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00:00:00 today's passage is taken from the gospel of Matthew chapter 6: 1-1 15 Matthew chapter 6: 1 to 15 be careful not to do your acts of righteousness before men to be seen by them if you do you will have no reward from your father in Heaven so when you gift to the needy Do not announce it with trumpets as the Hypocrites do in the synagogues and on the streets to be honored by men I tell you the truth they have received their reward in full but when you give to the needy do not let your left hand know
00:00:44 what your right hand is doing so that your giving may be in secret then your father who sees what is done in secret will reward you and when you pray do not be like the Hypocrites for they love to to pray standing in the synagogues and on the street corners to be seen by men I tell you the truth they have received their reward in full but when you pray go into your room close the door and pray to your father who is unseen then your father who sees what is done in secret will reward you and when
00:01:26 you pray do not keep on babbling like pagans for they think they will be heard because of their many words do not be like them for your father knows what you need before you ask him this then is how you should pray Our Father in heaven Hallowed Be Your Name Your Kingdom Come your will be done on Earth as it is in heaven give us today our daily bread forgive us our debts as we have also forgiven our debtors and lead us not into temptation but Deliver Us from the evil one for if you forgive men when they sin against you
00:02:10 your heavenly father will also forgive you but if you do not forgive men their sins your father will not forgive you your sins this is the word of God well good morning church so um we're starting off a miniseries on the Lord's Prayer there'll be three parts I'm doing number one and then next week will be William ya on the kingdom come thy will be done and after that uh John Lee will take the rest of the uh prayer so that we will be uh really informed as to what the Lord's Prayer is about which has actually been quite
00:02:59 abused uh just one announcement for myself uh next week on a Sunday on the 28th of January we will be having a cancer support group uh 1:20 after the second service I suggest you go for the second service we'll have lunch at the globe Cafe and and the aim of this group is to bring together people who are you see a whole bunch of names right you don't actually have faces to them and often people with cancer go through the illness alone and it's so important that they not feel alone and if you find that that
00:03:38 is a place that you want to be just come you don't have to have cancer I mean everybody walked through the glob Cafe got cancer you you can be a spouse a support Giver a friend so that that Sunday you could come and lay hands on that person to pray for the person and they can share their struggles uh with you so please remember cancer support group you are coming just let the office know so that we can cater to you right so we're going to start off the Lord's Prayer our theme for the year is the
00:04:08 gospel in all of life and with everything as U Samantha actually said begins with prayer so it's appropriate that we start our year off looking at the Lord's Prayer let's pray father Lord we ask that you speak to us from your word today this precious prayer that has transformed the church and transformed our community help us to revisit this again that we may truly understand it and use it in lives in our lives for us for Jesus sake amen now we're all not we're not unfamiliar with prayer everywhere you go
00:04:50 people are religious I remember this is a picture taken from Tokyo uh when and and if you go to Tokyo any Japanese City you will find and temples everywhere they're very religious and this is they don't have prayer meeting but they got prayer cards so you actually have to what pay 500 yen and then hang it around and and they're all interesting prayers I wish for my family to have good health Prosperity peace of mind I like this one I hope for a society where we don't all age age is no longer something that
00:05:25 changes us physically a world where life on Earth is eternal I hope to go to cat heaven when I die I'm fairly sure God is a cat I will continue to worship cats here on Earth it gets a bit weird after a while right then there's others who you go and they don't bother to actually say very much they have this prayer you know thing where you swing around the more you swing around the more prayer is offered and if you ever been to a non-Christian or a um funeral you'll find that the Buddhist mons and all that
00:06:01 they are all chanting prayers on behalf of the dead and today is so sophisticated when I went to my uncle's uh funeral they actually put on the tape recorder D and that could go 24/7 right they called pray unceasingly isn't it so that would be quite useful uh I was brought up in the Catholic background and right from the GetGo as a young child I was taught to pray the rosary and the Our father is in the red beads so you don't pray that often the rest of it is the Hail Mary so you know where the emphasis of the church is is
00:06:34 actually Mary rather than our father and the worst thing that I had in my life was where I had to go for confession and the punishment or or the Contrition you have to show is that I could have pray how many Hail Mary and how many our father so when it comes to the red beat my my face dropped down because very long prayer isn't it the Mary prayer is a lot faster so I grew up thinking the Lord's Prayer is punishment the more I see the more Our Father are could to say and that is a total misrepresentation of
