Glorify God

[00:00:00] We'll be here for the next couple weeks, so don't clap. So we did a little exchanging, and Lord willing, Dane will preach next week. Two weeks. All right. All right, this morning I want us to think about glorify God. I was quite interested as we talked about this theme and came up with this theme yesterday [00:00:30] about how well it went along with the message that I had in mind for today. Fulfilling God's purpose for my life. Whose purpose? Does that mean that I'm supposed to take what I want to do and convince God that it's His purpose for my life? Is that what that's all about? [00:01:06] Kind of like what we like to do a lot of times, isn't it? Like, God, this is what I want to do. Is that okay with you? I mean, you can give a stamp of approval on that, can't you? I think it's important for us to think about. The other thing that I thought about in relation to that is fulfill means to fill full. Remember what Paul said when he came to the end of his life? [00:01:43] I've fought a good fight. I've kept the faith. If I've done the work the Lord sent me to do, now I'm ready to go home. He had filled full God's purpose for his life. And so he had fulfilled God's purpose. Now, one of God's purposes for us is that we glorify God. And we'll notice that as we go along here, we'll come to some scriptures that tell us specifically [00:02:16] that God is calling us and instructing us to glorify Him. Let's just ask ourselves some questions. This obviously is a picture of our universe. I think this is supposed to be Mars right here. But I had to think about when it comes to glorifying God, To glorify something means to make it look big. [00:02:48] That's one of the ideas that's there, to make it look good. How can something, and when I say this I'm thinking of us, how can something so small make something so big look good? You know, what is man that thou art mindful of him, or the son of man that thou visitest him? [00:03:21] Why would God call us to glorify him? Can't he give himself all the glory that he needs? Another question, does God need glory? Why should we think that we need to give God glory to glorify Him? Does He need glory? [00:03:58] I think there's some things here that maybe we'll see as we go along. Can we give God what He already has? Thine is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever. Amen. So how can we give God something that's already His? Something that He already has? Jesus said, I want you to glorify Me with the glory that I had with you before the world began. [00:04:32] So this glory is something that's been around for a long time. How can we glorify God? And this is what we want to think about. And I think this is part of thinking about God's purpose for my life, fulfilling that. How can I glorify God? We'll look at that. Can sinful bodies and fallen spirits glorify God? [00:05:05] Now, I want you to understand how I'm asking this. I'm not saying that we just give up and live in sin and we're not redeemed and so on. But, John says, if we say that we have no sin, And when I studied that in 1 John there, it's holding it in our hand. If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us. [00:05:37] So, with that in mind, how can we glorify God? I mean, if all the hosts of heaven, all the angels, all the angelic beings, all the spirit world, If all of them can glorify God, how can we glorify God as human beings that fail, that sin, that have to come daily to the cross and receive cleansing and forgiveness? [00:06:12] Now I want us to go back and I want us to look at a number of scriptures back in the Old Testament that talk about God's glory. And I want us to just do this because I think it will be good for us and I think it will help us to have a background here of partial understanding of what it is to glorify God. Over in Exodus chapter 24 verses 16 and 17 is when God came down on Mount Sinai, met Moses. [00:06:43] The glory of the Lord abode upon Mount Sinai, and the cloud covered it six days. And the seventh day he called unto Moses out of the midst of the cloud. And the sight of the glory of the Lord was like devouring fire on the top of the mount in the eyes of the children of Israel. Now, these verses tell us that the glory of God is an absolutely awesome thing. [00:07:17] You want to do an interesting study in scripture, study the glory of God. The Greek term is the Shekinah glory. It has to do with the brightness and the beauty and the greatness of that glory. Glory. The glory of the Lord was on top of the mountain and clouds surrounded the mountain. Why? You remember what happened then with Moses when he went up and received the Ten Commandments and he came back down