Sermon Tone Analysis

By Pastor Glenn Pease

Vice Presidents have names just as presidents, but they seldom become names we remember.

George was vice president under president Polk, but only a whiz in trivial pursuit would ever remember his last name.

He had a chance to become president of the United States, but he lost that chance because of a close vote in the Senate on a tariff bill.

It was 27 to 27 and he had to break the deadlock.

He could not win, for however he voted he would make half of the Senate his enemies, and that is what happened, and he did not get the nomination for president because of that vote.

He retired and never held public office again.

His name would have gone into obscurity except for a small Texas town.

Texas had just joined the union, and they wanted to honor the vice president by naming their town after him.

Because of this honor we all recognized the last name of that one time vice president, George Dallas.

We all like our name to be honored, for our name represents us.

Alexander the Great had a soldier in his army who was also named Alexander, but he had a reputation of always being at a safe distance in the hour of battle.

When the great Alexander heard of this, he commanded the soldier to be brought to him, and in anger he gave this order to him: "Either live up to you name, or get a new one."

He wanted the name of Alexander to be honored.

This is normal, and legitimate, to want a good name-a name you can wear proudly.

Prov.

22:1 says, "A good name is rather to be chosen than great riches."

Nobody wants to get a bad name for themselves.

The saying is true, "The person with a bad name is already half hanged."

I have known people whose reputation was so bad they got blamed for all the wrong doing in their community.

They were blamed whether guilty or not, because they had a bad name.

We all know what Judas did to his name.

He ruined it for all of history.

Demas, by forsaking Paul for worldly gain, became synonymous with deserter.

Benedict Arnold did the same in our American history.

Once you get a rotten reputation it is almost as hard to regain honor for your name, as to get rotten meat fresh again.

That is why we need to treat our name with respect.

Edgar Guest expressed it in poetry:

You got it from your father,

'Twas the best he had to give.

And right gladly in bestowed it.

It's yours, the while you live.

You may lose the watch he gave

You, and another you may claim,

But remember, when you're

Tempted, to be careful of his name.

It was fair the day you got it,

And a worthy name to bear,

When he took it from his father,

There was no dishonor there.

Through the years he proudly

wore it, and to his father he was true,

And that name was clean and

spotless when he passed it on to you.

Oh, there's much that he has

given that he values not at all.

He has watched you break your

play things in the days when you weresmall.

You have lost the knife he gave

you and you've scattered many a game,

But you'll never hurt your father

if you're careful with his name.

Is your to wear forever,

Yours to wear the while you live,

Yours, perhaps, some distant

morning, another boy to give.

And you'll smile as did your

father-with a smile that all can share,

If a clean name and a good

name you are giving him to wear.

It seems perfectly logical that if there is a strong desire in the human family to maintain the honor of their name, how much more should this be the desire of the family of God? God, our heavenly Father, is not an abstraction, but He is a Person, and He also has a name.

His name is important to Him, and He expects His family to respect and honor it.

The reputation of God is often in the hands of His children, and He wants them to be aware of this great responsibility.

The first desire we are to express in prayer, therefore, is the desire that His name would be hallowed, or honored, that is, respected.

You can see how all of life, in word and walk, is going to be affected if our number one concern is the honoring of God's name.

This is number one in prayer, for the same reason God is to be number one in all things, for when He is in the right place, all the rest fall into order and make sense, for all else is based on the foundation of God's priority.

The first commandment is to have no other gods before Him.

The first commandment of Jesus is to love God with your whole being.

The first day of the week is the Lord's day.

The first born were to be dedicated to God.

The first fruits were to be offered up to God.

When you get first things first, the rest will all fit.

But if you get this wrong, nothing will fit, and you have a lock with no key.

The key to successful prayer, and successful Christian living, is to desire above all else that God's name be honored.

Charles Jefferson, the great preacher, said, "Unless this desire is uppermost in our heart we are not in the mood of prayer."

The disciples asked the Lord to teach them how to pray, and Jesus said, here is how to do it, and after you have established the prayer attitude of being a part of the whole family of God, with our Father in heaven, then your first petition is to be a desire that has a two-fold application.

It is to be a desire for a reverence for God within, and a desire for the reputation of God without.

I. THE REVERENCE FOR GOD WITHIN.

There is nothing that man can do to make God more of what He already is.

He is as holy, just, and righteous as He can be, and it is meaningless to pray that He will be more so.

Our desire in prayer is that we might be more captivated by who and what God is, in order that we might more fully honor and glorify His name, by our reverence for Him.

Augustine, back in the 4th century, wrote, "Can God be made holier than He is? Nay, but our own thought of what God is may be made holier by becoming more lofty and more true."

Barclay wrote, "If we are to hallow God's name, we must see to it that our conception of God is truly Christian."

What we are requesting here is not any change in God, but a change in ourselves.

We are desiring that we become, as God's children, more subjectively aware of who and what God is objectively.

There is no more powerful life-changing desire you can have.

It is the desire to know God as He really is, that we might honor and respect Him, and,

therefore, really want His kingdom to come and His will to be done.

In Lincoln's Gettysburg address, he said, "We cannot hallow this ground, for it is already hallowed by those who here gave their lives."

He was saying, that by there sacrifice those who died made that land special, or sacred.

It was not just another piece of land, for it took on special meaning because of the price paid for it.

It was, therefore, to be treated accordingly, and set aside as special, rather than common.

This is what God expects us to do with His name.

The Jews did this with the name Jehovah.

It was the sacred name of God, and they did not speak it often.

They used the name Lord as a substitute in order to keep Jehovah as a special and sacred name.

We have lost this idea of reverence for the name of God, and the result is, God's name is not very special, but is common.

It is thrown around like Tom, Dick, and Harry.

It is so common that it is nearly impossible to feel any reverence when people use His name.

Entertainers frequently say, God bless you, or God be with you.