Timothy Keller Sermons Podcast by Gospel in Life - Adoration: “Hallowed Be Thy Name”

Episode Date: February 21, 2025

What does it mean to hallow? It’s a word virtually never used anymore in everyday English, but we don’t quite have an equivalent.  To hallow something means to treat it as sacred and ultimate. It means to make something your ultimate concern, to make it the most important thing, to make it the most crucial thing, to make it the supreme beauty, the supreme aim of your life. Jesus says this comes first, and I want to show you that praise and adoration is really what life is about. Matthew 6 teaches us 1) the necessity of praise, 2) the primacy of praise, and 3) the anatomy of praise. This sermon was preached by Dr. Timothy Keller at Redeemer Presbyterian Church on April 30, 1995. Series: The Lord’s Prayer 1995. Scripture: Matthew 6:6-15. Today's podcast is brought to you by Gospel in Life, the site for all sermons, books, study guides and resources from Timothy Keller and Redeemer Presbyterian Church. If you've enjoyed listening to this podcast and would like to support the ongoing efforts of this ministry, you can do so by visiting https://gospelinlife.com/give and making a one-time or recurring donation.

Welcome to Gospel in Life. We all know there's a big difference between knowing about God and actually knowing God personally. To know anyone, you have to spend time with them. If you're a Christian, prayer is essential to have a deep relationship with God. You won't be able to know yourself, know God, or grow in your relationship with Him without prayer. Join us today as Tim Keller teaches on why prayer is such an essential part of life with Christ. We're looking at the Lord's Prayer. We're looking at Jesus' model for prayer. Jesus teaches us how to pray. Let's read in Matthew 6 5 to 15 it's printed in your bulletin. And when you pray he says do not be like the

hypocrites for they love 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 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 also have forgiven our debtors lead us not into temptation deliver us from the evil one. For if you forgive men when they sin against you, your heavenly father will also forgive you. But if you do not forgive men their sins, your father will not forgive your sins. This is God's word. The first thing that Jesus tells us to get to in prayer, once we've addressed, once we

know who we're talking to, our Father who art in heaven, the first thing we're supposed to address in prayer is, hallowed be thy name. That's the first thing that comes up. What does it mean to hallow? Well, it's an old, you know, it's interesting. It's an hallow? It's an old English word, it's never used virtually anymore in everyday English, but it's interesting to see that the new international version, the translators, the translation that we print, though it tries very hard to be up to date, still uses that old word and I think it's a great idea because we don't quite have an equivalent. To hallow something means to

treat it as sacred and ultimate. So we don't really have anything. Can you think of some other word, a single word? To hallow something is to treat it as absolutely sacred and ultimate. It means to seek, to make something your ultimate concern, to make it the most important thing, to make it the most crucial thing, to make it the most sacred thing, the ultimate thing of your life, to make it the supreme beauty,

the supreme aim of your life, to hallow something supreme beauty, the supreme aim of your life, to hollow something. That's why we have to use the word. Jesus says this comes first, and it comes first because not only should all prayer be about this, but I want to show you that life should be about this, to understand what it means to praise God, to adore him, to see him and speak to him as the all-important one. Praise and adoration is really what life's about. Let me show you, I think the text teaches us many things, but let me just with you, look, the text teaches us the necessity of praise, the primacy of praise, and the anatomy of praise. I give three words that might be easy to remember

to help us move through the outline of the remarks. The necessity of praise, the primacy of praise, and the anatomy of praise. Which, let me show you the necessity. Jesus shows us that not only is praise absolutely necessary if you're a Christian, but praise is inevitable for anybody. He starts off by saying, when you pray, don't be like the hypocrites. Now right off, we tend to think of hypocritical people as people who are living blatantly

double lives, but I think Jesus is talking about hypocritical prayers, prayers, okay? Because a hypocrite is someone who's not consistent. And he is talking about a kind of prayer that's not consistent. It's done out in the open, but it's not done in secret. Why? Well, now be careful. He's giving us a case. He says there's a kind of person he knows that the thing they most want is a claim. They want to be seen as spiritual people. therefore they only pray when they're getting what they really want. In the secret, of course, they get no acclaim for prayer and therefore they don't pray. But he's using a case, but let's extend it to see the principle.

