How to Bring Glory to God in the New Year

Hey everybody, Greg Laurie here. You're listening to the Greg Laurie Podcast and my objective is to deliver, hopefully, compelling practical insights in faith, culture, and current events from a biblical perspective. To find out more about our ministry, just go to our website, harvest.org.

So thanks for joining me for this podcast. I am here to pursue pleasure. I am here to pursue God. The purpose of the universe is God's long term glory rather than our short term happiness. Then we will undergo a critical paradigm shift in tackling the problem of suffering." That is a good point. The purpose of the universe is God's long term glory not my short term happiness.

Here is the bottom line. When you seek to fulfill the purpose you were created for which is to know, glorify, and worship God, you will find the purpose. You will find the purpose of the purpose in your life.

the happiness you have been seeking in life. Not from seeking happiness but from seeking God. The Bible says happy are the people whose God is the Lord.

Psalm 16 says, in His presence there is fullness of joy and on His right hand there are pleasures forevermore. Yes God created you for His glory. Isaiah 43 says, God speaking, everyone who was called by My name whom I created for My glory whom I formed and made.

Ephesians 1 and 11 says God chose us from the beginning for all things happened just as He decided long ago God's purpose was that we who were the first to trust in Christ should praise our glorious God. So you say well I don't understand what that means. Does that mean that I have to be in a you know 24 hour worship service? You know singing songs to God is not the only way we worship.

Let me put it another way. It is entirely possible to sing songs to God and not worship at all. Worship is not just about singing.

It is about the movement of the heart to the Lord. I mean I could sing songs from the sound of music and be about as close to God as some Christians are when they sing praise songs because there is no thought of God whatsoever. But if I am really worshiping the Lord, because what is worship really when we sing?

It is prayer set to song. When I am worshiping the Lord that is one way to glorify Him. But there are many other ways to glorify God. In fact I am told over in 1 Corinthians 6 19, don't you know your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you.

You were bought with a price. Therefore glorify God in your body and in your spirit which are God's. 1 Corinthians 10 31 says, whatever you do, do it for the glory of God. Listen. Whatever you do in life glorify God with it. Be it academics, sports, business, music, you name it.

Fill in blank here. Let me put it another way. If you can't write, hallowed be Thy name over what you are doing, then don't do it anymore. So as we go into the new year I should say, am I glorifying God in the work that I do? Am I glorifying God in the free time that I have? Am I glorifying God in the friends that I choose to hang out with? Am I glorifying God with my time? Am I glorifying God with my money? Am I glorifying God with my existence? Because that is why I have been put here on this earth. One of my favorite films of all time is Pee Wee's Big Adventure. No it isn't.

I just wanted to see if you are listening. Now one of my favorite films is Chariots of Fire. It is a great story and I don't want to get into what it is all about but it features the character of Eric Little who was a Christian who lived in Scotland and he competed in the Olympics. He was a great runner.

As I said a committed believer and ultimately went into missionary work. But this movie is a story of his life contrasted with another runner. And there is a scene in the film where Eric's sister Jenny is sort of chiding him because she feels he is wasting his time racing you see. She feels he should be out on the mission field doing this work instead of running in these races and so forth. And so she tells him that he isn't doing what God made him for. And there is a scene in the film where Eric who is Scottish responds and I will try to do it in my best Scottish accent. He says, I Jenny I know. But he is. Let me see. Start over.

It is going to be really not that good. Ok. She reminds Eric that God made him for himself. She says, Eric you were made for God.

Ah. He says, I Jenny I know. But he also made me fast.

And when I run I feel his pleasure. That was really bad I know. But listen. Don't miss what he was saying. Don't clap for that. No don't. Ok. That is it. You like that? Next week my whole message Scottish accent.

Alright. Turn to their babies. It is even getting worse. Starting to stop while I am ahead. He says, when I run I feel his pleasure. You know when you are doing that thing that God made you to do you can feel his pleasure can't you? It is called finding the sweet spot. If you play tennis you know there is a sweet spot in a racket.

