinite worth.
It is just him, nothing else.
God's infinite regard to himself is a good, righteous act
because of who he is.
This is his holiness.
As you chew on this, let me give you a second
to think about the importance of this.
Let me give you a silly analogy to try to explain it.
I'm the father of four kids, said that already.
If I sat them down and told them
that they don't need to listen to me anymore
because I am elevating their position
to be equal with me as parents.
I have an 11th month old and a two month old.
They are just eager to take that.
We all have the same authority now.
And I have to respect their choices
as much as it might have to respect my own.
Our positions in the family are equal.
So they get to set their own rules.
You know what my kids would do immediately?
All of them would run to our candy drawer,
grab a handful of candy, run to our couch,
turn on the TV, and then not move for as long as they can.
The chaos and fighting would show up eventually, right?
It would come.
And in the long run, it would actually make my kids
emotionally unstable and fearful.
Why?
They get to have everything they want.
They get to do it as they want.
But they wouldn't be happy.
Because they want me to exercise my position.
They want me to act like their dad.
Which means I need to recognize that my thoughts, wisdom,
and plans are above theirs.
Not because I'm selfish, not because I'm self-absorbed,
but because I love them.
If I don't see that my abilities are greater than theirs,
it would hurt them.
I feel the same way about God.
I, me, 35-year-old Nick Rozema, am a scared little child
in this ever-expanding cold universe.
I don't know the future.
I can't control any of it.
If I eat bread like a normal person, I get sick for weeks.
I need help in my life.
That's what I need.
I want an infinitely wise, infinitely powerful,
infinitely good God to be in control.
And I want that God to act and direct the universe
according to his infinite wisdom, infinite power,
and goodness.
And I want him to esteem his qualities
infinitely valuable above mine,
because that's the way they are.
This is God's holiness.
God's holiness is the infinite worth
that God has for himself.
This is God esteeming himself and his attributes
as higher than all others, more valuable than anyone else,
and acting to make them known across all time and space,
which again, is the outpouring of his wisdom and love.
That was a lot.
It was a lot.
I know it was a lot,
because it takes a really long time to chew on this
and work through it.
I recommend a long walk later today in thinking about it.
What is God's holiness?
What do I want God to be doing?
Let's take a deep breath.
Let's move back down to earth.
Let's come back here.
We all have a Monday.
It's gonna come at us real fast tomorrow.
Let's figure out how the holiness of God helps us in prayer.
It's what my sermon is about, right, I think.
Praying that God would make his name to be holy.
So how do we apply this to our prayers?
How do we do this for our kids, our parents,
our tests coming up in a week?
How do I make this part of my life?
Let's talk about Plinko.
Right, this is a good right turn.
Here's the image of a guy playing Plinko on the prices right.
I assume everybody has seen the prices right,
but just in case you haven't or you forgot.
You place a disc at the top.
There's some slots up there,
and you place it there,
and you kind of aim for what's on the bottom,
because the bottom tells you what prize you get.
And the closer to the middle,
the middle is the best,
and then you get some other prizes on the sides.
But it's a bunch of bouncing around.
You don't really get to aim it.
And I was talking to someone in a small group this week,
and she described her prayer life
as constantly trying to figure out
what answer God is gonna give her,
then adjusting her prayers to match the possible outcomes.
She's stuck playing Plinko in her prayers.
Her theology is good, don't get me wrong.
God is in control and he will answer my prayers.
But she is left trying to calculate
what the answer's going to be,
so she can change her words,
so she can pray according to God's will,
and then she can get the right answer to what God wanted.
And she constantly has to be playing the game
in her mind and her heart as she's praying.
What is God's answer gonna be today?
Or, oh, that person got changed in their sickness,
so I should pray differently.
Whatever it's gonna be, she keeps having to adjust it.
I'm guilty of this, I've done it.
I wanna pray that God will change my prayer life
and I wanna pray big, but then I can start conditioning
my words, kinda put some clauses in there,
just in case God doesn't answer the way that I wanted him to.
And I've been in prayer groups with you guys.
I'm not alone.
Do you know what the cure for this is?
Pray for God to make his name be honored as holy,
as the first thing.
And then have every other request yield
to that ultimate request.
You love God, that's what you've been praying.
