Ephesians 3, 13 down to verse 21. Ephesians, one of my favorite books, and it's really kind of a launching place for today's message, verse 13, Paul writes, Wherefore I desire that you faint not at my tribulation for you, which is your glory. Paul is being persecuted facing trial and tribulation because of his faithful preaching, and he says that there is glory in the trial, there is glory in the persecution, just like the cross of Christ was a place of glory, wasn't it?
And in that Christ was put on display. Verse 14 says, For this cause I bow my knees unto the Father, of our Lord Jesus Christ, of whom the whole family in heaven and earth is named, that he would grant you, according to the riches of his glory, to be strengthened with might by his spirit and the inner man, that Christ may dwell in your hearts by faith, that you, being rooted and grounded in love, may be able to comprehend with all saints what is the breadth and length and depth and height, and to know the love of Christ, which passeth knowledge that you might be filled with all the fullness of God. Now unto him that is able to do exceeding abundantly above all that we ask or think, according to the power that worketh in us, and if you'd read verse 21 with me, unto him be glory in the church by Christ Jesus throughout all ages, world without end.
Amen. And Father, that is our prayer today that in the church, Jesus Christ would be glorified throughout all ages. We desire your glory in this place, and we pray that as we come today that we would make much of Christ, that you would be the center of our hearts and our affections and our motives. I pray today if anyone doesn't know the Lord Jesus Christ as their savior, that today would be the day that they would repent and place their faith in the only savior. We thank you for your mercy, and we pray that all that's said and done today that your name would be lifted on high. We ask it in Jesus' name, and God's people said, man, you may be seated this morning.
I have to confess, it's really encouraging to see this kind of a turnout at 830 on a snowy Sunday morning, and thank you for your faithfulness and desire to be here. Over the past six weeks, we have directed our focus to the future plans we believe God has for the church. We have entitled it our Eternal Impact Initiative. And first of all, it's eternal, which means we are seeking to focus on the eternal over the temporary and to live for what really matters, to not squander our life on the world's priorities, not to waste our life like Esau squandered his future for a bowl of beans, to not only focus on the eternal and what lasts forever, but also to live for what lasts, and that's why we call it an eternal impact, something that is impactful in life. The word impact means to have a significant or major effect.
Synonyms are influence, swaying people, affecting people, reaching people. In essence, to make an impact is to have your life make a difference. And I think most people want their life to matter in this world that they don't just float through life, but they would have a positive impact. And the question is, how can you have an eternal impact?
How can you live beyond what the temporary offers you? What can you do that will last forever? And the way that you can make an eternal impact is to invest your life in the gospel of Jesus Christ.
It is to live your life for that which will last and affect people forever. Jesus came to build his church. He said, I've come to build my church. He didn't come to build hospitals and I'm so thankful for hospitals. He didn't say I came to build schools.
He didn't come to build the Red Cross and Blue Shield and all the other options of health insurance and care and ministries that can be in the world. He said, I've come to build my church and he said, the gates of hell will not prevail against it. And when he left and he had risen from the dead and he ascended into heaven, he gave them a great commission. He said, go into all the world and preach the gospel, baptize them and teach them to observe all things that I have commanded you and I am with you always.
That was not a great suggestion. It was a great commission and he was giving them a divine order to go and propagate the gospel, to make disciples of all nations, to baptize them and then to teach them the word of God. The mission of the church is to preach the gospel, to see people saved, to see them baptized, to teach them the word of God, to continue the work that Jesus Christ came to do, to invest your life in what he gave his life for. And to invest in a gospel preaching church is to invest in eternal work that will make an eternal impact, to invest your time by being here, to invest your abilities by serving here and to invest your resources by giving here.
God has allowed Lighthouse to make an eternal impact. There have been thousands of people every week that are reached with the gospel through the ministries of this church, thousands of people. We have usually around 700 people that are here on Sundays. We have another 350 or so back on Wednesday nights. We have a lot of kids we are able to minister to.
We have people who come here from over 30 cities that are members. We have thousands that we gave to missions and this is just the beginning of what God has begun to do in this work. For a couple weeks we've looked at the purpose of Lighthouse and we've defined our purpose as knowing Christ and making him known. Paul said, I count everything but loss that I may know him. Knowing Christ in salvation, to know Christ in relationship, to know him. And then not only to know him but the Bible says we need to make him known to not only receive the truth of Christ but also to give the truth of Christ. I grew up in churches that didn't tell me that there was a priority for my life to tell other people about Jesus. If you're in a church that never encourages you to share the gospel, that's not a good thing, is it?
That's a problem. I grew up in churches that didn't even know what the gospel was. I was religious and lost. I knew things about the Bible but I didn't know the Christ of the Bible.
