[SPEAKER_00]: Wow, good evening, everyone.
[SPEAKER_00]: I wonder whether you'll stand with me just one more stand for a little while and we're going to pray for about to open up God's Word and I just want to encourage you to open yourself to Him and you may want to open your hands up just to physically show what's going on inside of you.
[SPEAKER_00]: You inspire those who wrote it down thousands of years ago, and that you have been inspiring people who've read it ever since.
[SPEAKER_00]: And tonight, as we open it again and open ourselves to you, we pray that you would speak Jesus, you promise that we're two or three people are gathered together in your name, you are there with them.
[SPEAKER_00]: And we are gathered in your name and we thank you that you are with us.
[SPEAKER_00]: We take what is true in this prayer that you taught us to pray and drive it deep into us.
[SPEAKER_00]: Let us be different people as a result of hearing it and praying these words, Amen.
[SPEAKER_00]: Please be seated.
[SPEAKER_00]: I wonder what the last time was that you used the word hallowed, not just in the prayer that we prayed, but in conversation.
[SPEAKER_00]: I would hazard a guess that none of you have used that word today apart from the prayer we've just prayed.
[SPEAKER_00]: You probably haven't said it to the barista this morning.
[SPEAKER_00]: I'd like a hello long black.
[SPEAKER_00]: You haven't said it at McDonald's today when you ordered a big Mac.
[SPEAKER_00]: I'd like a helloed big Mac.
[SPEAKER_00]: You didn't say it to your parents this morning.
[SPEAKER_00]: Mum and dad, that was a helloed breakfast.
[SPEAKER_00]: I'm sure they didn't say it to you about your room.
[SPEAKER_00]: We don't use this word hallowed that much.
[SPEAKER_00]: It does live occasionally in our culture.
[SPEAKER_00]: We use it to describe the MCG, the hallowed turf.
[SPEAKER_00]: And it's in the Harry Potter series.
[SPEAKER_00]: There's some hallowedness in those places.
[SPEAKER_00]: But we use the word occasionally, but we don't really think much about it, at least I've never really thought much about this word before.
[SPEAKER_00]: Which is a bit of a problem because it's actually, I think like the sixth word in the prayer that Jesus taught us to pray.
[SPEAKER_00]: You taught us to pray these words.
[SPEAKER_00]: Our Father, in heaven, hallowed be your name, fifth word.
[SPEAKER_00]: And if we don't really understand it, and we don't really understand what we're praying.
[SPEAKER_00]: And so today I wanna wake up the word a bit.
[SPEAKER_00]: I wanna bring it back to life, breathe something into it.
[SPEAKER_00]: So that as we pray this prayer, it's not just something we skip over to get to the good bits, but it actually is an important thing that we can reflect on.
[SPEAKER_00]: So that's what we're gonna do tonight.
[SPEAKER_00]: But before we do, we're gonna look back on what we've done over the last few weeks.
[SPEAKER_00]: This is week four in our series on the Lord's Prayer.
[SPEAKER_00]: We've only done four words in four, three weeks previously.
[SPEAKER_00]: And tonight we're going to look at the next four words.
[SPEAKER_00]: So we're picking up pace.
[SPEAKER_00]: But we still have a few weeks to go in this series.
[SPEAKER_00]: I'm going to look at how low'd be your name.
[SPEAKER_00]: But two weeks ago, Tim took us into the first two words, and he focused on the word, Father.
[SPEAKER_00]: And the word, Father, in Aramaic, is Abba.
[SPEAKER_00]: not the band, Abba Fava means dad in Aramaic.
[SPEAKER_00]: And Tim reminded us that when we prayed to God, the father that he invites us to speak to him like a child speaks to their dad.
[SPEAKER_00]: In a personal way, in a safe way, in an intimate way.
[SPEAKER_00]: And then last week, Linda reminded us that we not only have a dad, we have a dad who's in heaven, which is quite extraordinary, really.
[SPEAKER_00]: These two images don't normally go together.
[SPEAKER_00]: And Linda reminded us last week that our father in heaven is no ordinary dead.
[SPEAKER_00]: He's sitting on a throne.
[SPEAKER_00]: He's being worshiped by all of creation.
[SPEAKER_00]: We just sung about it tonight about how he's seated on a throne.
[SPEAKER_00]: There's not too many people in our world today who can say, my dad is a king.
[SPEAKER_00]: I don't know a dad who's a king in my life.
[SPEAKER_00]: And so these things are perhaps unfamiliar things.
[SPEAKER_00]: And Jesus brings them together.
[SPEAKER_00]: And it's kind of confusing on some levels to think about that we're praying to someone who wants us to call him dad, but he's also sitting on a throne in heaven.