00:07:05 the Lord's Prayer Martin Luther was having a his beard cut by his by his uh they don't call headdress in those days Barber right as a knife was going there um he the Baba asked him you know how do pray and he actually wrote a short prayer book on how to pray and the comment at the end was very interesting for us till this day say I suckle at the Lord's Prayer as a child as an old man eat and drink from it but it is never I can never get my fill and that's how beautiful and how deep The Lord's Prayer is as a child or
00:07:47 as an old man you will never get enough of that and the context of the Lord's Prayer is that Jesus was praying and the disciples actually came up to him and said teach us to pray and this is the only time where actually Jesus took time to actually teach the disciples how to pray if you look at Jesus he prays all the time alone in the mornings and all the references there and they're wondering where did the master go and he went off to pray and they must have wondered he could do Miracles he could
00:08:22 live this sort of spotless life what was behind it it was prayer and they came up to him and said look please if that's a secret of your life teach us how to pray and if you look at the book of Acts all great events that actually populate the book of Acts by Dr Luke was every single time preceded by prayer prayer in the upper room before the Holy Spirit descends daily prayer praising God by the church prayer during the first persecution the choosing of seven deacons Peter is in prison and they prayed and he was released setting apart
00:08:56 of Paul and Barnabas every single significant event of the church is preceded by prayer so we're looking at the Lord's Prayer as a model prayer for us and if you look here the structure the first half deals with God and the second half deals with our needs as it were but there are five petitions Our Father heaven Hallowed Be Your Name the second is your kingdom come your will be done third one is our daily bread fourth one forgive us our debts and last one is is not in temptation but Deliver Us from
00:09:32 Evil there are five petitions okay and the prayer is actually not to be recited the prayer is like a template of how your life should go and each aspect needs to be meditated upon rather than just reciting it over and over again until until it becomes a mantra it is not a mantra before we go into it my question number one is why pray you say when you pray don't Heap empty phrases as the Gentiles do they think they will be heard for many words do not be like them your father knows what you need before
00:10:11 you ask my question to you if he knows what for we pray wasting time really but I already know whether I'll be healed or not healed he already determine so I'm wasting my time and I'm sure to be if you're honest with me with yourselves you will ask this question why now the world view of Prayer is important you can have a fatalistic worldview where whatever we do our choices don't really matter they don't affect the future God is going to do what's God going to do so therefore why pray actually then you
00:10:42 shouldn't pray the other idea is what the Bible tells us that God has determined all events and the means to these events is through prayer every single event in this church that is going to be of any consequence or in your life is preceded by prayer and that prayer is part of God's plan we asked to commanded to pray Paul says pray at all times unceasingly isn't it prayer and supplication and it's a privilege Esther when confronted with this risky move to approach the king to save the Jewish people wanted to keep quiet and Mori
00:11:28 said to her if you keep silent from this time relief and deliverance will rise from the Jews from another place but you and your family father's house will perish who knows whether you have not come to the kingdom for such a time as this so the privilege of prayer is that we are asked by God to stand in the Gap to be the means through which he works out his salvation to the world and if you won't pray and if you won't act God is Not powerless his will will still be be done but through somebody else so
00:12:04 prayer is actually a privilege an opportunity where we work hand inand with God the second thing about prayer is prayer is about spiritual transformation when you actually come before God In Prayer suddenly everything is reset to zero you see who you actually are Imagine uh you know we have a national nationally well-known violinist called Joan yo right and my son used to be playing the guitar here and you know how great a musician she is and when he plays and he's off and all that he's so terrified
00:12:48 with joanel looks at him and gives him the death St then he realizes oh messed up when you actually come before if you're a violinist and you come before somebody who is super at it actually you know your place we are all to a certain extent is it delusional we walk through life on our own merits why is the last time put your hands up to be honest you prayed give us this day my daily bread Put Your Hands Up N why because you got bank account you got Touch and Go card you don't wake up every morning wondering where my next