You've been praying the Lord's Prayer.
Your name be honored as holy.
On Friday, I went to a memorial service of a good friend.
He's three years older than me.
He died after eight years of battling stage four cancer.
He left behind three girls about the same age as mine.
I feel so deeply for his family.
And his daughters, growing up without a dad,
he loved them and he tried so hard.
And I've prayed for years for him to be healed,
but the Lord never did.
Should I ask why my prayers weren't answered?
Why didn't God heal him?
I prayed for that, like those were the words I said.
Why didn't God hear my prayers?
Why didn't he answer me?
Sure, my prayers for healing weren't answered.
That's clear and obvious.
But if I was praying according to the Lord's Prayer,
my ultimate prayer will always be answered.
Father, make your name be honored as holy.
But how can kids growing up without a dad
be a way for God to be honored?
I don't know.
I don't have an answer for that right now.
But I know that God is infinitely good and infinitely wise
and infinitely loving, and he should use
all of who he is to work all things to bring him honor.
Maybe I'm expecting too much from God.
But this is actually what Jesus prayed at the tomb of Lazarus.
Lazarus died so God would get glory.
And Jesus prays for this directly in front of his tomb.
John 11, 36, if you wanna look it up.
Or how about in the garden?
Jesus prays in the garden.
He sees his death coming in the morning.
He's gonna be betrayed by a close friend.
What does he pray in John 17?
Father, the hour has come.
Glorify your son so that your son may glorify you.
Jesus had spent his whole life aiming towards this thing.
And what does he ask for?
Does he ask for strength?
Does he ask for faith?
Does he ask to keep going?
Please, God, no.
His first request is that God would be glorified.
Jesus modeled the Lord's Prayer in all of his prayers.
Go read them.
By first seeking God's name to be honored.
So if you want to enjoy praying more,
if you wanna feel like your prayers actually mean something,
which is really hard to do,
sometimes you just feel like you're hitting the ceiling,
pray the Lord's Prayer.
And request for the Lord
to make his name be honored as holy.
If you pray for anything more,
let it just fall under that one thing.
Just, sure, keep praying.
Jesus kept praying.
Other people keep praying throughout the Bible.
But they always let it fall under,
let your name be honored as holy.
I've changed how I've started my prayers now.
This is my first request every time, make your name holy.
And then I pray for whatever I need to.
I gotta be honest.
It has given me so much freedom in prayer.
And I'm not a praying person.
It is not something that comes out of me.
I'm not like Mira.
Everything I pray for yields to that request.
My sleep or lack thereof falls under his honor.
My kids' obedience, church stuff,
sickness of my friends or family,
relationship problems,
all yield way to God being honored as holy.
So if I get what I requested, praise the Lord, he's holy.
And if I don't get what I asked for,
praise the Lord, he is making himself holy in my lack.
And if I pray and I don't know what's gonna happen
for months or for years,
which is a very common way to pray,
I trust that he is working out the perfect plan
to make his name holy.
There are many things I am still waiting to be here
to answer on.
But I wait eagerly to know how he will make
his name holy in it.
And I urge you, try it.
Try this.
Whenever you're praying, just use the Lord's Prayer.
Start with it.
That's what we did this morning in our prayer time.
We just started with the Lord's Prayer.
If you aren't sure how to even pray,
just say the Lord's Prayer, just do that one.
Pray it in a group.
Get some people together.
Just say the Lord's Prayer together.
Most people know some form of it.
They have got some experience with it.
Pray it to yourself in a quiet room
if that's what you need to do.
Be the person who prays like this over a meal.
Heavenly Father, thank you for these tacos.
Bless the hands that made them.
Above all else, make your name be honored as holy.
Amen.
It's not magical.
You knew that.
It doesn't get you a new job, a prettier spouse,
more obedient kids,
but it will release your heart to pray with all fullness.
That the Lord's name be honored, valued,
esteemed as infinitely worthy.
And through this prayer, your life will be changed
to be like the generations and generations
of Christians before us
who are now basking in the Lord and in His holiness,
praising Him for His infinite worth,
and seeing through their lives how they're suffering,
how their accomplishments, how their wins, their losses,
and everything else all fell under
how God made His name holy in their lives.