[SPEAKER_00]: Yet Jesus brings these two things together.
[SPEAKER_00]: I think it's really intentional that he does that.
[SPEAKER_00]: Because what happens next in this prayer flows out of the collision of these two images together.
[SPEAKER_00]: When you really grasp that you are praying to the King of Heaven in all his glory, in all his majesty, in all his splendor, the one who created you and all the creatures in our world,
[SPEAKER_00]: that you're praying to the king of heaven, and that he invites you to call him dad and approach him in a very personal way.
[SPEAKER_00]: What flows out of that, I think is described with the next words, hello'd be your name.
[SPEAKER_00]: So what is it that we're praying when we pray these words?
[SPEAKER_00]: Hallowed be your name.
[SPEAKER_00]: Let's unpack this word, Hallowed.
[SPEAKER_00]: Now I'm going to talk about the Greek here.
[SPEAKER_00]: I'm going to talk about grammar.
[SPEAKER_00]: I don't want it as switch off.
[SPEAKER_00]: I'm going to do it for a minute or two.
[SPEAKER_00]: But the Greek word that is Hallowed in this particular prayer is a word called hagiazo.
[SPEAKER_00]: And it means to set something apart, to treat it as sacred.
[SPEAKER_00]: to recognize that it's unlike anything else.
[SPEAKER_00]: We actually translate the word in other parts of Scripture, sanctify.
[SPEAKER_00]: And so we are praying this setting apart of God's name.
[SPEAKER_00]: Darrell Johnson, who was quoted last week in the week before, he says that to hello something is to Holy fire.
[SPEAKER_00]: He made up a word there, he said you can say, translate this, your name be Holy fire.
[SPEAKER_00]: What's being holified?
[SPEAKER_00]: It's the name of God.
[SPEAKER_00]: Jesus says, our Father, in heaven, hallowed be your name, holified be your name.
[SPEAKER_00]: And when Jesus uses your name here, he's not just talking about the name like we use the word name.
[SPEAKER_00]: In the biblical world view, a name is so much more, it carries a lot more weight.
[SPEAKER_00]: We use the word name to describe someone.
[SPEAKER_00]: and to call someone, to get their attention.
[SPEAKER_00]: But in the Bible, a name carries much more weight than that.
[SPEAKER_00]: A name is essentially the personality profile of someone.
[SPEAKER_00]: It carries the weight of who they are.
[SPEAKER_00]: Darrell Johnson puts it like this.
[SPEAKER_00]: Can you foot that Queen Eve to that?
[SPEAKER_00]: Darrell Johnson says it means to speak.
[SPEAKER_00]: of someone's name is a way of referring to their character, their personality, their reputation, to know the name of God is to know some essential truth about God's character.
[SPEAKER_00]: And so when we pray, how load be your name?
[SPEAKER_00]: We're not praying about the label we call God.
[SPEAKER_00]: We're praying about God, we're praying about the person of God.
[SPEAKER_00]: And we're saying to God, let who you are, your character,
[SPEAKER_00]: your identity, your essence, be holy-fied.
[SPEAKER_00]: Now, you might be asking a question at this point.
[SPEAKER_00]: Isn't God already as holy as he can get?
[SPEAKER_00]: Are we actually praying that God gets more holy?
[SPEAKER_00]: You've got to remember that this phrase is the first petition in the Lord's Prayer.
[SPEAKER_00]: We're actually asking something.
[SPEAKER_00]: at this point.
[SPEAKER_00]: There's six petitions.
[SPEAKER_00]: There's six asks that we make in the Lord's prayer.
[SPEAKER_00]: And this is the first one.
[SPEAKER_00]: Hello, be your name.
[SPEAKER_00]: We're not praying that God become more holy.
[SPEAKER_00]: God's already as holy as he can get.
[SPEAKER_00]: There's nothing that you or I can say or do that makes God any more holy than he is.
[SPEAKER_00]: That's not what we're praying here.
[SPEAKER_00]: What we're
[SPEAKER_00]: be revealed that his character be seen, that who he truly is will be made known, undeniably, that he will become visible, impossible to miss.
[SPEAKER_00]: Eugene Peterson captures this beautifully in his translation of the Bible in the message.
[SPEAKER_00]: He translates hello to your name as reveal who you are.
[SPEAKER_00]: father in heaven, we reveal who you are.
[SPEAKER_00]: We're not reminding God that He's holy.
[SPEAKER_00]: We're not even paying Him a compliment about His holiness.
[SPEAKER_00]: We're making a request, a desperate, urgent, bold request that He show Himself, that He makes His character undeniable.