to the children of Israel after he'd spent that time in the presence of the Lord? What happened? His face shone. His face was so bright with the glory of the Lord that the people asked him to put something over his face because it hurt their eyes. [00:08:03] That's what the glory of the Lord was like. And so you understand why I ask. How can we glorify God when He has such brightness and such glory already within Himself? Now, Numbers chapter 14 verse 21. This is over there in the time of Balaam. And it's an interesting thing. It says, as truly as I live, all the earth shall be filled with the glory of the Lord. [00:08:39] That's an interesting scripture to me. Very interesting scripture. All the earth is going to be filled with the glory of the Lord. Do you know what? Now, there is no place where you might find yourself as a child of God where you cannot glorify God. It's interesting. We excuse ourselves. You go to jail and you talk to the guys there and they say, I can't be a Christian in here. [00:09:13] And I get out, I'm going to be a Christian. And you see people on the outside and they say, well, I can't be a Christian out here. If I was in jail where I had to do something, I could be a Christian in there. Well, we excuse ourselves all the time, but the whole earth is going to be full of the glory of the Lord. 1 Chronicles 16, verse 24, and then 28 and 29. Declare His glory among the heathen, His marvelous works among all nations. This is a way that we can glorify God by declaring His glory among those that don't know Him. [00:09:51] Give unto the Lord, ye kindreds of the people. Give unto the Lord glory and strength. Give unto the Lord the glory due unto His name. Bring an offering and come before Him. Worship the Lord in the beauty of holiness. He gives us a whole list of things. Give the Lord the glory due to His name. Bring an offering. Worship Him in the beauty of holiness, so on. Now, Psalm chapter 19, verse 1, a number of psalms here that talk about the glory of the Lord. The heavens, and this is why I chose the picture that I did, the heavens declare the glory of God. [00:10:32] When you look out at the sky, that glorifies God. It just does. That's its purpose. One of its purposes. And so it's fulfilling the purpose that God planned for it. The heavens declare the glory of God. The firmament, the earth, shows His handiwork. Psalm 24, verses 7-10 Lift up your heads, O ye gates, and be ye lift up, ye everlasting doors, and the King of glory shall come in. [00:11:13] Who is this King of glory? The Lord, strong and mighty. The Lord, mighty in battle. Lift up your heads, O ye gates. Even lift them up, ye everlasting doors, and the King of glory shall come in. Who is this King of glory? The Lord of hosts. He is the King of glory. He's the King of glory. Glory doesn't just belong to Him. [00:11:45] He is glory. He's the King, the one who deserves and owns that title. Who deserves that honor. and respect. Psalm 96, verses 7 and 8. Give unto the Lord, O ye kindreds of the people, give unto the Lord glory and strength. Now, how can we give the Lord strength? He already is all-powerful, right? [00:12:16] How can we give Him strength? I think we give God strength when we lift Him up. We make God strong to those around us when we glorify Him. And I think it's important for us to consider that. Give unto the Lord the glory due unto His name. Bring an offering. Come into His courts. David says the same thing there that he said back earlier. Psalm 108, verse 5, Be thou exalted, O God, above the heavens, and thy glory above all the earth. [00:12:51] Isaiah talks about the glory of the Lord. In chapter 40, verse 5, the glory of the Lord shall be revealed. He's talking about the coming of Christ. The glory of the Lord shall be revealed and all flesh shall see it together for the mouth of the Lord has spoken it. What's that glory of the Lord? It's Jesus Christ Himself, right? Salvation. Redemption that comes to earth. All flesh shall see it. It's going to be an opportunity for all to understand. [00:13:26] Isaiah 42 verse 8 I am the Lord, Jehovah God, that is my name, and my glory will I not give to another, neither my praise to graven images. God is jealous. He deserves glory and praise, and He's not going to have that given to somebody else. Now, we do that. As human beings, we do that. Many of us have seen it happen, literally. [00:14:03] And many of us, and I shouldn't say many of us, all of us have done it spiritually. Truly, given his glory to another, and worshipped idols in place of him. Given his praise to idols. Isaiah chapter 66 verse 18 For I know their works and their thoughts. It shall come that I will gather all nations and