00:13:33 meal is right and because of that you don't seem that you need to pray that was not on the top of your Demand on your demand list probably the top of demand list is I want promotion you see I mean so therefore we come to the world full of ourselves but when we come in prayer suddenly we're confronted with the almighty God and we realize who we actually are we are all delusional prayer gives us a true sense of who we are and what you love look back into your own lives and every time you pray what is the prayer about your
00:14:10 promotion your children your family your money your business not wrong but that is not a priority prayer reflects what you love and only you can change what you love through prayer through the knowing of God prayer like everything else in Christian Life is through God's glory glory and for our benefit Our Father Who Art in Heaven the first thing that hits us it's our father you don't pray my father not yours my father it is Corporate we always work together Christ body is every single one of us and the father is so important you
00:14:51 can find that the Jewish people never say our father in fact God's name is so holy they don't even utter it and for Jesus to come and if you look at Jesus prayer every single time except one when he recorded in the gospels he always praise our father you don't understand we don't understand the tremendous PR when you go into somewhere all right the relationship determines everything and do you know that this is the whole purpose of life even as he chose us before the foundation of the world that
00:15:26 we should be holy and blameless before him in love he predestines as adoption to themselves as Sons through Jesus Christ do you know you know the whole purpose of life is that we be God's adopted sons that gives us dignity that gives us a purpose in life J Packer wrote that famous book knowing god and he writes if you want to judge how well a person understands Christianity find out how he how much he makes of the thought of being God's child and having God at his father if this is not the thought that prompts and controls his
00:16:06 worship and prayers and his whole outlook in life it means he does not really understand Christianity very well at all our calling our purpose our desire is that we are sons of God including the ladies sons and hes so this Cornerstone of our life is the fact that we have a father son relationship and that there governs our response to God our why we can pray petition worship lifestyle Joy ambition I remember the Charles Dickens famous uh uh book Oliver Twist made into a film and Oliver Twist was uh uh part of a gang of Orphans who
00:16:48 were really on the streets who lived uh to basically beg and steal money for their owner and one day they were all starving and one day they ganged up and said we choose somebody to ask for second helpings so the the dive fell on Oliver and he actually came up and this famous scene on the movie you can see please sir I want some more and you can imagine the look in the Master's face you cannot ask for more all hell broke loose after that why because there's no relationship imagine if any of you comes
00:17:27 out tomorrow and says to y oh I like your house B I think you better go out I I'll come and can I stay with you no first thing he says is no I why I love your car you know I always REM of his car when I look longingly at his car can I take it for a spinner it is your relationship that determines your requ Quest whether it be given or not given and the Cornerstone of why we can pray you see that's why we we got this acumenical movement where all the religions get together and pray to me there's a problem because
00:18:14 they cannot call god father they don't have the local standard to stand before God and ask anything at all because they are not sons in fact we are so encouraged that if you look at the parable here Jesus says I tell you that although this person would not get up and give him anything because he's his friend he's talking about prayer yet because of his imprudence which is basically Shameless persistence if you are a son you can shamelessly pull on God's hem and say please father I need this I'm desperate
00:18:50 for this you go to Wong's house and then pull on his Hem of His clothing I need this he may not answer you because you don't have a right you do have a right if you're a Son of God and and because you are Sons God sent his Spirit of son into our hearts crying ABA father so you're no longer a slave but a son and if a son not only a son an air and you know what an air does he was crucified and the words it says ABA father it's Aramaic translation not P which basically in Greek all things are possible for you remove this cup yet not
00:19:29 what I will but what you will it is a very intimate term and it the same term that we actually get to use for you did not receive the spirit of Slavery to fall back into fear but you have received the spirit of adoption the sons by whom we cry our do you imag can you imagine we use the same intimate word for father as Jesus actually did John 17 in I in them and you in me Jesus prays that they may become perfectly one so that the world may know that you sent me and love them even as you love me which means there is some