[SPEAKER_00]: that he lets the world see who he is, that he lets us see who he is.
[SPEAKER_00]: And it's worth pausing as we reflect on this phrase, to realize just how bold a request this is.
[SPEAKER_00]: In the Old Testament, people didn't want to see the face of God.
[SPEAKER_00]: They're actually afraid of it.
[SPEAKER_00]: And so this is actually a new kind of thing.
[SPEAKER_00]: In the Greek grammar here, and this is kind of the last time I'll talk about grammar, how old is a verb?
[SPEAKER_00]: And it's what's called an imperative verb, which means that it's not just a description of an action that's happening.
[SPEAKER_00]: It's not just an observation about something.
[SPEAKER_00]: It's actually something that's urgent, that's a description of something that you are claiming,
[SPEAKER_00]: Some of the scholars that I read this week say, it borders on being a command.
[SPEAKER_00]: So we are calling God to do something.
[SPEAKER_00]: Now we can't command God to do anything, but Jesus is saying, I want you to pray, hello, be your name with urgency.
[SPEAKER_00]: I want you to claim it.
[SPEAKER_00]: And that's an important thing.
[SPEAKER_00]: It's also said in the passive voice, any of you who've done the English will know a little bit about passive voices, this softens it a little, takes it from being a command to being a reverence pleading with God.
[SPEAKER_00]: It takes it from being a do it God to let it be done God.
[SPEAKER_00]: So, Father, be known.
[SPEAKER_00]: Father, be seen, make yourself visible, make yourself undeniable.
[SPEAKER_00]: Now, it's really important to remember here that this is the first of six petitions in this prayer.
[SPEAKER_00]: We've got some others that are coming, let your will be done, let your kingdom come, give us today our daily bread, forgive us, lead me through times of trial.
[SPEAKER_00]: These are all petitions that Jesus teaches us to pray, but they all come after this one.
[SPEAKER_00]: And I don't think Jesus just accidentally put this at the front.
[SPEAKER_00]: I actually think you put it there because usually this is not how we pray.
[SPEAKER_00]: I don't know if you pray that often, but when I pray, I generally start with me.
[SPEAKER_00]: I usually come to God and go, God, I need your help.
[SPEAKER_00]: God, this is my situation.
[SPEAKER_00]: Can you fix this circumstance?
[SPEAKER_00]: We come into prayer quite often with our own agenda.
[SPEAKER_00]: And Jesus says, none of those things are running important.
[SPEAKER_00]: I want you to bring those things to me.
[SPEAKER_00]: But they come after asking God to reveal who He is, start there.
[SPEAKER_00]: And I think He does this because it changes everything else that we pray after it.
[SPEAKER_00]: Tim Keller puts it this way, he says, when we rehearse the character of God in prayer, our problems don't disappear, but they cut down to size.
[SPEAKER_00]: I think that's getting to the heart of it.
[SPEAKER_00]: When you begin by asking God, what you reveal, who you are, and you sit there for a moment, and you reflect upon that.
[SPEAKER_00]: and you begin to understand who God is.
[SPEAKER_00]: It doesn't make your circumstances go away, but it changes the proportion of them.
[SPEAKER_00]: What is enormous in your mind gets cut down to scale as you realize who it is you're talking to.
[SPEAKER_00]: you speak to him differently.
[SPEAKER_00]: It reshaped how you see yourself, your circumstance, your needs, and it puts those things into their proper place, not because they don't matter, but because you've remembered who you're talking to.
[SPEAKER_00]: Our identity isn't the starting point in prayer.
[SPEAKER_00]: God's identity is.
[SPEAKER_00]: Our agenda isn't the thing we should lead with.
[SPEAKER_00]: It's God's agenda.
[SPEAKER_00]: take precedence.
[SPEAKER_00]: It's God that takes precedence.
[SPEAKER_00]: Jen Wilkin puts it this way.
[SPEAKER_00]: She says, when we see God as He is, we see ourselves as we are.
[SPEAKER_00]: His holy standard, His perfection, makes our own imperfection, staggeringly clear.
[SPEAKER_00]: I think this is why God puts this prayer right up front.
[SPEAKER_00]: So, God does this hellowing work.
[SPEAKER_00]: And this is what we're asking him to do.
[SPEAKER_00]: Reveal yourself, God.
[SPEAKER_00]: But as we pray this prayer, I think it should be asking us a question as well.
[SPEAKER_00]: And this is what I want us to reflect on for the rest of tonight.
[SPEAKER_00]: If you are going to ask God, let your character be revealed.