There's a kind of prayer, there's a kind of person, he says, that only prays when your ultimate concern is at stake? Think. There's a kind of prayer that only happens when your ultimate treasure is at stake, when the thing you really want is at stake. And he says the way you can tell true prayer is the thing you most want is God. You want to just enjoy him, you want to adore him. He's the supreme thing of your life. If that's true, then you'd be praying all the time. But do you only pray when you're in trouble? Have you noticed that? When things go bad, you get back into your quiet times. You get back into your devotions. Things are bad. Things get better. And you

stop praying. What's going on? He The way you're really doing in secret is not adoring God, but you're adoring something. What you do in secret tells you who your God is. William Temple, Archbishop William Temple says, your religion is what you do with your solitude. He's really saying the same thing Jesus is saying here.

He says, the way you find out what your ultimate concern is, the thing that you'd really adore, the thing that really makes your life go, is to see what you do in secret. When you're alone, when there's nothing that you have to do, what do you think about? Do you think of owning your own apartment? Do you think of owning a second, you know, a beach house? Do you think of beauty? Do you think of falling in love? Do you think about business success?

Do you think about professional acclaim? Do you think about achievement? Do you think about particular hobbies? Do you think about certain things that bring you comfort? What do you think about when you don't have to think of anything else? What do you do with your secrets? What do you do with your secret time, your secrecy? Jesus says that's what you adore the most. If the thing you adore is not God then you'll only pray when that thing

is in jeopardy, when that thing is at stake. And therefore, you will be in inconsistent prayer. You only pray sometimes, only when things are in trouble. You only pray when your family's in trouble. You only pray when you're in financial trouble. You only pray. Look, you will always pray when the thing that is your greatest treasure is at stake.

Jesus says the consistency of your prayer life will tell you who your God is. That's why we talk about the necessity of praise. Everybody praises, everybody spends their secrecy praising, but if it's not God then you'll find that you're only praying sometimes when the thing is at stake. Let me put it this way because I want to move on quickly. It's not the most important of the points, but I'll tell you something. This is the one that has been going through my heart. I've been very convicted as I look at this. I pray, and I think it would be very bad for the church and probably for the equipment

if I got struck with lightning during this sermon. There's always a possibility of it, especially on a point like this. Jesus is saying the most unmistakable way to tell that your Christianity is real, that it's not just a matter of external forces, that it's really become because you've been touched by God himself, look at your secret prayer life. Do you pray consistently in secret? And do you praise God in secret? Do you spend lots of time consistently praising and enjoying God? Here's why. People see you coming to church. They see your moral behavior. See?

There's all kinds of other very external and even selfish rewards for almost every other part of Christianity. I know that there's people who come into Christianity because they just want to be included in a supportive group. I know there are people who come into Christianity simply because they love the superiority of feeling like they've got the truth and nobody else does. I know there are people who come into Christianity because they feel so emotionally needy they just need something, anything, and they never really go underneath and say is

this true? And they never really give their heart over and they never really meet God. And as a result they come come in, they seem very active, all on the basis of externals. They need a supportive group, they need something to cling to, they like superiority, the feeling that I'm on the inside, and they'll be there for a while. The Bible talks, Jesus talks about it elsewhere. They'll be there for a while and then they'll suddenly leave. Something will come up in their life and their Christianity will all fall apart. Why? It was all a matter of externals. Well, how do you know if you're not deceiving yourself? Here it is. In secret. What do you do with your solitude? Do you

pray regularly? Do you love to pray? Do you praise? Do you adore God? Is this the thing that keeps you going? Or do you spend your secrecy daydreaming about other things that really, obviously, inevitably are more important to you than God? Then your religion is a matter of externals and you really don't have the power that Jesus is talking about, as I will show you here next, comes to those who make adoration of God the primacy of their life. So there's the necessity. You've got to praise. Everybody praises in their secrecy, but it's absolutely necessary that Christians refine and distill