00:20:13 equivalency between me we are drawn into that intimate Circle that existed in eternity past of that relationship between Father Son and Holy Spirit we are now drawn into that which is the purpose of his creation of us so we have intimacy we have covenantal obligations of God to us and us to him we have standing we have nourishment we have protection we have commitment from the father right so if given all this why aren't many of you too keen on the prayer meeting or even our own prayer I mean it's something I
00:20:52 struggle with after so many years as a Believer and I suggest this problem goes back to how we have been brought up perhaps in the Chinese background you're brought up to think your father looks like this I don't know I I always thought my father looked like justice pow minus the long beard because he's he's all important he's distant and whenever I got good marks he smiles or barely a bit of a crack in his lips right bad marks the cane comes out now is child abuse for me bad mark means can until I
00:21:32 actually was bruised so for a long time I actually struggled with the father is a bad word and when he died I was actually quite happy he died yes it's a fact it so affected my psyche that to this day I rebel against all sorts of uh authoritarian figures and I have my selfworth and acceptance is based on what whether go a or not right so therefore my performance is Paramount to my relationship with God and so therefore you look at this picture that Michel Angelo uh uh paints look at his God's you think that's a
00:22:08 friendly face doesn't look like Santa Claus but it looks like a very intense look uh God we admire him from far we cannot experience Intimacy in a heart to heart we actually fear Him and if you actually fear God like that eventually like my father you will get to hate him right because scared here they not say anything because he might strike me dead and of we have that kind of response to our father Our Father very difficult for me to pray our father and so we try so hard to reach him if you look at Greece
00:22:44 uh this little island or Peninsula there's a whole bunch of uh monks there who live is Mount Athos it is a monastery waiting list to go there is like decades to for you to go and people there are monks and what they do is they read the Bible and the first thing they do every single morning is have a worship service you for you guys what one half hours complain too long right they have a worship session every day for8 hours every single day of the week because their God is so distant they got to keep on praying keep on doing so that
00:23:25 they can draw closer and closer to God and even when they die they buried in that particular place because their God seems so distant that they have to do so many of these things in order to feel close to him see we we either the basis of being heard is actually because your family or because you perform all right and so therefore that is the basis of prayer if you look here the the pagans pray with many words because they feel that the words will show how righteous they are and then they will will be heard by God if you
00:24:00 look in this Japanese Temple you can have various prayer requests and there are various price 1,000 yen 500 yen you one wife maybe 5,000 yen and the other ones is this a question that some of us don't have fathers they absent dads the story was told uh of a fisherman on a boat a man was there with his friends and they got into a storm and the storm threatened to capsize the whole boat and nobody in that boat were Believers in God except one and he was the captain and they came up to him and say look you know we're
00:24:40 going to drown this is our boat is going to capsize can you do something said what do you to do you Christian isn't it you you you know God right so I think that's our last hope you better pray so look I haven't prayed to God in 15 years 15 years I barely know the guy said never mind better than us we don't even know him at all right and then he prayed said God you know where in deep for the time being now we're in deep trouble I know I haven't talked to you in 15 years but if there only one request in my life I give please save us
00:25:16 in the next 15 years I won't talk to you anymore I won't bother you anymore you just like like you know God is so distant and and sometimes we actually have a relationship with God like that you know U you know the story Hosea is such a touching story right and if you go in Netflix today I was watching movie there and and that movie is entitled redeeming Love written by Francine Rivers bestselling Christian author from the US and she took the Hosea story and made it into a uh uh Cowboy uh film and during cowboy
00:25:55 film there was a man and his name is called mik Hosea and he rescues a prostitute called Angel which is shown in this picture here and then as she tries to show her love and and help her teach the read the Bible like Hosea and GMA the interesting think about this particular film was that Angels approach to God Hosea saves her does everything for her and she still goes back to prostitution and then the a seminal moment in the film was that why you know why can't you love God and she turns to him and says you know I was sold as a
00:26:38 prostitute when I was a child I have a thousand men take advantage of me and every time that happens I can scream out I know who's crushing me with his foot God see when you read this Hosea story very nice isn't it from outside he going to save the woman but if you approach it from the woman's point of view she's been treated as a slave and every time she wants salvation she cries out and she was rebuffed it's difficult isn't it and prayer is like that I remember I've told this story before when I was a young