Make him known. And that's our purpose. And today I want to look at the core values of Lighthouse. Core values are the fundamental beliefs that guide all that we do.
It's the foundational stones. And we have three core values at Lighthouse. The first is to glorify God supremely in all we do. Second is to love people sincerely where they are.
Love is a top shelf issue to God. Is it not to love God with all of our heart? Secondly, to love others as ourself. And then thirdly, to carry out the Great Commission with passion.
We're going to look at these things over the next weeks. And I believe the reason that most churches die, the reason that most Christians wilt in so many ministries are ineffective, is they've moved away from these three biblical imperatives. Lighthouse will only be a thriving ministry when the truths of God's word are propagated and elevated here. When we make much of these three core values, we will make an eternal impact. And finally, we're going to look at the priority of glorifying God supremely. The priority of this is found all through the Bible. When Paul was writing to the church at Corinth, he said in 1 Corinthians 10 31, whether therefore you eat or drink or whatsoever you do, do all to the glory of God. Now, interestingly, in that statement, it starts with the very simple, the very mundane, the very light areas of life, such as eating and drinking. These are small things. You can glorify God in even the small things of life, eating and drinking.
And then he moves into the superlative degree. He says, in whatsoever you do, do all to the glory of God, not only in the small things, but also in all things, big and small. Now, what does glory mean? Glory is from the Greek word doxa.
It's where we get the word doxology from. In reference to God, it means the splendor, the majesty, the glory, and everything else. We see the glory and excellency that belongs only to God. God is the very essence of what glory is. In fact, there is nothing glorious that God did not have his hand in. Scripture manifestly declares that God alone is worthy of glorious. Psalms 29 verse 2 says, give unto the Lord the glory due his name.
1 Corinthians 1 31, he that glorieth, let him glory in the Lord. Man's purpose could be summarized no better than what it was at the Westminster Shorter Catechism when they asked the question, what is the chief end of man? And the answer is man's chief end is to glorify God and enjoy him forever. We are created for his glory. You are in existence to bring glory to God. Isaiah 43 6, bring my sons from afar and my daughters from the ends of the world, even everyone that is called by my name, for I have created him for my glory. You're not here by accident.
Is that good news? Aren't you glad you didn't come from some slime that evolved out of the soupy essence and turned into a swinging essence that lost its tail and turned upright? Aren't you glad that you're not an evolutionary chance? You are made by God on purpose for purpose. The disciples of the Lord understood this. They were driven by this. They understood this is the purpose of their existence. It is the goal and aim of their life was to glorify God. Romans 11 36, the Bible says that that great doxological conclusion, if you read through Romans, which is basically the constitution of Christianity, first 11 chapters are doctrine. You get to the end of that.
It goes into application in chapter number 12 and on. But at the end of that, after the end of talking about the great doctrines of election and God's sovereignty and how he's bringing both Jew and Gentile to be one in Christ, he cries out in Romans 11 36 for of him and through him and to him are all things to whom be glory, both now and forever. Galatians 1 5 to whom be glory forever and ever. Revelation 1 6 talking of Christ to him be glory and dominion forever and ever. And it just saturates the entire New Testament. Therefore, Lighthouse must be a church that does all things for the glory of God. We agree with Paul that unto him be glory in the church by Christ Jesus throughout all ages, world without end.
Amen. Someone may say, Well, didn't the people at Lighthouse work and serve and give and teach and preach and build? And isn't there room for man to receive some applause?
I mean, look at all that's going on. The Bible tells us in Second Corinthians three verse five, not that we are sufficient anything to think anything is of ourselves, but our sufficiency is of God. And listen what he says next, who also hath made us able ministers of the New Testament.
The only reason that we can perform any work for God is because God's performed that work in us. You won't find any of the pastors, elders, leaders names written on this church building. When you come up, you probably have a little bit of difficulty finding out who the pastor is. Like, who's the pastor? Where's his name? Does he have a picture in the hallway?
Is his name on the sign or on the side of the building? No. Or any of the other pastors or elders or deacons or leaders? No. We this isn't Josh Bevan Ministries dot org.
Isn't it miserable when you hear those kind of things? God is the one who started Lighthouse. God is the one who builds it. God gets all the glory for everything. There's only one person that is irreplaceable here, and it's the Lord Jesus Christ.
He is the single focus that must be for all that we do. And so the glory of God is central to the New Testament. It's central to the entire Bible. Secondly, I want to distinguish God's intrinsic glory from what's known as the ascribed glory of God. There's two ways the Bible speaks about glory in the Bible. Two ways it refers to glory in the Bible.
