God's Name will be Sanctified

Out of the many different aspects of worship that we talked about this semester, the concept that has most often returned to my mind is the sanctification of God’s name.  Jeremiah Burroughs started us off with Leviticus 10:3: “Then Moses said unto Aaron, it is what the Lord spake, saying, ‘I will be sanctified in them that come nigh me, and before all the people I will be glorified.  And Aaron held his peace.’ ” The context for this verse is incredible: two of Aaron’s sons had just been killed by the Lord for offering unauthorized fire before Him.  God was not killing them on a whim, but because His glory is of first importance and He wants His people to take the glory of His Name seriously.  As I approach private and corporate worship, the understanding that the sanctification of God’s Name is of first importance affects my mindset as well as my actions.  Often as I approach worship, I am thinking about the encouragement I am in need of or what benefit I want from my time in the presence of God.  While being encouraged and benefited from spending time with God is good (and likely to happen), that should not be my first aim.  My first aim should be to set the Name of God apart as gloriously holy.  This mindset will affect how I worship God because I will take what God’s Word says about how to sanctify God’s Name seriously.  I will not be searching for verses that make me feel good about myself.  I will not be looking for how to be a better Christian.  Rather, I will be looking for how, through my lifestyle, to glorify God’s Name because God takes that seriously.  Thus, as I approach private and corporate worship, I am striving to take the means that God has prescribed to glorify Himself seriously and bring about the sanctification of His Name.