[SPEAKER_00]: Will you reveal yourself,
[SPEAKER_00]: If we are going to ask God, can you please let yourself be known to me and to my world?
[SPEAKER_00]: The obvious follow-up question should be, I think, am I participating in the thing I'm asking God to do?
[SPEAKER_00]: God reveal yourself, let yourself be known.
[SPEAKER_00]: If I pray that, but I'm not living a life that actually participates in Halloween God's name, I don't think I'm being that authentic.
[SPEAKER_00]: Here's the thing, God is the one who makes his name known.
[SPEAKER_00]: We can't do it.
[SPEAKER_00]: We can kind of participate in that, but we can't do it.
[SPEAKER_00]: But when we lead lives in the ordinary everyday of our existence, we can participate in the Halloween of his name.
[SPEAKER_00]: We can participate in the revealing of who he is.
[SPEAKER_00]: by the way we speak, by the way we treat people, by the way we act.
[SPEAKER_00]: These things that we do all day, every day, participate either in revealing God's character or getting in the way of obscuring God's character.
[SPEAKER_00]: I guess what I'm asking is, are we praying this prayer authentically or not?
[SPEAKER_00]: To help us unpack this a little bit, I want to talk about two Jewish concepts.
[SPEAKER_00]: And these are concepts that go right back to the time of Jesus.
[SPEAKER_00]: Jesus was a Jewish man and the rabbis of Jesus day would talk about these two concepts.
[SPEAKER_00]: The first one is Kudush Hashem.
[SPEAKER_00]: which means sanctifying the name.
[SPEAKER_00]: And the Jewish rabbis would teach that everything we do can do this.
[SPEAKER_00]: The things we do all day, every day, can sanctify the name of God.
[SPEAKER_00]: We can participate in hellowing his name in the things that we do, the way we talk to people.
[SPEAKER_00]: We can reveal something of God's character.
[SPEAKER_00]: The way we spend our money, can reveal something about God's character.
[SPEAKER_00]: And on the other side of things, there's this other concept which is called Chalal Hashem which means profaning the name.
[SPEAKER_00]: And in the same way that our actions can reveal something about God, we can also do things that do the opposite of reveal who God is.
[SPEAKER_00]: That can make people misunderstand God or turn away from Him or think less of Him.
[SPEAKER_00]: And these things that we do aren't just the big things in our life, they're the ordinary everyday things, the way we treat our workmates or schoolmates, the way we spend our money, the choices we make and how we spend our time.
[SPEAKER_00]: The things we get fired up about and take a stand on.
[SPEAKER_00]: All of these things can make God visible in our world, or can obscure people from seeing who God is.
[SPEAKER_00]: So I want to ask you a question tonight before we go any further.
[SPEAKER_00]: And I'm asking those of you who follow Jesus this question.
[SPEAKER_00]: I want you to think about the people in your life who don't share your faith.
[SPEAKER_00]: Your neighbors, your schoolmates, your workmates, family members, perhaps your neighbors.
[SPEAKER_00]: People who know you and know you have a faith.
[SPEAKER_00]: The question I've got for you is, what conclusions are they drawing about God from watching your life?
[SPEAKER_00]: It's a pretty confronting question, but I want to lean into the uncomfortability of that question for a bit.
[SPEAKER_00]: What conclusions are those people in your life drawing about God from watching how you live?
[SPEAKER_00]: Not just from your best and worst moments, but from the everyday texture of how you live your life.
[SPEAKER_00]: What are they learning about God by the way you treat people?
[SPEAKER_00]: By the way, you handle stress.
[SPEAKER_00]: By the way, you speak to people, the words that come out of your mouth.
[SPEAKER_00]: Whether you keep your word, whether you're generous, whether you're kind,
[SPEAKER_00]: I'm not asking this question to make you feel guilty tonight.
[SPEAKER_00]: I'm asking the question because I think that if we are going to pray this prayer, we should be willing to ask this question as well.
[SPEAKER_00]: If we're going to say, God, revoke yourself.
[SPEAKER_00]: We need to be asking the question, what am I revealing of God, by the way, I live?
[SPEAKER_00]: Because to pray, God reveal yourself on one hand and then on the other hand, to live a life that obscures who God is, isn't authentic.
[SPEAKER_00]: It's actually hypocrisy.
[SPEAKER_00]: Now, if you're feeling a bit uncomfortable right now, you're not the only one I am to.
[SPEAKER_00]: I think we should be feeling a bit uncomfortable by this, because the standard of Cadush Hashem is really high.
[SPEAKER_00]: And there's only one person who's fully lived a life that embodied it, and that person is Jesus.
[SPEAKER_00]: From the very start to the very end of his life, he hellowed God's name.