The first way is it speaks about God's intrinsic glory, and the second is it's what we call his ascribed glory. Now, the intrinsic glory is the sum and substance of all that God is. It is the composite of his attributes. It is his holiness, his righteousness, his wrath, his glory, his infinity, his immutability.
It is his unchangingness. It is all that he is because he is God. He is worthy of glory by his very nature.
He possesses these divine attributes. This brings us to the second use of glory in the Bible, and it is what's known as ascribed glory. And that is the glory that is given to God by his creation. In essence, it's the response of the creation who comes in contact with the one who is intrinsically glorious. It is the praise and worship that we give to the intrinsic glory of God. In fact, the word worship comes from worth ship. It is giving reverence to the one who is glorious, who has dignity, distinction, and renown.
Worship is the reverence you pay him. Worship is the response to that which is most excellent. And man was designed to respond to greatness, right? I mean, we're the only creation that does that.
Nothing else in the created order responds to greatness. You know, falcons don't line up and say, he just broke 150 miles an hour on that dive. You know, bears don't get together and say, who can push the biggest tree over? Cheetahs don't get together and race.
Who's the fastest? God engineered in us an excitement for greatness. We respond to excellence. We love seeing who can do something the best. Why are we like that? Who created that in us alone?
God did that. And the pinnacle of excitement will be when we see the intrinsic glory of the all-consuming God. Forever we will respond in adoration and overwhelming praise.
When the Eagles thumped the Chiefs. I did not have to be told, hey, this is a time to get excited. I probably shouldn't say this, probably made some people not want to listen to me preach anymore. Let me go another direction.
It'll make most people feel good. When Ohio's steep throttle Oregon. Right. Who was the last game they played? Notre Dame. Yeah. When they beat Notre Dame.
Yes. I mean, you don't have to be like, hey, they scored. You should get excited. We get excited in response to those things. And God should cause a thrill in our soul, an excitement in our hearts that when we learn things of him and see things of him, that we would respond in such joy. Now, it's important to know we do not make God glorious with worship. Rather, we are declaring the intrinsic glory that in fact alone belongs to God because of who he is. We are like the moon. The moon doesn't create light.
It reflects the light the sun is giving. We are reflecting back to God the glory that is his. We we worship him. That's a that's a response to him.
So so this is how it works. The more that you understand about the intrinsic glory to God, the more that you can give the ascribed glory to him. That's why one man said the pastor is the true worship leader of the church.
As he brings people down into the word, they can go up in praise. That's why if you don't know the Bible, your worship will be very limited. Ask yourself, how much do you know the Bible? Do you read it?
Do you know it? And if you don't, how will you know who God is? You begin to create him based upon what you think or somebody else tells you. You have to know what the Bible says.
The Bible tells us and commands us to study, to learn it, to know it. And so worship is is elevated when you understand more of who he is. Today, we say also we say things like, let's magnify the Lord. Psalm 34 3 says, oh, magnify the Lord with me.
Let us exalt his name. Mary said, my soul does magnify the Lord. We think about magnifying glasses. And what a magnifying glass does is it will take something that's very small and make it very big. That is not what we do, and that's not what we mean when we say let's magnify the Lord.
That would actually be blasphemous to say that, you know, I'm going to make God, who is very small, something very big. There's also what's known as a telescope. It magnifies objects.
But in that case, it looks out into space. It's something that's magnificent and massive beyond what our comprehension can sometimes grasp. And it elevates it. It brings it more into perspective, not all the way.
It still limits it so much. But we have a better idea that that little tiny dot in the sky is so big that some of those dots, you could have thousands of Earth's that could fit inside of that one tiny dot. If they came in contact, consuming heat and glory and radiation from that power. And that's what we're talking about in magnifying God. We are seeking to see him through the lens of scripture and the glory that is his so that we can ascribe the rightful glory to his name. Therefore, to give glory to God, to worship God is to give also weightiness to God. The word glory comes from the Hebrew word kabod. The root word is kabod, and it means to be heavy or weighty. It doesn't mean that God has physical weight.
It means that we give him weightiness. It's kind of like if somebody comes in, if you're talking to a military gentleman before service, and we have colonels and different people who've served a lot of different aspects in our church, and we honor those guys and those who served in all the different branches. But if you're in the military and a general walks in the room, you're not like, hey, what's up, John? All the military people just got a big grin on their face and laugh because they're like, yeah, you don't. You're a moron if you did that.
You're out of your mind to do something like that. You would stand up and salute. You would give respect because weightiness just walked into the room. And sometimes we say, you know, what they said was really heavy, like that was heavy. And the opposite of that, the opposite of being heavy or kabod, and the word kabod is actually translated as glory in the Bible. To give glory to God is to give weightiness to God, to give heaviness to the things of God. The opposite of kabod is the word from which we get the word vain.