00:27:18 House of uh medical officer in EO I had a very difficult case which we took on in the middle of the night and operating on him and on her with a lady and trying to divide all the things that got the bowel stuck together and I remember it was such a difficult case I've been praying throughout the case and every single minute passed through and God did not answer my prayer and after the surgery he went I stood back and said what kind of God is this and I actually struggle with this and it affects the next time you try to
00:27:55 pray because he didn't answer as you thought he would you all of us approach God from different angles in life we have different experiences it's only looking back after years you can see the wisdom of what he does but at that moment of time it affects how we pray this another interesting uh uh couple from I think Canada called Tim Hit where dick hoit is the elderly man there this is his son uh and when when his son was young just born he had cerebral py and the doctors there told him this no need to take home
00:28:34 because if you take home he'll be invilit for the rest of his life it will never amount to anything best you just leave him with us we will institutionalize him and you will take him off your hands dick Hy did not believe that he took his son back his son is still disabled but his son looked at races and he wanted to be a full human being and to be able to run and feel the wind in his face and the joy of the crowds cheering so therefore he entered into a race the Boston Marathon look at him he doesn't run but his
00:29:15 father pushes him they've been to 1,000 races you know and he says this words Dad when I'm running it feels I'm not not disabled you see in a way that is like us we are sinful and disabled and God doesn't leave us in a nursing home and God takes us it gently pushes us and moves us that is the kind of God who will not give up on us prodigal son son is toxic rebellious ungrateful takes everything and leaves and when he comes to his senses his father felt compassion and he ran and embraced him and kissed him of who God
00:30:09 is when you say our father Isaiah says What God Says I spread out my hands all day to rebellious people who walk in a way that is not good following their own devices doesn't that sound like us where he spreads out his hands all day to every single one of us and we're just too busy we're just too uninterested we're just like that fisherman 15 years I haven't spoken to you God you know I only got a few favors left if you look at what God described himself I will not make them with them an everlasting I will make with them an
00:30:51 Everlasting Covenant I will not turn away from doing good to them I will put the fear of me in their hearts that they may not turn from me I will rejoice in doing them good here you have a father who is married his bound his heart to us and we are happy he's happy he is rejoicing to do us good oh how abundant is your goodness which you have stored up for those who fear you so many of you are ear working so hard why earning money so that your children can go overseas and study you're storing up everything for them for the next
00:31:29 generation and you know that's a picture of God how abundant is your goodness which you have stored up for us God has prepared for us Our Father Who Art in Heaven there's a difference between a human father and the father who is in heaven and this is Khloe Kim she won the gold medal uh snowboarding um some years ago and at his age young as what four five years old the father Korean chap had been taking her to the Snows and training her to be an Olympic champion all right and uh she finally won and one day he shared
00:32:11 every time she competes I was very stressed because everyone saying Khloe is going to win gold but no one knows the result I cannot control he almost like breaks down every time she she competes why because he has United his heart with his daughter whatever she falls and breaks her nose and injures herself all the ups and down he's there with her because he cannot control that's not the picture of God our Father who are in heaven heaven gives you this idea that your God is all powerful no matter what he's all loving
00:32:51 but he all powerful whatever trouble you're in whatever bruises you've sustained he is your father in Heaven and and you ought to be so proud of that because I am praying to a father who's got my back he's going to be with me throughout our father my father is King and he Romans says we know that for those who love God all things work together for those who are called according to his purpose second part of the sermon is about Hallowed be thy name it's not haral be your name some people pray it's hallowed okay now for many of
00:33:26 us admittedly prayer is like the view of the Sun and the Earth for many many years before Galileo for many many years we thought the Sun rotate around the earth everything revolves around us isn't it and if you actually be honest with your prayer it mainly has a perun oh Father in Heaven okay that's fine I done my bit the rest that's about me and that is a Temptation and you find in the Lord's Prayer it's completely different it doesn't revolve around us it revolves around him Our Father who went Heaven