tongues, and they shall come and see my glory. [00:14:37] There's going to come a time when all the people of the earth are going to see the glory of God. What's going to happen then? Every knee will bow and every tongue will confess that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God the Father. You see? He's going to show His glory and it's going to bring glory to Him. Everybody's going to confess at that time. [00:15:11] Habakkuk, chapter 2, verse 14. For the earth shall be filled with the knowledge of the glory of the Lord as the waters cover the sea. Isn't that interesting? The comparison that he uses. Just like the waters cover the sea, the vastness of it. The earth shall be filled with the knowledge of the glory of the Lord Now look what he warns over in Malachi chapter 2 verse 2 If you will not hear [00:15:43] And if you will not lay it to heart To give glory to my name Saith the Lord of hosts I will even send a curse upon you And I will curse your blessings Yea, I have cursed them already because ye do not lay it to heart. Now this was specifically for the children of Israel, but I think there's an application there for us as well. When we fail to glorify God, [00:16:17] when we don't take this seriously, when it isn't our purpose to glorify God, then God says, look, if you're not going to use what I gave you to glorify Me, I think we need to think about those things. Now, the glory of God in the Old Testament reminds us that God needs to be glorified. [00:16:54] When we worship and when we serve, we make God look awesome. And that's what glorifying God is all about. When we worship God and serve God, we make Him look awesome. What does my life make God look like? Does it make him look like an idol, some chunk of wood or stone that has no breath, has no thought? [00:17:40] Or does my life make God look like the great and high and holy, mighty God that he really is? I'm not talking about what we're doing in here this morning. I'm talking about our life. Because we can come this morning and we can say, Ah, God's awesome! God's awesome! But if we leave this place, and our life is lived for ourselves, and we do those things that please us, [00:18:14] we make God look like dirt. All right, just a couple of verses there, Matthew 5, 16. Jesus says, and I want to go down through and notice, there's a lot of ways the Bible tells us that we can glorify God. One is our good works. Jesus said, let your light so shine before men that they may see your good works and what? [00:18:49] and glorify God, glorify your Father which is in heaven. Look, our good works are there to glorify God. They don't save us. They cannot save us. And don't even think that somehow because we've done so well that we've earned salvation. It doesn't work that way. When we become saved, when we become new creatures in Christ, then we want to glorify God. [00:19:22] And how do we do that? By serving Him, by worshiping Him, by doing good works. You remember what T.H. told us that convinced him that God was real? You remember what he said? He watched some people, didn't he? And as he watched those people day after day after day after day, [00:19:54] he became convinced in his mind that the Christian's God was real. Their good works glorified God. Peter says the same thing. He said, you know, don't be ashamed if you suffer for good works, for doing good things. Don't be ashamed of that. He was talking to a suffering church. Don't be ashamed of that. That glorifies God. [00:20:27] Miracles can glorify God. Matthew chapter 15 verse 31 In so much that the whole multitude wondered when they saw the dumb to speak, the maimed to behold, the lame to walk, and the blind to see, and they glorified the God of Israel. Well, one of the sad things, and Paul talks about this when he talks about the gifts, one of the sad things that happens, and it happens so easily in our lives, is that we want to take what God has blessed us with and use it to glorify ourselves, to make us look good. [00:21:13] Wow! You know, you can just see Paul going around saying to Peter and John, Hey guys, did you hear? There was people over in this other country, man, I sent them a handkerchief and they touched it and they were healed. That happened. Paul didn't do that, did he? He used his gifts to glorify God. And I personally believe, I really honestly believe this, that one of the reasons why we don't see more of this type of thing is because we want to be glorified through it. [00:21:52] God said, told the people in Malachi, you want to take my blessings and not glorify me with them? I'm going to curse them. I'll take them away. I'll make them so you don't like them. So miracles can glorify God. Seeing