Vein means without any weight. You ever had somebody say, you know, they took you lightly? Man, they took you lightly.
What's that mean? They didn't give you any respect. They didn't give you any honor.
They just blew you off. No big deal. That's why the Bible says don't take God's name in essence. Don't take God's name in a way that does not give it the weight it deserves. Does that make sense? You need to give God's name the weight. Have you ever used God's name in a way that didn't give it the weight it deserved? You understand? God said, I will not hold them guiltless who've taken my name in vain. Wow. So what are you going to do about that?
It's a big deal, isn't it? Better know the gospel. So the antonym, again, of glory is the word vain in the Bible. God's glory is to give weightiness to God.
If you read the book of Revelation, what you find in Revelation 4 is heaven is bowing in thunderous worship and adoration because the intrinsic glory of God is radiating through heaven, unobstructed by the weak lenses of men. Now, I would ask the question, how much weight do you give God in your life? How much weight do you give God in your life?
And that brings me to a third point. I want to look just quickly 12 ways to give weight to God or to give glory to God. How can we make God weighty and how can we take him lightly? How can we give him glory and not give him glory? Because this is central to the existence or the reason of why we exist.
This is foundational. Everything that we do individually and collectively must be for the glory of God. So how can we give glory to God? The first, I would say, is give weightiness to his word. Does God's word have weight in your life? How much priority do you place upon the word of God in your life? With the time spent in the Bible, evidence over the last week that God was a priority to you. Did you spend more time doing this or doing this?
Which one was more valuable to you? Do you know more about politics than you do the gospel? Can you quote your favorite athlete's statistics better than you can quote Romans 3, 10, Romans 3, 12, Romans 3, 23, 6, 23, 5, 8, 10, 9, 10, 13?
And if you don't even know what I'm talking about, that's a problem. That's the simple, easy Romans road that every child of God should know. A simple way to share the gospel that Paul lays out.
Do you give weightiness to it? So often we can take God's word lightly. I'll never forget reading Robert Subner in his book, Wonders of the Word. He told the story about a man in Kansas City who was severely burned in an explosion. And he talked about how the victim's face was so marred and disfigured by it, he lost his eyesight as well as both hands. The man was a new Christian. He had a great desire to learn the Bible and he was so disappointed that he could not read because he had no eyesight. He then learned about a lady from England who had actually began to read the Bible in braille with her lips. He had no hands so he thought, I could read the Bible in braille with my lips. And so he got the Bible in braille and he put his lips to the braille letters of the pages of the Bible. And to his dismay, he learned that all the nerve endings on his lips had been destroyed and he couldn't feel the braille. He was so discouraged, he broke down in tears, he was devastated by this.
Subner goes on and talks about. And then he said one day as the man was holding that braille page to his mouth, his tongue happened to touch the braille letters. And right away he thought, I could actually read this with my tongue. And by the time Sumner finished his book, the man had read through the entire Bible four times with his tongue. That's a man who has given kabod to this.
He's given weightiness. Jesus says, you want to know me? He says, the scriptures are they which testify of me. Study to show yourself approved unto God. Job said, I have cherished the words of his mouth more than my necessary bread.
How valuable has the word been to you? We need to be those who study the Bible. That's why the Bible says study to show yourself approved unto God.
A workman that does not need to be ashamed because you can rightly divide the word of truth. As I've said in the past, the difference between reading the Bible and studying the Bible is one thing. People who study the Bible ask questions. People who don't study the Bible don't ask any questions because they really don't care enough to find it out.
It's the difference between the person who says, I read the Bible, I didn't really get anything out of it. Oh, you thought it was that cheap, right? You thought the gold laid on the surface. You got to dig, you got to get into it, you got to desire it. God is not cheap. He's glorious.
He's better than anything in the world and he wants to see, do you have a heart to know the truth and you can dig into it. And I am so thankful for the passion and zeal that I see in the people at Lighthouse and may that continue to grow. Let us be a Berean church who are more noble because they search the scriptures daily to see if it was so. If God's word has weight in your life, then you would also love to obey it.
John 14, 15, Jesus said, if you love me, you'll keep my commandments. And so obedience is the fruit of a love for the word you desire to live it out. Secondly, a second way you can give weight to God is through prayer. Prayer, to give weight to prayer is to give weight to God. Those who make much of prayer make much of God. Prayer is a way to give glory to God.
John 14, 13, Jesus said, whoever whatsoever you shall ask in my name, that will I do that the Father may be glorified in the Son. Is there a time each day that you've set aside to spend in prayer? How much prayer have you given to the Lord?