[SPEAKER_00]: And we see him doing it in the interactions he has with people in his teaching.
[SPEAKER_00]: The whole sermon on the Mount is really about Halloween God's name.
[SPEAKER_00]: And we see it in his prayers.
[SPEAKER_00]: In this prayer that he taught us to pray and the prayers that we have recorded that he prayed.
[SPEAKER_00]: So, for example, in John 17, he prays this whole chapter of prayer.
[SPEAKER_00]: Some scholars call it the other Lord's prayer because it's Jesus actually praying.
[SPEAKER_00]: And he prays these words in that prayer.
[SPEAKER_00]: He says, I have made your name, the Father's name, known to those who gave me.
[SPEAKER_00]: I have made you known to them and I will continue to make you known.
[SPEAKER_00]: Jesus was all about making God known.
[SPEAKER_00]: Everything he did was about revealing something of the character of God.
[SPEAKER_00]: Jesus healed hundreds of people.
[SPEAKER_00]: And in doing so, he showed something about who God was.
[SPEAKER_00]: God has a heart for bringing wholeness into people's life,
[SPEAKER_00]: That's it, God's very essence.
[SPEAKER_00]: Jesus hellowed his name in that way.
[SPEAKER_00]: Jesus touched the lepers.
[SPEAKER_00]: He touched the bleeding woman.
[SPEAKER_00]: He touched the untouchable in that culture.
[SPEAKER_00]: This reveal something of who's God is, of what God's heart is.
[SPEAKER_00]: He was hellowing God's name in that way.
[SPEAKER_00]: Jesus welcomed outcasts hellowing God's name.
[SPEAKER_00]: He went with those who were grieving.
[SPEAKER_00]: revealing something of God's heart for those who are in grief.
[SPEAKER_00]: He overturned the tables in the temple where he saw injustice and greed, showing something of God's heart.
[SPEAKER_00]: He spoke truth to power, no matter what the consequence.
[SPEAKER_00]: that revealed something of the Father's heart.
[SPEAKER_00]: That was Halloween God's name.
[SPEAKER_00]: He ate with the tax collectors and the sinners and the prostitutes.
[SPEAKER_00]: He forgave the sinners.
[SPEAKER_00]: revealing something of the heart of the Father.
[SPEAKER_00]: And we could go on and on.
[SPEAKER_00]: You read through any of the Gospel's time and time again, you see Jesus actions and each one of them reveals something of His Father's heart.
[SPEAKER_00]: That's Him halowing the Father's name.
[SPEAKER_00]: Darrell Johnson puts it this way.
[SPEAKER_00]: He says, the one who teaches us to pray so boldly is Himself the answer to the prayer.
[SPEAKER_00]: In Jesus, the Father's name is finally and fully hallowed.
[SPEAKER_00]: Sit with that for a moment.
[SPEAKER_00]: The one who teaches us to pray, hallowed be your name is the one who answers the prayer.
[SPEAKER_00]: And he doesn't just do it and then just leaves.
[SPEAKER_00]: He actually invites us to participate in what he was all about.
[SPEAKER_00]: He says, I am the light of the world.
[SPEAKER_00]: And then he says, you are the light of the world.
[SPEAKER_00]: He invites you into this Halloween that he was on about.
[SPEAKER_00]: The whole sermon on the Mount really is about this.
[SPEAKER_00]: So for example, in chapter five of Matthew verse 16, we see these words, just a few verses before the prayer that we're thinking about tonight.
[SPEAKER_00]: Jesus says, let your light shine before others.
[SPEAKER_00]: That they may see your good deeds
[SPEAKER_00]: This is Jesus putting cadush Hashim into his own words.
[SPEAKER_00]: This is Jesus saying the way my followers live should cause the world that is watching them to think well of God.
[SPEAKER_00]: And of course, he had a lot to say when he saw the opposite happening as well.
[SPEAKER_00]: Jesus had a lot to say when he saw hypocrisy.
[SPEAKER_00]: Particularly when he saw the religious who professed one thing with their lips and then lived another way.
[SPEAKER_00]: He always called that out.
[SPEAKER_00]: And so tonight as some of us perhaps are feeling a bit uncomfortable and noticing the gap between what we say and what we do, maybe that's Jesus actually pointing our attention onto the things that he sees as inauthentic in our faith.
[SPEAKER_00]: This gap between what we say we believe and the way we live our life is right throughout Scripture, time and time again that's talked about.
[SPEAKER_00]: One of the places that we see most obviously is in the prophetic writings in the Old Testament.
[SPEAKER_00]: If you want to look at one book that really has it clearly, go to Amos, write in the Old Testament there.