and get assurance for their Christianity because they have a very, very dedicated and full and flourishing secret praise life. Now secondly, the second thing we're taught here is the primacy of praise. You know, clear sky, I guess it's all right, let's move on. The primacy of praise. This also teaches us number one, how would be thy name before you get to what? Give us this day our daily bread, and forgive us our debts. You get into praising God before you get into asking God

for things in the world, that's petitionary prayer I'll call it, petition. That's where you say, give us this day, I have all these needs. You're told to go to praise before you go to petition. Not only that, you're told to go to praise before you go to confession. Forgive us our debts. And it's not just first mechanically, it's first organically. It's not simply a matter of God has given us a mechanical set

of steps that we're just told first praise and then move on to petition, then move on to confession. No. It's first because praise is supposed to frame the others. Praise is the context for the others. Praise is to dominate and saturate the others. Praise is to dominate not just all of prayer, but it's to dominate all of your life. Why? Because petition means how you look at the world and confession is how do you look at yourself and Jesus is saying all the problems you have in relating to the world or relating to yourself are Really problems of adoration

if you don't hallow God if You hallow anything more than God, the problems will show up in petition and they'll show up in confession, but the problems are really prior. Now let me show you. When you do petition, you're saying, I've got needs. When you're doing confession, you're saying, I've got needs. When you're doing confession, you're saying, I've got problems. But problems that come up in both of those areas are first of all problems of adoration. Let me show you, for example,

as a pastor over the years, I've continually come up with a problem that people have thrown in front of me and for a long time I was always baffled and everybody seems to be baffled. There's people who say, you know, I know that what I've done was wrong and I have repented. I've asked forgiveness to God. I've asked forgiveness to people. And I know that maybe God has forgiven me

and I know that others have forgiven me, but I can't forgive myself. I can't. Well, that used to stump me for a long time. Then I began to understand, I think, the Lord's Prayer. What do you do with your secrets, your secret time? What is it that you hallow the most? What is it that you adore the most? Is it success? Is it sex appeal? Is it comfort? Is it approval of people? Is it a love life? Is it your family? What is it that you most hallow? That will completely control your view of yourself. And confession will be completely driven by that. You'll only feel like you failed if you failed one of these things. And you'll feel like you don't need to confess if you have not failed one of those things. In other words, what you hallow, what you adore completely affects and if you hallow

anything more than God, it will distort your view of yourself and it will distort confession so that it is nothing but filled with guilt and frustration. So when somebody says, I can't forgive myself, what you mean is I hallow something more than God and it won't forgive me. I violated it and it is more important than God. I know God forgives me, but it won't forgive me. Example, many years ago, I remember counseling a man

who actually had been unfaithful to his wife and boy, he admitted it. He showed some repentance. His wife forgave him and received him back. The people around him forgave him. We sat down, I was his pastor, we sat down and we talked about it and we went through the scripture and he saw that yes, this is possible that God can forgive. Look how God forgave and continued to use other people who did the same thing. But he says, you know though, pastor, I can't forgive myself. And as we dug, here's what was really wrong. He came from an incredibly prudish family who saw sexual sin is worse than any other kind of sin. Now that is not at all what the Bible

teaches. The Bible says sexual sin is sin. So is paying unfair wages, so is gossip, and so is pride. I mean, the Bible does not make these distinctions between sins, but he came from an incredibly prudish family. And the fact that he, even though his parents were dead, he had disappointed his parents. And he says, I could not forgive myself. His problem in the area of self-image, you say,

well, this guy just has a bad self-image. Yeah. This guy hates himself. Yes. He needs to repent. No. His problem is prior. He needs to demote his parents from the place that they are.