God at work should cause us to glorify Him. Luke chapter 2 verse 20 This is when the angels appeared to the shepherds and told them about Jesus and how they had went and seen the baby. [00:22:26] And the shepherds returned glorifying and praising God for all the things that they had heard and seen as it was told unto them. When we see God at work, we should glorify Him. And we see it. If we're watching, it's happening around us, day by day. A loud voice can glorify God when it comes from a grateful heart. This is the story of the ten lepers that came to Jesus there in Luke chapter 17. [00:23:03] These ten lepers came to Jesus and Jesus healed them. He told them, go show yourself to the priest and go through the rituals that you need to go through for your purification and cleansing. There was one that came back. One of them, when he saw that he was healed, turned back and with a loud voice glorified God. [00:23:35] What motivated that loud voice? A grateful heart. He saw that he was healed. He saw that God had touched him. He saw what God had done. And so he glorified Jesus with a loud voice. When we ask in Jesus' name, it glorifies God. What is that? John chapter 14 verse 13 Whatsoever ye shall ask in my name, that will I do, that the Father may be glorified in the Son. [00:24:14] What are we doing when we ask in Jesus' name? Does this mean at the end of our prayer we say in Jesus' name, Amen? Is that what it means to ask in Jesus' name? Hopefully that's what we mean by it when we say it. But that's not all that's included. Asking in Jesus' name means we're in His purpose, right? Who does the Father hear? [00:24:48] The Son. And Jesus could ask anything of His Father and His Father would hear Him and do it, right? Remember when Jesus was in the garden, He said, Father, if it be possible, let this cup pass from Me. Was it possible? No. It didn't pass. But Jesus was constantly talking to His Father and asking His Father about things. And His Father was giving Him what He desired, what He longed for. [00:25:23] Now, when we ask in Jesus' name, we come to God just as if we were His Son, Jesus. We're asking in Jesus' name. If I go to someone that's very important and I ask for something in my name, it doesn't mean anything. But if I ask in their son's name, and I have that relationship with their son, [00:25:59] and their son has told me that I should come and ask his father, then I've got some ground to stand on, don't I? I've got some traction, man. I can get something happening. That's what he's talking about. Asking in Jesus' name glorifies God. Why? Because I am fulfilling the purpose that God gave for my life. My purpose is to glorify Jesus, and as I glorify Jesus, God is glorified. [00:26:32] What did Jesus say? I, if I be lifted up, will draw all men to me and to the Father. Now, bearing fruit glorifies God. There's a message that's been on my heart here for a while, I'll probably preach one of these times, about the issue of leaves and fruit. What's the difference between a fruit tree and a leaf tree? [00:27:14] Remember, Jesus saw one of those. Him and his disciples were walking along. As they walked along the path, he came to this tree. He walked up to it. And he started looking. What was on the tree? Leaves. Looked beautiful. There was nothing wrong with the tree except one thing. What was it? There wasn't any fruit. There was nothing there that was going to bring any glory to God. [00:27:48] Everything there was bringing glory to itself. You know what? Our lives bring glory to God when we bear fruit. Now, when we think about this, there's basically two things. Fruit is reproductive, and the fruit of the Spirit is spoken of specifically as something that should be happening in our lives. [00:28:19] So we need to ask ourselves, John 15 verse 8, Herein is my Father glorified, that ye bear much fruit, so shall ye be my disciples. Bearing fruit is one of God's plans for our lives. He doesn't want us to just be a tree that looks good and people walk up to it and say, Oh, that tree looks so nice. He wants that tree to do something for them that causes them to glorify God. [00:28:57] Now, completing our life work glorifies God. Fulfilling the purpose that God has for me. John 17, this is Jesus. I have glorified thee on earth. I have finished the work that you gave me to do. This is what Jesus told his father as he prayed and as he was praying for us. And he prayed, if you read through that prayer there in John 15, 16, 17 there, [00:29:31] Jesus prayed for us that we could glorify God. And he talked about the fact that unity is an important part of glorifying God. Read those verses. Well, that's the next point really. Like-mindedness