[SPEAKER_00]: We don't quoted a lot in church, but Amos is a prophet who writes to a people who are very religious in that the way they practice their faith.
[SPEAKER_00]: They're showing up to the sanctuary to worship regularly.
[SPEAKER_00]: They outwardly, they seem to be doing the right thing.
[SPEAKER_00]: They're going through all the motions of worship, and yet God looks at their worship, and He describes it, and He says, I despise your worship.
[SPEAKER_00]: Wow, God says He despises their worship.
[SPEAKER_00]: Why is He despising their worship?
[SPEAKER_00]: It's because when they're not in the sanctuary, they're trampling on the poor.
[SPEAKER_00]: They're ignoring the vulnerable and afflicted.
[SPEAKER_00]: They're exploiting others for their own gain.
[SPEAKER_00]: And in doing so, Amos says you are profaning God's name.
[SPEAKER_00]: Not because you've stopped believing, not because you've stopped worshiping, but by the way you are living.
[SPEAKER_00]: Because the way you are living is making God look like, someone who doesn't care about the poor.
[SPEAKER_00]: The way you are living makes it look like, it doesn't matter how you treat other people.
[SPEAKER_00]: The way you are living is making God look like someone who can be worshiped on Sunday and ignored on Monday.
[SPEAKER_00]: That's confronting.
[SPEAKER_00]: That should be confronting.
[SPEAKER_00]: for any church or any community that takes worship seriously.
[SPEAKER_00]: You know, what we did tonight is beautiful.
[SPEAKER_00]: I looked around at you and your worshiping God, and that's amazing.
[SPEAKER_00]: But it doesn't mean anything.
[SPEAKER_00]: If tomorrow you're living a life that doesn't match the cry of your heart tonight.
[SPEAKER_00]: God wants to close that gap.
[SPEAKER_00]: Paul picks up this same thread in Romans.
[SPEAKER_00]: He calls out the religious leaders for preaching one thing and living another.
[SPEAKER_00]: And he says it really bluntly, he said, God is being blasphemed because of you.
[SPEAKER_00]: Not because of your words, but because of your lives.
[SPEAKER_00]: So, it's a nice light.
[SPEAKER_00]: So, man, tonight isn't it?
[SPEAKER_00]: I came across this story this week from a pastor, New Zealand pastor, I never heard him before, but I came across this story, he wrote, his name is Jeff New, and he wrote about a time in a workplace.
[SPEAKER_00]: He was working in a secular workplace with people who didn't share his faith, and he got to know the people in this workplace really well, and there's one particular colleague that he was getting to know very well, and he asked her a very bold question one day.
[SPEAKER_00]: And he said to her, what is it about my faith in Jesus that most appeals to you?
[SPEAKER_00]: Good question.
[SPEAKER_00]: And then he added to it and he said, and what most repels you about my faith?
[SPEAKER_00]: A day you are to ask that to someone this week.
[SPEAKER_00]: And his colleague thought about it for a while.
[SPEAKER_00]: She was very thoughtful in the way she responded.
[SPEAKER_00]: And she said, what appeals to me about your faith, the most?
[SPEAKER_00]: Is that you are here?
[SPEAKER_00]: You're joining in.
[SPEAKER_00]: You're inclusive.
[SPEAKER_00]: You're talk to us.
[SPEAKER_00]: You care for us.
[SPEAKER_00]: And then she added to it.
[SPEAKER_00]: She said, what repels me most about your faith is your silence.
[SPEAKER_00]: You said there are times in our workplace where an injustice happens when there's bullying or someone is put to the outside and you are silent.
[SPEAKER_00]: There are times in our world where people are talking about injustice in the world and I expect that you as a Christian would speak up, but you don't say anything, you're silent.
[SPEAKER_00]: And Jeff knew, as he reflected on this said, he was deeply convicted by what she said.
[SPEAKER_00]: And he realized that it wasn't just the things he did and the things he said that could potentially profane God's name, but it was actually his inaction and his silence as well.
[SPEAKER_00]: What he realized is that he was more worried about his reputation
[SPEAKER_00]: And by doing so, he was actually impacting the reputation of God through his inaction.
[SPEAKER_00]: So, the challenge I guess for me and for you is to think about those moments in our life and how we can close the gap between what we say we believe and what we actually the way we live our life.
[SPEAKER_00]: in the world that we go into tomorrow.
[SPEAKER_00]: By the way, we talk to people, the way we talk about people when they're not in the room, through our generosity, throughout kindness and thoughtfulness, in the way we respond to the needs we see and the injustices that are around us.
