So, why do we pray? That was a question on the table during John Piper's sermon, "Pray Like This, Hello Be Your Name," a sermon he preached on December 30th, 2007. Here's a clip from that message. Why pray? Because when you go to God in dependence upon His wisdom and power and love to do what you long for Him to do according to His will, you mightily make the Father and the Son look great.

You make them look great. When you go to the Father in the name of the Son by the power of the Spirit to do what only they can do and you plead and it happens, you make them look great. So let me give you a verse, John 14, 13, "Whatever you ask in my name, this I will do that the Father may be glorified in the Son." Come to me, ask me in the name of myself to the Father and He'll do it that He in me will look glorious.

That's the reason we pray. Or here's the way Paul said it in 2 Corinthians 1, "You also must help us by prayer so that many will give thanks on our behalf for the blessing granted to us through many prayers." A complicated sentence but not a complicated point. Let's have lots of people pray so lots of people thank God when it happens.

God is really into getting thanks, hence He's into prayer. Here's the way the psalmist said it, Psalm 50, verse 15, "Call upon me in the day of trouble and I will deliver you and you will glorify me." So can you draw it near? Call upon me in the day of trouble, I will deliver you and you will glorify me.

He goes up, He comes down, glory goes back up. That's why we pray. We exist to spread a passion for the supremacy of God in all things for the joy of all peoples. And the Bible tells us that prayer magnifies the supremacy of God. So we pray because we're really into God's glory and God's supremacy.

Here's what Jesus said, Matthew 6, 9. Jesus said, "Pray then like this, 'Our Father in heaven, hallowed be Your name.'" Wish I could take you back with me to 1968, '69, Noel and I just married, December '68. And I was seeing so much. I just felt like my world was being shredded and rebuilt as I immersed myself in the Bible in those early days of school.

And I said to her one time, I think it was later in '69, I said, "You know, you can tell when your theology is undergoing a Copernican revolution because you pray differently. Like you suddenly wake up to what you're saying here." Jesus said, "The first, preeminent, most important, all-encompassing request we should make of the living God is make Your name great." That's the first request of the Lord's Prayer.

"God, hallowed be Your name." Which means, "Cause Your name to be hallowed." Do something, God, for Your name in Minneapolis. Do something for Your name in this church. Do something for Your name in this family. Do something for Your name in Pakistan today. Let it turn, oh God, for the hallowing of Your name in that aching country.

This is our request that God be jealous for the name of God. People choke on this. What does "hallowed" mean? "Hagia Stata." It means sanctified. It's the word used for sanctified. It's a third-person imperative. Like Peter said on the Pentecost, "Let them repent." This is modestly and mildly commanding God to do something.

Giving Him an imperative. This is a request. We are pleading with God, "Hallow Your name. Make Your name hallowed in the world. Make Your name hallowed in this church. Make Your name hallowed in my children." What does "hallowed" mean? Sanctified. What does "sanctified" mean for a God who is infinitely holy and doesn't need any improvement?

Sanctified means set apart. Set apart like what? How do you mean? God set Your name apart. It means God take Your name, this holy representation of Yourself, and set it apart as the most precious, holy, beautiful, valuable reality in the mind of the person for whom I'm praying. That's the first thing to pray all the time.

All the time. Number one issue in prayer is, "God, right now in this person I care about, so work that Your name is treasured above my name. That Your name is treasured above money. That Your name is treasured above sex, above alcohol, above fame, above approval, above success. Make Your name great in their hearts, oh God.

Be jealous for Your name in their lives." That's the overarching, deep, unifying, global thing that holds all praying together. Doesn't it? I hope it does. I hope this holds your life together. A passion for the supremacy of God. I mean, what else could it signify when Jesus says, "When you pray, say, number one, God, Father, make sure Your name gets hallowed." Man, I love that clip.

That was from John Piper's sermon, "Pray Like This, Hallowed Be Your Name," which he preached on December 30th, 2007. We have over 1,200 messages like this one from John Piper in our archive at DesiringGod.org. On Wednesdays, we like to dip into that archive and pull out a classic quote for the podcast.

I welcome your suggestions. If you have a favorite John Piper sermon clip, please email us the name of the sermon and, if possible, the timestamp of when and where the clip occurs in the audio. If we post your clip, of course we'll give you credit. Please put the phrase "sermon clip" in the subject line of an email and send it to us at AskPastorJohn@DesiringGod.org.

Well how does our delight in God fuel our delight in the good gifts of creation? Pastor John will help explain this tomorrow on the Ask Pastor John podcast. We'll see you then.