He needs to get them out of the holy place of his life. He needs to get them out of the holy place of his life. He needs to get them off the throne. When you pray to God, is it more like a chat or are you really connecting with Him in a deep and meaningful way? We'd like to help you establish a stronger, deeper, and more personal prayer life. Tim Keller's book Prayer Experiencing Awe and Intimacy with God offers biblical guidance as well as specific ways to pray in certain situations, such as dealing with grief, loss, love, and forgiveness. In the book, Dr. Keller helps you learn how to make your prayers more personal

and powerful through a regular practice of prayer. Prayer Experiencing Awe and Intimacy with God is our thanks for your gift to help us reach more people with the life-changing power of the gospel. Request your copy today at gospelandlife.com slash give. That's gospelandlife.com slash give. Now, here's Tim Keller with the remainder of today's teaching. See the grace of God really wasn't what drove him. What he was deriving his self-image from was that he lived up to his parental expectations.

And when he failed his parental expectations, I can't forgive myself. Sounds very humble? It's a failure of adoration. It's a misuse of your solitude. You're not hallowing. Everything comes from adoration. If he hallowed be thy name, he'd have no problem saying, forgive us our debts. Let me give you the other thing. You've got

to do adoration before you get to confession, but you've also got to do adoration before you get to petition. There are people who say, give us this day our daily bread. Now, what is bread? Bread is what you've got to have. It doesn't say give us this day our daily dessert. Jesus is talking about, you know, it doesn't say, you know, apple crisp, bread. It doesn't say, you know, cappuccino. It says bread. All right? Well, listen, what do you get in down on your knees and you say to God, God, I've got to have that, and you make your petitions known. Over the years, I've talked to people who say, I prayed and I prayed and I prayed and I get no peace. I don't think God's going to hear me.

I get no peace. I pray and I don't get any kind of calmness. Well, here's why. What if you go to God and say, I've got to get that promotion or my life is over? It's bread. It's, I've got to have it. If I don't get that promotion, my life is over. It's bread. It's I've got to have it. If I don't get that promotion my life is over. Well no wonder you're not getting any kind of peace. You know why? If you have hallowed your

career, whatever you hallow is the thing that runs your life. If you even think about losing it, you just go all to pieces. The reason you're getting no peace in petition, the reason you're getting no peace, the reason you cannot get over your worry, the reason you can't get over your anxiety no matter how much you pray, the Bible says, have no anxiety in anything, right? But make your requests known to God. Jesus says in Matthew, that's in Philippians 4, have no anxiety but make your requests known to God. People say, well, I have all this anxiety and I let my requests known but it doesn't get any better. I'm just eaten up with worry. What's the matter? It's a failure of adoration. You've got to demote your job. You've got to get it out of the hallowed place. You see, praise, adoration of God, is the thing that will heal your view of the world

and your view of yourself. It must dominate, it must saturate, you must be great at it. You see, adoration is looking at God and saying, oh my gosh, everything is coming back into focus. Years ago, I preached my first series of sermons on the Lord's Prayer, and I personally had never really understood this, but I read it in a book somewhere

that adoration has to come before petition, and you shouldn't run right in and ask God for your gimme list until you've spent some time praising God. I saw that. I myself had never really understood what I'm explaining to you now. I hadn't understood the dynamic. I couldn't understand the why. But I preached on it and about a week later, a dear lady, still a dear lady, in my church in Virginia, her name was Bessie Lee, she came up to me and she said, you've changed my whole life. Well, pastors

always say, wow, let's get together and talk about it. Tell me. And she said, you've changed my whole life. Well, pastors always say, wow, let's get together and talk about it. Tell me. And she said, well, you know, it was really, she says it's just common sense. Now that I spend time adoring, it seems to put things in perspective and by the time I get to my prayer requests, instead of being absolutely worried about them, I'm able to lay them in his hands once and just relax. You know, I didn't expect people to take me so seriously as to actually let their lives be changed by the things I was telling them. I'm forever grateful. I went back and I had to learn it. You know, the teacher was taught. Thank you, Bessie Lee. If you hear this tape, I'm thanking you. I hope you get it.