[SPEAKER_00]: The way we respond to people's problems and grief,
[SPEAKER_00]: When we pray, hello to your name, we're praying something that should also cause us to reflect on how we participate in hellowing his name.
[SPEAKER_00]: We're not just praying, God reveal yourself, we're inviting him to search us and to draw us into the process of revealing his name.
[SPEAKER_00]: So I want to finish tonight by getting a little bit practical with you.
[SPEAKER_00]: I want to give you something really simple that you can do tomorrow to enter into this idea.
[SPEAKER_00]: And it's something that all of us can do, whether we are long-term Christians or whether we're just exploring faith.
[SPEAKER_00]: Maybe you're here tonight for the very first time.
[SPEAKER_00]: This is your first time in church.
[SPEAKER_00]: This is something you can do and something I can do.
[SPEAKER_00]: and to pray the prayer we've been talking about tonight, to pray the prayer, hello, be your name.
[SPEAKER_00]: God, will you reveal yourself today?
[SPEAKER_00]: Will you reveal who you are to me and in the world that I go into today?
[SPEAKER_00]: Will you show me more about your character?
[SPEAKER_00]: Will you show me more about what you care about?
[SPEAKER_00]: where you show me, where your heart breaks, where you show me who you are.
[SPEAKER_00]: That prayer doesn't require that you have it all together.
[SPEAKER_00]: That prayer doesn't mean that you have certainty about everything when it comes to God.
[SPEAKER_00]: It just requires an honest call, a pleading out to God.
[SPEAKER_00]: My experience is when we pray this type of prayer God shows up in surprising ways.
[SPEAKER_00]: And so I want to encourage you to pray this prayer tomorrow, and on Tuesday, and throughout this week.
[SPEAKER_00]: And if you're a follower of Jesus, I want to encourage you to do one more thing.
[SPEAKER_00]: And you might want to do this at the end of the day.
[SPEAKER_00]: Pray, hello, be your name, at the star of the day.
[SPEAKER_00]: And at the end of the day, spend a couple of minutes before you go to bed, and ask yourself the question, where did I hello God's name today?
[SPEAKER_00]: Where did I participate in the Halloween of God's name?
[SPEAKER_00]: And if you're brave, ask yourself where did I obscure it?
[SPEAKER_00]: Where did I profane God's name today?
[SPEAKER_00]: I don't want you to ask these questions to condemn yourself, but just to be a bit more intentional about noticing.
[SPEAKER_00]: develop a habit of noticing what's going on in your life.
[SPEAKER_00]: And when you do begin to ask these questions, you will begin to notice that all day, every day, you have opportunity to point to God.
[SPEAKER_00]: And it may not even be by saying anything about God explicitly, but in the conversations you have, you can reveal something of God.
[SPEAKER_00]: in the trip you make down to the shops and the interactions you have with the checkout person.
[SPEAKER_00]: You have the opportunity to reveal something about God.
[SPEAKER_00]: When you go to work or school, you have opportunities to show the world who God is, but noticing these things is half the battle.
[SPEAKER_00]: You can't change something in your life that you don't notice.
[SPEAKER_00]: And so develop the habit of asking
[SPEAKER_00]: Now I want to finish with one last passage and it's from Ezekiel, it's another prophet in the Old Testament.
[SPEAKER_00]: And in Ezekiel we actually find similar to Amos, that Ezekiel is calling out the people of God.
[SPEAKER_00]: So the people of God in Ezekiel 36 have really been stuffing it up.
[SPEAKER_00]: They have been really profaning the name of God, time and time again, really badly.
[SPEAKER_00]: They're sin, they're idolatry, they've been living in just ways, they've been unfaithful to God, time and time again.
[SPEAKER_00]: And they've caused the nations around them to draw conclusions about God, that are just not true.
[SPEAKER_00]: They've left stuff up and God responds to this situation.
[SPEAKER_00]: And he doesn't in a really extraordinary way.
[SPEAKER_00]: He doesn't say to the people, clean up your act.
[SPEAKER_00]: He doesn't say to the people, fix it, restore my reputation.
[SPEAKER_00]: This is what he says.
[SPEAKER_00]: Verse 22, therefore, say to the Israelites, this is what the sovereign Lord says.
[SPEAKER_00]: It's not for your sake, people of Israel, that I'm going to do these things, but for the sake of my holy name, which you have profane among the nations, where you have gone.
[SPEAKER_00]: I will show the holiness of my great name, which has been profane among the nations, the name you have profane among them.
[SPEAKER_00]: Then the nations will know that I am the Lord declares the sovereign Lord.