And if you hit the sweet spot it gives you maximum impact on the ball. And we have a sweet spot in life don't we where when you do this one thing for God's glory just say amen. I feel his pleasure doing this.

Because you were wired to do that thing. That is why you are here. We are all here to do that. So I think that we should all consider how well we are fulfilling our purpose here on earth. Because our belief in the afterlife should inform our choices in the before life.

What does it mean to be heavenly minded? Ok. Let's go back now to Colossians 3 that we already alluded to. But I am going to read the next verses. Because now we go from, well I don't want to say the sublime to the practical, but in a way that sums it up.

This is all practical really when you get down to it. But really what it does is it shows us how our belief in the afterlife affects us in the before life. Colossians 3. Verse 5. Therefore put to death your members which are on the earth. Fornication and cleanness, passion, evil desire, covetousness, which is idolatry. Because of these things the wrath of God is coming on the sons of disobedience in which you yourselves once walked when you lived in them.

Now you yourselves put these off. Anger, wrath, malice, blasphemy, filthy language out of your mouth. Don't lie one to another since you put off the old man with his deeds and have put on the new man which is renewed in knowledge. I want you to notice Paul starts with the word therefore. Whenever you see the word therefore find out what it is there for. Paul is drawing on what he has already said.

What did he say? Hey set your mind on things above. Think heaven. Pursue heaven.

Now in light of this don't pursue these other things. And he identifies three sins that keep us earthbound if you will. Three sins that keep us from being heavenly minded. Number one. Sexual sin.

Keeps us earthbound. Paul mentions the word fornication in verse 5. It is from the root word porneia. This speaks of sexual immorality in general. And this isn't just the person who is sexually immoral but it is a person who fills their mind with this stuff. You know you might pride yourself on the fact that you don't go out and do those things. Well I have never been unfaithful to my spouse or I didn't have sex before marriage. Well great.

Fantastic. But do you fill your minds with pornography? Do you fill your minds and your lives with all this sexual stuff and fantasize about it all the time? Jesus told us that we look at a woman to lust after her. It is like committing adultery with her. So Paul is saying don't let sex control your life in this way.

Number two. Idolatry keeps us earthbound. Idolatry. He says covetousness which is idolatry. You know a lot of us don't even know what coveting is.

It made the top ten. It is one of the Ten Commandments. Thou shall not covet.

I believe that with all of my heart. You shall not covet. What does it mean to covet?

I have no idea but we should not do it. Well the Bible defines it for us. The word covet comes from two root words. To have and more. Basically to have more. It is a person who always wants more. The covetous person is never satisfied with what they have. They want what someone else has. Does that make sense? And then when they get it they don't want it anymore.

It is a thrill of the hunt. Hebrews 13 5 says, Let your life be without covetousness. Be content with such things as you have.

For He has said, I will never leave you or forsake you. Contentment does not come from what you have. It comes from who you know. And if you like David can say, The Lord is my shepherd, you will also be able to say, I shall not want.

Because your contentment is in your relationship with God. Let me turn this around. It is not always bad to want more. In this coming year I encourage you want more. More of Jesus. More opportunities to glorify God. More spiritual fruit. More. It is not enough. You want more. That is a good thing.

Finally number three. Anger, meanness, and slandering others keeps us earthbound. Anger, meanness, and slandering others keeps us earthbound.

Verse 8. Anger, wrath, malice, blasphemy, filthy language keep it out of your mouth. The word anger speaks of a settled and habitual anger with the thought of revenge. We all get angry at times.

We are not human if we don't. That is not what this is talking about. Oh that made me angry. This is a settled anger. This is a person that says, I don't get mad. I get even. So punk.

Are you feeling lucky? Clint Eastwood. Imitation. This is speaking of a person that has a deep-seated anger. And it also speaks of a person that flies off the handle.

But here is an interesting twist that you might not know from reading this translation. The word blasphemy is used. And you think yeah don't blaspheme God. Actually in context the original word that is used is not speaking of blaspheming God.