This is the key. Thank you, Bessie Lee. If you hear this tape, I'm thanking you. I hope you get it. This is the key. All our failures are failures of adoration. You got to get your life back in perspective. You got to get yourself back in perspective. You know, and here, let me just, before we move to the very last point here, Can you imagine what would happen if a man took his little daughter into Bloomingdale's or better yet into FAO sports or something and took her around and said look at that toy, do you see that toy? Look at there, look at there. Do you see that present? Do you see that? You like it? You like it? You like that? Do you see that? You'll have none of it. I am going to spend all of my life doing everything I can to keep you miserable and

keep you from having any of it. Now what would happen to that little kid? How distorted her view of the world would be and how distorted her view of her own self would be. If she can't trust her father, she can't trust anything. Now the Bible tells us that at the beginning of time something happened. Some of you may believe this story literally, some of you may not. I don't care, I won't argue with you. But I think the truth of it is obvious. We're told that God put two people in a garden and said, you can have everything but that one tree. And I want you to not eat it. Why? Just because I want you to do something, just because I told you, just because you love and trust me. And a serpent came up and said, you see that tree? You know why God won't let you have that

tree? It's the best one. Because God won't let you have everything, that proves he doesn't really want you to have anything. You can't trust him. You can't trust him. That lie slipped into our hearts and our entire view of the world and ourselves is as distorted because we think that he has said what that father said to that little girl in F.E.O. Swartz. And let me tell you something, if you can't praise God, you won't be able to praise anything

else. If you can't trust God, you won't be able to trust anything. If you can praise God, you can start to praise everything. If you can trust God, you can start to trust everyone and everything. Oh, you're not stupid, you're not naive, but you're able to say, look how great this is, look how great this is. But if you can't praise God, you'll look at everything and say, look how awful this is, look how awful.

Well, that started out good, but it probably will turn out bad. Adoration heals that in our heart, that belief that God, because he won't give us everything, won't give us anything. It's intrinsic in little kids. Even if the little kid has the nicest parents in the world, if you cross a little kid's will and say, you know honey, we can't go to the circus. Sorry, we just don't have time. I wanted to go to the circus. We can't. Now, however, let's go for a walk in the park. Let's go out and play some games. No. I don't want to do anything. If I can't have one thing, because you wouldn't give me everything, it proves to me you don't want me to have anything. Where does a kid get that? I'm not talking

about abusive parents, neglectful parents, good parents. Where does a kid get that? I'm not talking about abusive parents, neglectful parents, good parents. Where does the kid get that? It's intrinsic to her heart, it's intrinsic to your heart and your attitude toward God. And adoration is the only thing that heals us of that. That's the reason you hate yourself or deny your sinfulness. Adoration your sinfulness. Adoration enables you to see who you are and yet accept it. Adoration enables you to see the world as it is and yet trust. Without it, you'll be totally distorted. Adoration heals the heart. Okay, last thing, and this is the most important, but I can only say something about it. Well how do you adore? Jesus Christ gives us a little practical key. I call it the anatomy of praise and as I usually tell people since I won't be able to spend much time on this if you really really want to pursue this if this is an

unusually meaningful subject to you. Afterwards we have classes and I always say please come to classes, but if you don't go to a class and you're interested in this, come to my question and answer time afterwards and we'll keep exploring it. But praise, the anatomy of praise, the basic way to praise, it's a pendulum. Our Father, who art in heaven. Now, our Father means, look at how loving he is. He's a Father. Look at the depths of his love. Look at how merciful he is.

Look how low he comes, because he loves us. But in heaven, he's a majestic. Look at how high he stands. Look at his power and his glory. Now, it's only when those two things come together. Pendulums are funny. The further they go to this side, the further they go to that side, right? If you don't go way over here, you don't go way over there.