according to Christ glorifies God. Romans chapter 15 verse 6 That ye may with one mind and one mouth glorify God, even the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. [00:30:03] Like-mindedness, if you look at the verses before this, it brings in this matter of according to Christ. He says, like-mindedness, that we work together to bring glory to God. God's mercy, when we receive it, brings God glory. Romans, chapter 15, verse 9. that the Gentiles might glorify God for His mercy. As it is written, [00:30:34] For this cause I will confess to thee among the Gentiles and sing unto thy name. You know who we are? We're Gentiles. There's two people, two kinds of people that the Bible talks about. There's the Jews and there's the Gentiles. The Jews were God's chosen people in the Old Testament. The Gentiles were the heathen. He says, look, that the Gentiles might glorify God for His mercy. [00:31:07] When you and I lift up the mercy of God, we glorify God. It's only because of that mercy that any of us have opportunity to be part of God's family. We could have been excluded because we're not Jews. But His mercy allowed us to come in Now, here's the verse that I want us to think about Our body and our spirit were redeemed so we could glorify God [00:31:37] 1 Corinthians chapter 6 verse 20 For ye are bought with a price, therefore glorify God How? Where? In your body and in your spirit, what's the rest? What's the rest of the verse? Therefore glorify God in your body and in your spirit, which are God's. [00:32:11] They belong to Him. God has given me my body. God has given me my spirit. It's my responsibility to glorify God with my body, my hands, my feet, my ears, my tongue, my mind, my emotions, that which is within me. It's my responsibility to glorify God with that. Did he say it's optional? [00:32:43] He said you're bought with a price. You've been redeemed. The blood of Jesus Christ has been shed for you so that you could be God's. So that you could come back to God. So that you could belong to God. Now therefore, stop and see what it's there for. Now therefore, because of what Jesus Christ has done for you, now therefore, it only makes sense, it's only a logical conclusion, that we glorify God with the body and the spirit that He's redeemed. [00:33:18] It only makes sense. And He's not offering it to us as something that we just kind of haphazardly have a choice about whether we want to do or not. He's putting it out to us as something that's required. Something that has to happen in our lives. And I've been thinking a lot about this lately. How about my own life? How about my own body? How about my own spirit? How am I doing? In glorifying God, I think it's something we all need to think about. [00:33:57] You know, are my words glorifying God? And here again, it goes back to that question I asked us earlier. Are my life and how I live, is it making God look good or is it making Him look like dirt? You know, when I leave a place of business, does the guy say, wow, if that's a Christian, I sure never want to be one. Or does he say, wow, I wish the world was full of people like this. [00:34:33] Our submission to the gospel and our willingness to share material goods glorifies God. 2 Corinthians chapter 9 verse 13 Whilst by the experiment of this ministration they glorify God for your professed subjection to the gospel of Christ and for your liberal distribution unto them and to all men. [00:35:06] See what he's telling the Corinthians? He says, look, you're glorifying God because of your subjection to Christ. You're glorifying God because of your willingness to share your material possessions. Those are ways that we can glorify God. Well, how much do we want to glorify God? The more we give, the more it glorifies Him. [00:35:42] Is that a good conclusion? The more we submit to the will of God, to the gospel of Christ, the more we glorify Him? Sure, we'd agree to that. Well then what about the giving part? The more we give of our material goods, the more we glorify God? Something to think about. Something the scriptures tell us. Using our abilities to the fullest extent glorifies God. 1 Peter 4.11 [00:36:12] If a man speak, let him speak as the oracles of God. If any man minister, let him do it as of the ability which God giveth. That God may in all things be glorified through Jesus Christ To whom be praise and dominion forever and ever Amen When we do something half-heartedly Or drag in our feet [00:36:43] What does that do to the Lord? Does it make him look good? Or does it lift him up? Using our abilities to the fullest, to the max. When I go into life and I take hold of what God has given me to do and I do it to the max, that