How much time alone? There should be a time every day that I think a person should bow in prayer to worship and pray to God. Luke 22, 41 of Jesus, it says, he was withdrawn from them about a stone's cast and kneeled down and prayed. So Jesus went away and he kneels down and he prays. I asked the question if Jesus knelt in prayer, and you can stand and pray, you can sit and pray, the Bible talks about there's no specific way to pray. There's people who stood, kneeled, laid on their faces before God. But I think if Jesus knelt in prayer, shouldn't we have at least some time in our days that we would kneel before God in humility to pray before him? That we would honor him with an external act of reverence to God that shows an internal reverence? When we come to God in prayers, also slow down. Don't just go into it, Lord thank you for this day, you just start going through and running through things. And the Bible says in Ecclesiastes, the Lord is in heaven, we are on earth, let our words be few.
Slow down. Understand whose presence you come into and honor him. Thirdly, I think we give weight to God when we give weight to God's house, his church. Do you give weight to the church of God? You know, I would ask the question, did Jesus give weight to the church? Think about Ephesians 5 25, it says, husbands, love your wives, even as Christ also loved the church. And what did he do?
He gave himself for it. And if Jesus was willing to die for the church, if he could rise from the dead, shouldn't we rise from bed to come? Amen. I'm preaching to the choir because you're here this morning. Hebrews 10 25 says, not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together. It is not a good thing to miss church. You need to be here, a priority of that. I love that church is on Sunday morning. I love that we can come here the first hours of the first day of the week and honor God on this day. It sets the pace for the rest of the week. Also, I would say this. Do you think timeliness to church should be important?
What I mean is this. If I give weight to if Jesus gave weight to the church and if I give weight to the church, should that mean I should not show up 10 minutes late, sipping on a latte and my flip flops? Shouldn't we elevate it a little bit higher than that and say, God, let me if I'm early to anything, let me be early to that which I give the most weight to. If we can be early to a ball game and we're always late to church, what does that say has more weight in our life?
And so, again, I don't want to be legalistic. I'm not your Holy Spirit. If somebody comes in late, don't look at them like, oh, they could have been working in the nursery for the first 15 minutes or helping greed or doing some other ministry.
It's not about you looking at somebody else that may come in late or leave early for some different things. Sometimes we will have to go and they're going to minister in some other area. But it's saying for you personally, just make sure that you hold God in high esteem in all areas. Also, a fourth way is singing and giving praise to God. Psalm 100, verse one says, make a joyful noise unto the Lord. All you lay and serve him with gladness come before his presence with singing. It's good to be here early so you can sing praise to the Lord.
It's a it's an awesome thing to do. Another way, number five, is remaining sexually pure. You know, the Bible teaches sexual purity is a way to give glory to God. First Corinthians 6, 18 says, flee fornication. You know what fornication is?
It's having sex outside of marriage with somebody you're not married to. It says every sin a man does is without the body. He that commits fornication sins against his own body.
He says, what? Know you not that your body is a temple of the Holy Ghost, which you have of God? You are not your own.
You're bought with the price. And look what he says, therefore glorify God in your body and in your spirit, which are God's. So flee fornication so that you may glorify him because he dwells in you. Getting away from sexual sin is a way of glorifying God. And do we have a problem with sexual sin in our culture?
Yep. Another way we can glorify God is through confession of sin. Joshua 7, verse 19. Joshua said unto Achan, Achan was the guy who took some of the Babylonian garments, the gold and things from Jericho, and brought judgment upon himself.
And Joshua said unto Achan, I want you to see what Joshua said to him. He said, my son, give I pray thee glory to the Lord God of Israel and make confession to him. When you confess your sins, you're glorifying God. It's an act of glorifying him.
It's an act of reverencing him. So if you have sin in your life, you're like, you know what, preacher, my heart's convicted today. I know there's some things I'm out of line with God. Give glory to God by confessing those and forsaking them to him. And what you're saying is, God, I don't want these sins anymore.
I want you. I desire you more than the sins of my life. Another way you can glorify God is through giving. Proverbs 3, 9 says, honor the Lord with your substance and with the first fruits of all your increase.
Give God the first and the best portion of your increase. Does your giving glorify God? What does your giving say about the weightiness of God in your life? We looked at 2 Corinthians 8 last week when Paul was taking up the offering for those in the church, and he talks about giving for those two chapters, chapter 8 and 9.
We talked about the importance of being a Macedonian church. And this is what he says to the church at Corinth in 2 Corinthians 9, 13. He says, because the proof provided by this ministry, they will glorify God.