The beauty of adoration is the more you're able to see his love, the more his greatness and glory is set into relief. The more you see his greatness and glory, the more his love means... Look, when I think about being a father, I think, even though I'm a fairly imperfect father, I yearn for my children to be successful. I ache for them to be happy. And I think about, well, I guess God must feel that way too if he's a father, but wait a minute, he's an omnipotent father. I would do anything, but of course I have only certain, I'm limited in my power, but do I have a Father in heaven? He's not just a Father who dreams great dreams and who wants my success and who yearns for

my happiness, but he's an omnipotent Father, which means that these wishes have to come true. Don't you see his fatherness makes his heavenliness not intimidating, but his heavenliness makes his fatherness not just comforting, but absolutely liberating. Let me give you another one. A couple months ago a woman came up to me and said, you know I have a relationship with God, but it has nothing to do with Jesus. I don't believe in Jesus, but I have a relationship with God. Now honest, I asked her a question, simple question. I said,

do you believe God forgives you? And she says, sure. I said, what does it cost him? See, she had just told me she couldn't believe in a God who would send people to hell. And I said, all right, you won't let the pendulum go all the way over here. You know, you won't say God is a holy God. God is a perfect God. God is a God who will not abide evil. God never winks at a lie. He never shrugs at cruelty. Every sin must be punished. He's absolutely holy and if you're not holy, there's hell. Oh, I don't believe in that, she says. My pendulum only goes over here. Well, then says. My pendulum only goes over here.

Well, then I said, your pendulum only comes over here then too. Why? What does it cost your God to forgive you, I asked her. She says, well, nothing. I said, right. If you don't believe in hell, you have no idea of a God who would take hell into his own heart, a God who would suffer and die and pour his wrath out on his son, just so you could be saved. The more holy you seem to be, the more loving you seem to be, the more loving you seem to be, the more holy

you seem to be, and that's the reason why Jesus Christ said, no one knows the Father except the Son and those to whom the Son reveals him. People say, how? Narrow-minded to say that you can only know the Father through Jesus. Look, it doesn't mean you can't be wise without Jesus, it doesn't mean you can't be a moral person without Jesus, it doesn't mean you can't have any experience of God without Jesus. Go out to the Grand Canyon, you'll experience God as creator. He says, you won't know my Father

as he is. Only on the cross do you have a totally holy God and a totally loving God. I asked that lady with all due respect, how does your God accept you even though you're a sinner? She says, well, he doesn't expect people to be perfect. I said, then what does it cost him to forgive? He says, well, it doesn't cost him much. Don't you see? Unless you have a God in which the Son of God comes to earth and dies on the cross so that in one ripping stroke on the cross his holiness is utterly fulfilled because it punishes sin and his love is utterly fulfilled because it saves us because he does it for us. How'd you see? You can't have a totally holy and a totally loving God unless you come through Jesus, unless you see Jesus. Adoration,

the further the pendulum is to this side, the further it goes to that side. And the more you go back and forth, he's not just a father, he's a heavenly father, he's not just a heavenly God, he's a heavenly Father. It heats your heart up, it creates adoration, and it will melt away the distortions in your view of yourself and the view of the world. All praise we would render, oh help us to see, it is only the splendor of light high to thee. Let's pray. Father teach us to say, hallowed be thy name, and help us to see

that it's our health and our life. Help us to see it's not just a busy work from you, this is what will heal us in every respect. Help us to see that we can only howl your name when we see your Son, Jesus on the cross, saying, I want for the cup to pass from me, but nevertheless not my will but thine be done. When we see Jesus saying, all that's necessary is to have you, oh Father. We pray this in Jesus' name.

Amen. Thanks for joining us here on the Gospel in Life podcast. It's our hope that today's teaching encourages you to go deeper in your prayer life. We invite you to help others discover this podcast by rating and reviewing it. And to find more great gospel-centered content by Tim Keller, visit GospelandLife.com. Today's sermon was recorded in 1995. The sermons and talks you hear on the Gospel and Life podcast were preached from 1989 to 2017 while Dr. Keller was senior pastor at Redeemer Presbyterian Church.