It is speaking of blaspheming or speaking ill of others. It is called gossip. And by the way our culture trades in gossip.

There are websites dedicated to the latest gossip. We hear it. We tweet it. We text it. We email it. We post it on our Facebook page. Is it true?

I don't know. But it is juicy. It is fun. Unless you are the person that is being gossiped about.

Unless you are the person being lied about. Here I have an acronym for you in this coming year. An acronym that you could use as a grid to run things through. When you hear something about someone else before you repeat it think of this acronym.

Think. T-H-I-N-K. T stands for is it truthful. H stands for is it helpful. I stands for is it inspiring. N stands for is it necessary. K stands for is it kind.

Before you repeat that information are you sure this is true? Is it going to be helpful? Is it going to inspire someone? Is it really necessary?

And is it kind? You might respond and say, well Greg if I applied that acronym to my life I wouldn't say anything. Amen.

Do us all a favor and shut up if you are spreading that kind of information. The best way to turn away from one thing is to find something better. As one old minister put it, it is the expulsive power of a new affection.

I love that phrase. The expulsive power of a new affection. Coming back to kids. You want to get a kid to let go of something you get something better. What about this?

Oh I want. And then you know you get that other thing out of their hand like the hammer or whatever. You really start thinking more about and seeking heaven. Which is to say putting the Lord first in every area from the thoughts you think to the friends you choose to the way you use your time it will transform you.

Listen. You are a child of God if you are a Christian. And that means you are a citizen of heaven.

It is time to start acting like one. Why? Because life comes and goes so quickly. Before you know it you will be standing before God. But here is the good news.

If we have that expulsive power of a new affection. If we put God first in our life we will have very fulfilling lives here on earth. C. S. Lewis said and I quote, aim at heaven and you will get earth thrown in.

Aim at earth and you will get neither. End quote. Isn't that a great statement? I am thinking of the Lord. I am focusing on the Lord and I end up living a fulfilling life. And then life comes to an end.

And I am going to tell you something. All the health food solutions are not going to extend your life one day. You can eat your free range chicken. And your organic vegetables.

And all the tofu your heart desires. And you are going to live as long as God wants you to live. Because He appoints a day of your birth. He appoints a day of your death. And then comes eternity. And then what happens?

Listen. Heaven is not the default destination of every person. Heaven is the destination of the person who has their ticket I alluded to earlier. Say what do you mean this ticket? I am talking about you have your reservation. You know you are going there. You put your faith in Christ. Thus you are assured you will go to heaven when you die. Well how do you get this ticket you might ask.

How much will it cost me. Oh you couldn't afford it. All the good works. All the religiosity. All the rituals. Won't get you this ticket. This is a blood bought ticket. Bought with the blood of Christ as He hung on the cross and died in our place and rose again from the dead.

But you know what? He loves to give this ticket out. He loves to extend His forgiveness.

It is not like He is holding it back. He said, hey man I want you to take this ticket. It is yours. I read about somebody who had just found a lottery ticket worth a lot of money.

And it was just laying under a pile of leaves. I don't know what the person said. I don't want this. And I am not advocating buying lottery tickets. It is just an illustration.

I think it is one of the biggest wastes of your money to buy lottery tickets. But that is another story for another day. And I will do it in a Scottish accent I promise. But here is something of great value discarded under a pile of leaves. And that is how the gospel is for many people. There it is. The greatest offer of all eternity.

We go oh yeah what is that? Oh who cares. I will move on. But I will tell you what. When life comes to an end you will realize that is the most important thing of all. Jesus died on the cross. He rose again from the dead. He stands now at the door of your life.

And if you will hear His voice and open the door He will come in. Hey everybody. Greg Laurie here. Thanks for listening to our podcast. And to learn more about Harvest Ministries please subscribe and consider supporting this show. Just go to Harvest.org. And by the way if you want to find out how to come into a personal relationship with God go to KnowGod.org. That is K-N-O-W-G-O-D.org.