This week's sermon: "Pray Like This: Hallowed Be Your Name"

Prayer is intentionally conveying a message to God.

It's for the private room, and it's for family, small gatherings, and worship services. Prayer is for everywhere all the time.

We pray because God tell us to and because it increases our joy. It is a staggeringly awesome privilege and it glorifies the Father and his Son.

In his model prayer, the first thing Jesus instructs us to ask the Father is to make his name hallowed. This is first, above all others.

The most central, supreme, and overarching concern in prayer is to plead with God that God would make his name supremely valuable in the minds and hearts of people.

David Mathis (@davidcmathis) is an elder at Bethlehem Baptist Church, Twin Cities, and works as executive pastoral assistant to John Piper. He and his wife Megan have twin sons (Carson and Coleman) and live in Minneapolis. David is co-editor (with John Piper) of Thinking, Loving, Doing, most recently, and Finish the Mission, forthcoming. Yep, he plays rec softball and went yard in his last game.