He's talking about the ministries in Jerusalem. If you send them relief, you send them that love offering to their church and ministries and those that are needy, he said they will glorify God for your obedient confession of the gospel of Christ and for your generosity in sharing with them and with everyone. Their giving would bring glory to God. Another way we can glorify God is through trusting God. Romans 4.20, talking about Abraham, says he staggered not at the promise of God through unbelief, but was strong in faith, and a strong faith did what? It gave glory to God. When you believe God, you're glorifying him because you're saying, God, I trust you in spite of the challenging circumstance I'm in. Another way we glorify God is through bearing fruit. John 15, verse 8. Herein is my Father glorified.
How? How is his Father glorified? He said that you bear much what? Fruit. Now the question is, I've asked oftentimes, is what is fruit? What is spiritual fruit? What is this fruit that Jesus is talking of? And what the Bible would teach that the fruit is, is when the truths of the Bible become true in your life. Spiritual fruit is what, when you read on the pages of scripture, can be read in your life.
When what's true here becomes true here. So that the fruits here begin to hang from your life. And so when you grow in the word, the word grows in you. Another way we can give glory to God is by being faithful through suffering. 1 Peter 4, 14 through 16 talks about giving glory to God through suffering. Another way we can give glory to God is through spreading the gospel.
And his word, 2 Thessalonians 3, 1 says that, Finally, my brethren, pray for us that the word of the Lord may have free course or spread quickly and be glorified even as it is with you. And you know a final way, a 12th way you can give glory to God, and the Bible speaks of specifically, is facing death with faith. Jesus predicted Peter would die as a martyr at the end of John 21.
He says, When you were young, you went where you wanted, but when your old men will stretch forth your hands and they will take you where you don't want to go. And he's talking, and it says he prophesied how Peter would be, would die. And he's talking about it basically as crucifixion.
Peter was crucified upside down. In John 21, 19, it says this, This spake here, this spake Jesus to Peter, signifying by what death he should glorify God. You understand faithfulness in death is a way to bring glory to God. Sometimes, sometimes people get to the end of their life and they say, Why am I going through this? Because in all things, we can give him glory.
That eating and drinking whatever you do, even in death, absolutely, absolutely. Let me bring us to another point today is misplaced glory is the downfall of humanity. This is this is why we have fallen as a people in a country and a nation and humanity. Mankind has replaced the glory of God with the glory of the creature in the creation. Again, we love to be we love to marvel at things. People love to go through YouTube or other platforms and look at the incredible things people do.
Nothing wrong with celebrating great things people can accomplish. But the problem is we are too easily satisfied. We respond with such excitement to lesser things when we should be responding to the greatest.
C.S. Lewis rightly said we are half hearted creatures fooling about with drink and sex and ambition when infinite joy is offered to us in God. We're like an ignorant child who wants to go on making mud pies in the slum because he cannot imagine what is meant by the offer of a holiday at the sea. What are you worshipping in life? And I want you to hear what I'm going to say. Be careful what you worship because what you're worshipping you are becoming. You become what you worship.
Does that make sense? Show me what people clothe themselves in. And I'm not talking just physical, what their language is, what their attitudes are, what their actions are, what makes them laugh, excites them. Their conversations go to it just shows up in all areas of their life. And I can tell you, it'll begin to reveal what they really do worship. Romans is like the Constitution of Christianity. It is a book that I love.
I just finished memorizing through the first 13 chapters of that book this last 13 weeks. And Romans has been just a joy of my soul. In Romans 1 21, after he goes through the glories of creation, that evidence there is a God. And he says because the creation proves there's a creator, it leaves man without excuse.
He says this is the problem. Men are not atheistic because intellectualism has brought them there. They're atheists because they don't want to have accountability. So Romans 1 21 says because that when they knew God, they knew he's real. They glorified him not as God, neither were thankful. They would not glorify him as God, so they rejected the worship of the true God. And it says they became vain or empty in their imagination. Their foolish heart was darkened.
And guess what? When you de-elevate man, what you begin to elevate? When you de-elevate God, what you begin to elevate?
You begin to elevate yourself, right? And it says in verse 22, and they began to profess themselves to be wise, and God said they're fools. But because of that, they changed the glory of the incorruptible God into an image made like an incorruptible man. They went from worshiping Father God to Mother Earth. We're not made by God, we're made by Earth and created things.
And they changed his glory from the creation, as the creator to now the creation. And haven't we seen that in America? I mean, we're more worried about plastic straws and safe... I'm all for, you know, recycle, take care of things, that's great. But I can tell you the world will not continue because we've done well. The world continues because God keeps the order going, right? And so they exchanged the worship of God for the worship of self and the creation. Sin is that which mars the glory of God. If you're not saved, the reason you're not saved is because you have not bowed your knee to the glory of God.
People stay lost because they will not glorify God with their lives. Listen to Revelation 16 verse 9. It says, and when men were scorched with great heat, and this is God's judgment during the tribulation period, they blasphemed the name of God which hath power over these plagues. And it says, and they repented not to give him glory. They hated God, and they would not give him glory, and what would give him glory is repentance. And let me say this, salvation is restoring the glory of God to the life of a person.