glorifies God. [00:37:15] If I don't, it doesn't glorify God. You know why? Because it's saying, what I'm saying by that is, that God isn't worth it. It's not worth it. I mean, yeah, if I feel like doing it, I'll do it. If I don't feel like doing it, I won't. Peter also talks about suffering for Christ as something that glorifies God. [00:37:45] Now, I'm not advocating that we go and try to get somebody to beat us so that we can glorify God. Don't start saying things to people so they punch you out and then think you're glorifying God. That's not what we're talking about. But we often hear, and we don't hear enough, of what's happening in our world, around the world, people suffering for Christ. [00:38:18] If any man suffer as a Christian, let him not be ashamed, but let him glorify God on his behalf, on this behalf. When we suffer for Christ, it brings God glory. And so when you read about all those, you take the book Martyrs Mirror, and you start to read about all those who suffered and gave their life for Christ, that brought glory to God. [00:38:50] And you think about all the Christians that are suffering around the world right now. Hundreds of thousands of them Suffering simply because they are a Christian That's what Peter says If any man suffer as a Christian If we suffer, he tells us, if we're suffering because we did wrong That doesn't glorify God You know, if we smart it off to somebody and they smack us That doesn't glorify God [00:39:22] But if, because we've lived for God and chosen to stand for Him, we suffer, that glorifies God. And I, you know, it's interesting. You remember what happened with Peter and John after they got beaten and told not to speak anymore in the name of Jesus? They returned back to the group and they said, they rejoiced that they were counted worthy to suffer for Christ and bear His reproach. [00:39:57] They were back there, they weren't saying, oh man, it hurts so bad. Oh, I'll never say that again. No, they were saying, hey, we're counted worthy to suffer for Christ. It's a blessing that He's chosen us and called us to participate in His sufferings. He suffered for us, why shouldn't we suffer for Him? He suffered for us and that glorified God. If we suffer for Him, that will glorify God too. It's a foreign concept to our minds. [00:40:33] To American Christians, the best way to glorify God is to be healthy, wealthy, and wise, right? To most American Christians, that's the case. And we have more of that in our minds than we realize. We shy away from anything that isn't pleasant and comfortable. I want to ask us a question as we close. And I want us to think about, each of us, think about this. [00:41:04] How can I glorify God more perfectly each day? He's got a long list. He gave us plenty of ammunition. You know, it's interesting. God didn't tell us to do something and leave us to figure out how. He said, look, I want to be glorified and here's how you do it. And we've looked at a number of those. So I'd like to challenge us to think about [00:41:35] And what I'd like to do with this Is I'd like you to pick one of these One of these that I've given this morning Take it and use it for your life this week You know, we look at this and we say, oh wow, that's a lot of stuff No, just take one Pick out one, pray to God and ask Him to show you which one He wants you to use this week to glorify Him. [00:42:07] And then maybe take another and another week and make it where the rubber meets the road. Okay? Let's stand together for prayer. God, You've spoken to my heart this morning. You reminded me of what a poor job I really do of glorifying You. Lord, there's so many ways, so many avenues, so many opportunities, so many places that You've given us to glorify. [00:42:50] And yet, I know for myself, Lord, I often don't do that. I often don't make you look good. And I pray, Father, that you forgive me. I pray that you forgive us when we fail. And I pray that your Holy Spirit just stir in our minds, in our bodies, in our spirits, Lord, that we consider the call that you have on our lives. We consider the purpose that we have to fulfill, to glorify you. [00:43:35] And I pray that you give us grace and strength, wisdom, Lord, to do that to the max. So that you are lifted up. So that you are glorified. So that the people around us say, what an awesome God He serves. What an awesome God they serve. We want Him to be our God. Let's pray that you would bless our time of fellowship, the meal that we share together, and the time of singing. [00:44:13] Lord, that it could be a real time of blessing in each of our lives for your glory. We want to do this today, dear Lord, for your glory. We pray it in Jesus' name. Amen.