[SPEAKER_00]: When I am proved holy through you before their eyes, for I will take you out of the nations, I will gather you from all the countries and bring you back to your own land, and I will sprinkle clean water on you.
[SPEAKER_00]: And you will be clean.
[SPEAKER_00]: I will cleanse you from all your impurities and from your idols.
[SPEAKER_00]: I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit in you.
[SPEAKER_00]: I will remove from you your heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh and I will put my spirit in you and move you to follow my decrees and be careful to keep my love us.
[SPEAKER_00]: and then the nations around you that remain will know that I, the Lord, have rebuilt what was destroyed and have replanted what was desolate, I, the Lord have spoken and I will do it.
[SPEAKER_00]: God looks at these people who have profaned his name.
[SPEAKER_00]: who have obscured who he is, have distorted his reputation, who have failed in every way possible to hellow what he's called unto hellow, and he says, I'll fix it.
[SPEAKER_00]: And he does it not by abandoning the ones who've profaned his name, but by transforming them.
[SPEAKER_00]: And he gives them a new heart and a new spirit.
[SPEAKER_00]: and he hellows his own name by transforming them.
[SPEAKER_00]: The way God can be revealed the best in our world is by transforming people, by transforming you.
[SPEAKER_00]: What better testimony is there than someone who was an angry, bitter person becoming a kind and generous person.
[SPEAKER_00]: That reveals something of who God is.
[SPEAKER_00]: That's what God wants to do for us.
[SPEAKER_00]: And so tonight, if you're feeling a bit uncomfortable and noticing the gap between what you say you believe and how you live your life, I don't believe that is God standing over you and saying fix it.
[SPEAKER_00]: I don't believe that is God standing over you and saying, get your act together.
[SPEAKER_00]: I believe that that is Jesus standing next to you and saying, let me transform you.
[SPEAKER_00]: Let me change you, let me bring healing into your life.
[SPEAKER_00]: That is Jesus saying, I've already done it.
[SPEAKER_00]: Now let me do it in you.
[SPEAKER_00]: So before we rush back into our week, I want to encourage you just to stop for a moment, maybe just close your eyes, take a deep breath in.
[SPEAKER_00]: And know that you are in the presence of Jesus as we pray that the start.
[SPEAKER_00]: We're two or three,
[SPEAKER_00]: is with us, is not standing over you, is not condemning you, is inviting you to come close to let him in, and to begin a work of transformation in you.
[SPEAKER_00]: Father in heaven, we want to ask that your name would be hellowed.
[SPEAKER_00]: We want to ask boldly that you would reveal yourself to us tonight.
[SPEAKER_00]: We pray that you would make yourself known.
[SPEAKER_00]: We claim that that is what you want.
[SPEAKER_00]: Would you show us something of your character, your essence, your heart, as individuals help us to see you, as a community of faith, help us to see you.
[SPEAKER_00]: God, we are bold enough to ask that you would make yourself known in our world as well.
[SPEAKER_00]: Our world, who is so desperately needs you right now.
[SPEAKER_00]: Will you reveal yourself where you make yourself visible?
[SPEAKER_00]: And as we pray, the words, hello, but your name, we ask that you would help us to notice the opportunities that we have to participate in that.
[SPEAKER_00]: This week would you help us to let our light shine in a way that others see you, others know you, and that you are glorified.
[SPEAKER_00]: God, we confess that there are times where our lives have obscured you rather than reveal you, where there's been a gap between what we've said and prayed and the way we've lived.
[SPEAKER_00]: where we've carried your name carelessly and a profane your name, both through our actions and inactions, our words and our silences.
[SPEAKER_00]: If been times where our lives just don't match up with this prayer that we're praying tonight.
[SPEAKER_00]: We work in us to bring about a transformation in our lives.
[SPEAKER_00]: That changes this, that makes your character visible in our lives.
[SPEAKER_00]: Transformers give us a new heart and you spirit.
[SPEAKER_00]: You know, make our heart of stone into a heart of flesh.
[SPEAKER_00]: Bring about a healing and a transformation in us as individuals, but also as a community.
[SPEAKER_00]: so that the world who is watching might look at us and catch a glimpse of you.
[SPEAKER_00]: Hello, be your name.
[SPEAKER_00]: I'm in.
[SPEAKER_00]: going to sing a song now about Jesus and about the transforming work that he does and wants to do.
[SPEAKER_00]: And I just want to encourage you as, as we sing this, if you've been feeling that God's been kind of stirring something up with you, just to sit with Him and to do business with Him and to respond to Him.
[SPEAKER_00]: And, yeah, I just, I believe He wants to bring some healing and transformation in the room tonight.
[SPEAKER_00]: So just spend some time responding to Him as we