00:34:06 the first petition is Hallowed be your name now we live in a world that's completely different there was a story told this is a true story out of Canada by uh uh called Charles price we knew of a woman there who was taking her son into the uh supermarket and as he going in the supermarket she told the three-year-old son we are not going to get chocolate chip cookies understand you go down go inside there don't ask the child says yes yes yes you know what child will say always say yes once inside the under around the
00:34:44 first aisle can I have chocolate cookies mom and obviously a a death's there and and then it stops right then going another round and the child sitting there Mom can I have chocolate chip cookies M stair no and finishing the whole round buying groceries the in the supermarket they come to the checkout counter and the boy realizes the game is up once you go to checkout counter that's it finished goodbye no more chocolate Chi chip cookies he stood up he said in the name of Jesus mother I want to have chocolate
00:35:26 chip cookies because he's probably come from the kind of church where they usually say in the name of Jesus using the name of Jesus and you know what happened the mother went home with 23 packets of chocolate chies why because everybody around so three-year-old standing up in the name of Jesus so they all bought but that kind of illustrates to us isn't it the kind of idea that we have of God the other aspect not the one that's distant and like justice power the had that a God is there to serve us
00:36:00 all we have to do is to get the correct words isn't it uh correct per words and I put my hand on you the power it's not different from Harry Potter you learn the correct words right of a magical spell and then you can control God and he can work for your purposes prayer is completely different it says Hallowed be thy name let's go through thy name the name of God is basically his Essence his character in fact for if you name somebody it's Authority look at Adam he gets to name all the animals why because he has
00:36:38 authority over them and the name describes the character and essence of people and I think that's more common for us Chinese folk all of you have Chinese names and Chinese names have meaning all right uh for examp and and if you name animals the same thing what do you think the name of this animal is anybody know huh it's armadillo okay but if you look here look at that what do you see hair isn't it so they call this a screaming hairy armad you wouldn't have guessed you were screaming and what about
00:37:18 this yeah it's it's a hummingbird but what kind look at his throat ruby throated hummingbird what about this one one or the dog lovers how many of you got one of these it's not Photoshop they call this the Chinese hairless crested BG why is it Chinese no [Laughter] hair all right so names describe people and you know uh and when Moses asked God what was your name who are you and God just said to to Moses I am who I am he's the source of all being inherent in himself everything is contingent him he's contingent of nobody
00:38:09 so therefore he's Beyond description which is why you know you look at God's name is basically you cannot pronounce w y h wh H and and the and the Jews actually inserted the vowels yahwe and we actually don't know whether that's correct as well we don't know all right so and then the first three Commandments are all about God and His Name you cannot take his name in vain and the word hello is an Old English word it comes from the Greek word haoo which is basically holy so if you say you're going to pray to make holy Sanctified to
00:38:49 hold in high regard John Kelvin says is to have your entire heart captivated by the wonderment of him I think that is the most beautiful description of what holy is you look at the idea of Holiness you set apart Levites the Tabernacle and if you look at Isaiah 6 holy holy holy is the Lord of hosts that means emphasis three times you know I mean holy holy holy is trying what he's trying to do is stretch the boundaries of your imagination as to who God is he's so holy I could to repeat it three times
00:39:30 right he's basically off the charts a class of his own holy holy holy and then he says the whole earth is full of his glory so he's trying to put some Dimensions can you imagine the whole world is full of his glory he's so holy that the whole world cannot contain and if I were Isaiah I would have said the whole universe is full of his glory so therefore God is in a class of his own is totally moral pure class of his own in terms of Justice love Mercy power sovereignty wisdom Grace faithfulness compassion in every aspect he is the
00:40:09 class of his own and so therefore it is therefore right for a creature to praise and magnify that person in heaven right now this is what's happening the four living creatures each of them six wings full of eyes all around and within and day and night they never cease to say holy holy holy is the Lord God Almighty who was and is and is to come but on earth Isaiah he declares the Lord and continuing all day my name is despised or blaspheme what a difference between heaven and on Earth you know stevenh Hawkings finally
00:41:01 accepted you know uh there is a beginning and you know what he say he wouldn't say it's God he says because there's a law such as Gravity the universe can and create and will create itself from nothing spontaneous creation is the reason there is something rather than nothing which why the universe exists why we exist and you go look at every single show today especially American movies it says the universe the universe has declared follow your heart they take you know 100 years ago they would put the name God today in secular