If you're saved today, you're being changed from one level of glory to another level of glory. 2 Corinthians 3.18, But we all with an open face, beholding as in the glass, or as in a mirror, the glory of the Lord, are changed into the same image from glory to glory, even as by the spear of the Lord. And that's Romans 8.30, isn't it? Moreover, whom he did predestinate, them he also called, whom he called, them he also justified, and guess what? Whom he justified, them he also glorified. You're not glorified yet, but when you die, you will be.
And he is going to glorify all that he predestined, all that he elected, all that he's chosen, all that he saved, all that he justified, and will glorify. One day our bodies will reflect the glory of God. What kind of body will you have? You're going to have a body likened to his, a glorious body. Do you feel like you have a glorious body right now? No, you don't.
Let me help you with that. You do not have a glorious body. You may think you have a glorious body. She may tell you you have a glorious body. It's not a glorious body. It may make many faults.
And if you think it's glorious, just give it a few years. It will unglorify itself. Anybody been unglorified?
Yes. We were all once 20. Now we're like, man, I'm thankful for these belts that they can extend.
Anybody know what I'm talking about? I thought I was losing weight the other day. I was like, oh, no, my belt actually stretches, you know. I got room in these trousers, you know. Philippians 3 21 says of God, he shall change our vile body, that it would be fashioned like unto his glorious body.
That's good news, isn't it? Now, let me, I got to wrap some things up here quickly. Now, the reward of a God glorifying life. I want you to know this. There is nothing that will bless your life more than living for the glory of God. Nothing will bless your life more. There is a biblical equation that when God is glorified, man is blessed. God is glorified, man is blessed. That's why in Luke 2 14 it says, the angel said, glory to God in the highest and on earth peace and goodwill toward men.
When God is most glorified, man is most blessed. When Lazarus in John 11 was sick and dying, Jesus said this in John 11 verse 4. When Jesus heard that his good friend Lazarus was sick, he said, this sickness is not unto death, but for the glory of God that the Son of God might be glorified thereby.
Is that something? Listen to me, Jesus let him die to glorify himself. Did you hear that? Jesus let his friend Lazarus die so that God would be glorified in his death.
He shows up four days late, right? Mary's like, if you were here, my brother wouldn't have died. Martha says, Jesus, if you were here, my brother would not have died.
You know what Jesus says to them? Your brother will rise again. They said, we know he'll rise again at the resurrection. He said, I am the resurrection.
I'm about to put glory on display here. You say, how could he let Lazarus die for his own glory? Because Jesus was prefiguring what he was going to do with his own life. Two weeks later, Jesus said, my glory has come. Father, glorify me with your own self, with the glory which I had with you before the world was. He called his cross, his glory hour. And so what happens when he shows up at the tomb in John 11, 39?
Jesus said, take ye away the stone. Martha, the sister of him that was dead, saith in him, Lord, by this time he stinks. It's pretty straight up. She must have been from Kentucky. He's stinking, man.
He's just telling you flat out how it is. For he has been dead for four days. Jesus said to her, said I not unto thee that if you would believe you would see the glory of God? And do you know what happened when Jesus rolled the stone away? You know what happened when glory touched death? Death came to life. When glory touched death, death surrendered itself to life. This goes on and on through the Bible. And I want to wrap up by asking you, what in your life do you need to surrender to the glory of God? If the glory of God brought Lazarus back to life, if the glory of God raised Christ from the dead, as the Bible tells us in John 12 and John 17, what will happen if the glory of God touches a depraved sinner? It will turn them into a child of God. What will happen?
I would ask you also this. What happens when the what's of your life get filled up with the why of God's glory? I am persuaded that every problem in our life, family struggle, unresolved conflict, bitterness, unforgiveness, marital problem, church problem, societal problems, is due to men not living for the glory of God, hence the reason they were created. Call my sons from the east and my daughters whom I have created for my glory. And what happens is we're not living in line with that for which God made us. We're not living namely for his glory. God has called us to live vertical lives. The problem, we live horizontal lives.
Can I give some examples very briefly? What happens when a wife comes to an Ephesians 5 22 and it says, wife, submit yourselves to your own husbands. And they're like, well, I don't like that, but it says not because they're good enough. It says do it because it's as unto the Lord. Oh, so you mean I need to respect and reverence my husband, not because he's awesome, but because Jesus is awesome?