00:41:34 World they put the universe because they blasphemed the name of God but in Isaiah it says therefore my people shall know my name therefore in that day they shall know that it is I who speak here I am how beautiful upon the mountains are the feet of him who bring good news who publishes peace who brings good news to the happiness who publishes salvation for who says to Zion your God god reigns you see the whole world blasphemes God but God's people know his name and in their midst they will Proclaim his name he
00:42:08 reigns all right and this same passage is taken Isaiah down to uh uh Romans about the Jews you who boast in the law dishonor God by breaking the law for as it is written the name of God is blasphemed among the glant house be because of you that same indictment happens to Christians we instead of bringing up God's and extolling his name we tear it down let me give you an example in America supposed to be a Christian Nation right last election they says so you know according Bible Cyrus this fellow is Cyrus of so we
00:42:48 shall vote for him and then uh there was a truth social ad just on uh January and I'm going to and it ran a Big Move sort of a small video it showed the world then it showed a picture of Donald Trump and it said on June 14 1946 God looked down on his plan paradise and said I need a caretaker so God gave us Trump and then said God said I need somebody willing to get up before Dawn fix this country work all day fight the Marxist eat supper then go to the over office and stay up past midnight night
00:43:27 and a meeting of the heads of States so God made Trump God taking God's name in and these a lot of them are Christians Evangelical Christians they've given such a bad name to the church and there's not very much response from Christian leaders in America if I were them I'll be mortified I'll be condemning it left right and center but there's not very little protest and in fact the only people who talk about it is the comedian Jimmy Kimmel who then changed the pictures in the ad to make Trump look stupid and the
00:44:02 last picture was sorry World God apologizing to the world do you not think God's name is blasphemed by Christians not only that if you look at a recent interview in Fox News they were interviewing Ben Carson gifted neurosurgeon who is a staunch Christian and he says Trump is like King David a man after God's Own Heart this is using God's word and if you look at the the difference you know we're all Sinners but there's the difference between Trump and David David says for I know my transgression and my sin is ever
00:44:37 before me against you and only I have sinned and done what is evil in your sight Trump says why do I have to repent or ask for forgiveness am I not making mistakes I I'm not making mistakes I work hard I'm an honorable person there couldn't be any bigger difference and yet people blaspheme God's word and so our petition is to we asking God to make himself holy in our hearts and our minds we want to recognize the reality of his Holiness for him to be glorified and magnified in our lives John Piper writes
00:45:08 I think this is beautiful it says don't treat me my name is empty futile pointless trivial inconsequential insignificant don't let your words be empty of my truth don't let your hearts be empty of your affections reveral me love me trust me treasure me satisfy your heart with me that's what it means to hallow his name and if hallowing his name is the central feature of this particular prayer because if you hallow your me his name which is the main point of Our Lives then we will look forward to his kingdom
00:45:47 to come because if his kingdom doesn't come people won't hello his name then we will ask God for our daily bread because if we die and don't have Daily Bread who is there to hallow his name we ask God to forgive us our sins because if our sins are not forgiven you'll be in hell and nobody in Hell Hallows his name he asked God to Deliver Us from Temptation because if Weg into temptation we'll join with Satan and Satan does not hallow his name the whole point of the prayer is actually to magnify his name
00:46:19 let me just end with uh Psalm 63 which is basically the life of David on the run and this is a very bad time in in his life where he has committed adultery committed murder his son Absalon has rebelled against him and he's on the run in the midst of the Desolation he experiences undeserved Grace from God he has fellowship with God Psalms uh uh 63 and this a Psalm where he he actually says my my heart thirsts and Y yearns for you in the middle of the desert and he says I looked upon you in the sanctuary beholding your power and your
00:46:58 glory so so this is words using sensory language to praise to give a sense of the taste of God how is he tasted god well behold because your love steadfast love is better than life here's a chap who's actually experienced the love and forgiveness of God after all that David did murder adultery God still loved him he is still King why God didn't abandon him so he's now comparing what God did with his life it say in all of life nothing else matters the love of God matters you you see me so what he's
00:47:36 doing is actually articulating this my lips will praise you I will bless you as long as I live in your name I will lift up my hands it's not enough to see the glory you have to express it so when you actually magnify God's name in your prayer you actually worshiping him and the worship transforms you uh why does Paul say that you may have the strength to comprehend with all the saints the bread the length the height the depth and to know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge that you may filled
00:48:05 with all the fullness of God it's experiential language in prayer when you struggle it's not struggling whether you're going to get promotion or not it's not struggling whether you're going to be healed or not it's struggling to magnify to understand to taste to feel to experience who God is see as leou writes I think we Delight to praise what we enjoy because the praise not merely expresses but completes the enjoyment it's appoint it's it appointed consumation it is not out of compliment that lovers keep telling each other one
00:48:39 another how beautiful they are the Delight is incomplete until it is expressed but we shall then know that these are the same things fully to enjoy is to glorify in commanding us to glorify him God is inviting us to enjoy him this is an aspect of prayer that this church doesn't go into all right you not understand when God invites you to pray to him invites you to enjoy him to think back at all the beautiful things he done for you and that actually makes him come alive and that is the thing that transforms your heart you
00:49:17 know you can preach a congregation like this I give you a guilt trip or you haven't been praying right uh how many minutes you spend in prayer and all that uh I give you guilt God you don't pray God prayer is a God will punish you and and that's like this iron moralistic behavioral change you can bend it but it won't work you know why but before you step out of here 10 minutes later on it'll go back to the normal shape our hearts need to be transformed melted molded the only thing that can do this is the love of God to
00:50:00 what he's done for us in Jesus Christ this is the last bit where Jesus struggles in prayer he's coming into the world and John 12 says now soul is troubled what shall I say father save me from this hour and for this purpose I've come for this hour father glorify your name a name then a voice comes from heaven I have glorified it and I will glorify it again you see Jesus comes in the world and lives for 33 years of his life and right at the moment where he is to be sacrificed on the cross the only
00:50:44 thing that preoccupies his mind the whole purpose of his existence coming down Incarnation is for this hour the painful hour and then a voice comes from heaven and says I have glorified my name and I will glorify it again Brothers and Sisters in Christ this is your hour sometimes your hour may be filled of Joy sometimes your hour may be full of pain like what Jesus done but you have been created you have been converted the Holy Spirit comes upon you for this hour you know this hour isn't very long our hour is like 70
00:51:36 years 80 years some of you many of you mileage not much left yeah and my father died when I was 40 right I'm 64 65 now I thank God for the 25 years but I know mileage not much left this is your hour what will you spend your hour doing if I were you I'd spend the hour doing the same thing as Christ did however difficult however persecution however painful only one prayer Our Father who are in heaven Hallowed Be Your Name glorify your name in my life that I may glorify you in this world thank you Dr Peter J can we rise
00:52:26 as we uh sing a closing song let's glorify his name name of our Father Son and the Holy [Music] Spirit father we love you we worship oh you glorify your name in all the Earth in one voice glorify thy name glorify thy name glori [Music] glorify thy name in all sing Jesus Jesus we love you we worship and adore you glorify thy name in all the Earth Church glorify the name of Jesus in one voice glorify glorify thy name glorify the in glor sing [Music] glorify glorify glorify thy name glorify thy name
00:54:57 the Earth Spirit we love you Spirit we love you we worship and adore you glorify in all the Earth [Music] [Applause] [Music] glor thy name glorify thy name glorify thy name let's s Glory [Music] Church glorify thy name glorify thy name glorify thy in all the the voices glorify thy name glorify thy name [Music] glorify [Music] glorify for those of you who want to be prayed over Elders are available in front as you struggle in prayer I struggle in prayer all the time but God invites us today he's your
00:57:07 father what's so difficult about falling into the arms of the only one who loves you more than anybody else in this world your sins your failings everything it's not worth it but when we come we just come as your child as your broken child and we ask in my life in our lives we just ask one [Music] thing magnify your name hallowed thy name in my life let's make that commitment today that from today onwards Holy Spirit help us hallow your name help us magnify your name help us treasure you help us love you help us
00:58:00 enjoy you let's end with a benediction and the benediction is our father let's say together Our Father who are in heaven Hallowed Be Your Name Your Kingdom Come your will be done on Earth as is in heaven give us this day our daily bread forgive us our debts as we we also have forgiven our debtors and lead us not into temptation but Deliver Us from Evil amen after silent meditation you are dismissed you may be seated [Music]