Yeah. Your why gets filled up with a vertical motive and your what gets lived out in honor and respect. What happens when a husband says husbands love your wives, even as Christ also loved the church and gave himself for it? What happens when a husband loves his wife not based on her worthiness, but on Jesus's worthiness? If you base it on horizontal perspectives, you're basing it on a person who will fail. He's not always honorable and always at the highest level of respectfulness, and she's not always lovable. But when God is honored most and he is loved most, you can give them what you would not normally have.
You can live a transcendent life, a life that is elevated beyond the circumstantial situations. What happens when children obey their parents because it's in the Lord and it is right, according to Ephesians 6.1? You know, in how we raise our kids, I have never told my kids, you need to do this because I'm your parent. To do that would say, you need to obey me because you need to have a horizontal motive here. No, you need to obey me because Jesus Christ has placed me as a parent in your life, and by honoring me, you're honoring him. I will fail you, I will let you down, but Jesus never lets you down.
Does that make sense? What happens when parents are focused on honoring God in the way they raise their children? Ephesians 6, 4, Ye fathers, provoke not your children's wrath, bring them up in the nurture and admonition of the Lord. There's no passage in the Bible that talks more about the family than Ephesians 5, verse 18, through chapter 6, verse 4, with wives, husbands, parents, children, and all of it is in the Lord, in the Lord, in the Lord, in the Lord, do it because of the Lord, and then it gets into workers. Why should I be a good worker? Why should I go and do such a great job at work? Because the Bible says to employers and employees, in effect, in Ephesians 6, 7, it says, with good will, doing service as to the Lord and not to men. What happens when your why you go to work and why you work that way is driven because the way you want to glorify God and not in how your boss treats you.
Does this make sense? You want to have a thriving life, a thriving church, the core, the core, the why of your life has to get filled up with, I do all things for the glory of God, whether I eat or I drink, everything superlatively is done for Him. How I shovel snow for my neighbor. How I pray for President Biden or President Trump or somebody that you may not even be a fan of.
How you treat your neighbor. Why should I forgive that person who wronged me? Not because they're worthy, but because Jesus is worthy. Does this make sense? You begin to live for the glory of God in all things. This is how Christianity is designed.
This is how God has called us to, and I can say the tragedy is this, most people don't live for the glory of God. Let me wrap it up with this. In Luke 17, Jesus healed 10 lepers. 10 lepers are healed.
Leprosy destroyed your life, separated you from your family. After he heals 10 lepers, what's fascinating, nine of them run off, but there is one that came back and he fell down and glorified God. Luke 17, 15, and one of them, when he saw was healed, turned back and with a loud voice glorified God, fell down on his face at his feet, giving him thanks, and he was a Samaritan.
Listen to what happens. Jesus answered and said, we're not 10 cleansed, but where are the nine? There is not found a return to give glory to God, save this stranger, this Samaritan, this non-Jew, this Samaritan. They were all so excited about what God did for them, they didn't have any time to give to him. You know, I'm so busy, it's hard to get time in the Word, it's hard to get time to pray, it's hard to get time to give to church, it's hard to get time, got it.
90% back then didn't do it either. 10% returned to give glory to God. And Jesus says, this is a problem. Where are the nine?
And you know what the sad thing was? Jesus had more to give. All 10 were cleansed, but the man who came back, he says, that man, he said, you are made whole. Your faith has made you whole. It's a statement in the New Testament talking about this person's a believer, now he's saved. They ran off with physical healing. The man who gave glory to God walked away not only with physical, but spiritual healing.
Here's what I'm trying to tell you. When you give glory to God, God has more to give you. There was more he had to offer than just external blessing.
And how many people run off in their life because God's been good to them at some level and they don't give glory to him and how much they've missed, how much they've missed out on life, what God could have done, but they missed it because they weren't living for a vertical purpose of glorifying God. They got their fill. They got what they came for. I'm good, Jesus. Got my bills paid, got my nice car, got this over here. And Jesus says, there's so much more I had to offer. You're missing it.
Friends, let's not miss it. If we want to be a church that is thriving, that makes an eternal impact, let everything we do be for the glory of God, the way we greet one another, the way we shake hands, the way we sing, the way we give, the way we serve, everything we do here, let it be. Why do you do that? I do it for the glory of God. You know, when you do it for the glory of God, you don't ever get offended. You know, they didn't show me appreciation. I don't have people say this to me, but say somebody said, well, they didn't show me appreciation because I went out of my way and did this. Well, do it for the glory of God and you'll never get offended.
Does that make sense? So everything you do is always for his glory. And I can tell you that's how you live a life that is eternally impacting this world. If you don't know the Lord Jesus Christ today, you need to come and give your life to Jesus. You need to know him as your Lord and Savior. If you stood before God and he said, why should I let you into heaven? What would you say? What would you say to God? Are you ready for that day? You're gonna stay before him one day. You gotta be ready. Let's all stand this morning.
