God’s Glory In Our Lifestyle

When economic hard times hit, people lose jobs, homes, and self-respect. Even those still employed feel the heat as fewer people work harder for companies to survive.

The American lifestyle, it's an endangered species as we all learn to do with less. Today, a look at how focusing on the glory of God can help us weather economic storms. Stay with us. From Chicago, this is The Moody Church Hour, a weekly service of worship and teaching with Pastor Erwin Lutzer. On this broadcast, you'll hear the fourth of nine messages on Nothing Else Matters, how the glory of God gives meaning to all of life. Later in our program, Erwin Lutzer will speak on God's glory in our lifestyle.

Pastor Lutzer comes now to open today's service. Well, it's our opportunity now to worship the Lord, immortal, invisible, God-only wise, in light, inaccessible, hid from our eyes. Do you remember the words of Noah, the words actually of Moses, I should say, who said, show me your glory, show me your glory. And that's what we desire to see today, in our weakness, in our need, that we might see the merits of Jesus above our sins, and that we might come into his presence with deep gratitude and worship. Would you bow with me, please, as we pray. Father, show us anew who you are, and grant us the grace and the willingness to be obedient to all that we learn, and may we enjoy your presence as we worship in Jesus' name.

Amen. In your holy grace, O Lord of all the wise, in our weakness, as to come here from our eyes, most blessed, most glorious creation of faith, almighty victorious, our great name we praise. My blessing, my blessing, where silent and silent, your haunting, your wasting, thou doest in mine, the jostles thy mountains, thy soaring above, thy clouds which are found to conquer this land of love.

To all my foul limits, to both great and small, in all my foul limits, the true life of all, my wisdom so boundless, my mercy so free, eternal my goodness, for God's change and peace. Great Father of glory, your Father of life, thy angels of glory, all wailing their sigh, all praise be your friend. Oh, how priceless he is, his lovely husband, all thine honorably. Oh, how priceless he is, his lovely husband, all praise be your friend. Oh, how priceless he is, his lovely husband, all praise be your friend. Oh, how priceless he is, his lovely husband, all praise be your friend.

Oh, how priceless he is, his lovely husband, all praise be your friend. God of grace, who loved and knew me long before the world began, sent my Savior down from heaven, perfect God and perfect Lamb. God of grace, I trust in Jesus, I'm extended as his own, every day his grace sustains me as I lean on him alone. God of grace, I stand as something that's forgiven and secure, all my fears are not compounded and my hope is ever sure. God of grace, now crowned in glory, where one day I'll see your face, in forever I'll adore you in your everlasting grace. God of grace, now crowned in glory, where one day I'll see your face, in forever I'll adore you in your everlasting grace. Praise God from whom all blessings flow, praise him, all creatures here below, praise him above all ye heavenly hosts, praise God, his Son and Holy Ghost.

Amen. Please listen to the words of Jesus from the Gospel of John, John chapter 15. I am the true vine and my Father is the vine dresser. Every branch in me that does not bear fruit he takes away, and every branch that does bear fruit he prunes, that it may bear more fruit.

Already you are clean because of the word that I have spoken to you. Abide in me and I in you, as the branch cannot bear fruit by itself, unless it abides in the vine, neither can you unless you abide in me. I am the vine, you are the branches. Whoever abides in me and I in him, he it is that bears much fruit, for apart from me you can do nothing. If anyone does not abide in me, he's thrown away like a branch and withers, and the branches are gathered, thrown into the fire and burned. If you abide in me and my words abide in you, ask whatever you wish and it will be done for you. For this my Father is glorified that you bear much fruit and so prove to be my disciples. As the Father has loved me, so I have loved you. Abide in my love. If you keep my commandments, you will abide in my love, just as I have kept my Father's commandments and abide in his love. These things I have spoken to you that my joy may be in you and that your joy may be full. Amen.

Please be seated. His love blesses the ocean, loving kindness as the fire. When the prints of life are ransomed, shed for once his precious blood. Who will watch his love remember?

Who can cease to sing his praise? He will never be forgotten through the heavens' eternal days. Dream his love in remembrance of the Lord that Jesus shared. And recall his broken body as you take and feed his friend. Dream his love, dream his love, dream his love. Remember his love.

On the mount of crucifixion, Fount it's open deep and wide. Through the pockets of God's mercy, For the past and gracious time, Praise and love thy mighty rivers, Lord in service and from above, O let peace and perfect justice kiss the guilty world in love. Dream his love in remembrance of the Lord that Jesus shared. And recall his broken body as you take and feed his friend. Dream his love. Remember his love.

Remember his love. There is a story about a boy who is trying to sell his scrappy little dirty puppy, and he put up a sign that said, three dollars or best offer. The sign was up for several days and no one stopped to buy his puppy, and a salesman saw the sign and thought he'd teach the boy a lesson about thinking big, and he said to the boy, you need to think big, clean up your puppy, and then up the price so people think they're getting something valuable. So the next day when the salesman drove past, he noticed that the sign said, puppy for sale, a thousand dollars. The salesman thought I'd have to stop and give this boy some wisdom here.

It's okay to think big, but not quite that big. But when he came home that night, he noticed that the sign was down and across it was scrawled, sold. Couldn't believe it. So he took the boy and said, are you telling me you sold your puppy for a thousand dollars? And the boy said, yes.

He said, I traded him in for two $500 cats. Today what we would like to do is to think big, really big. But before we think big, I need to tell you a couple of stories. First of all, this past week I was in Indianapolis for a day or two, spoke to a young executive, and you know what's happening in our companies today. What you find is that they are laying people off and then not replenishing their positions and just redistributing the work. So here's a young man who is overworked and he's underpaid and he is finding his job to be very stressful. Then I know someone else who has a Ph.D. and he's flipping burgers, something like Moses, who is trained in all the wisdom of the Egyptians, the Bible says.

That means he studied hieroglyphics and mathematics and astronomy, and there he is 40 years with his aptitude and training in one direction, having to be confined to a desert for 40 long years, where the most important intelligent conversation was, ah. Here he is, all that talent going to waste. And you and I know people who are looking for work. They are in transition and they are in desperate need of money.

Today what I'd like to do is to speak to you about how do we see God in all of this and what is the big picture and how do we think big at a time like this or a time as it has been in the past. I need to begin by saying that obviously money alone cannot be our objective. Because if all that you do is work in order to have money, you'll never have enough, you'll complain, you'll be dissatisfied, and life will become a drag and you'll be focused on the injustice of it all. That cannot be the motivation to have meaning in your job, in your vocation, and in your lifestyle. Nor is it possible for you to say that my big aim in life is to be able to choose something that I enjoy doing, something that is in keeping with my DNA. You necessarily can't have that.

Maybe you can. Some of us have, but not everyone. As a matter of fact, about 50% or more of the American people believe that, believe that they are in jobs for which they are ill-suited. It is not in line with their aptitude.

They are with Moses in the desert, trained in one area and yet doing a job in another. A job which perhaps naturally they don't like at all. Nor can your big picture meaning be connected with being praised or being thanked or achieving success the way in which we generally think of it. Because you might be working for someone and making him or her look good and they get all the credit and you get none. In fact, things may be so bad that things are actually going downhill for you.

In fact, you know, the only way in which you can make a small fortune on Wall Street is to begin with a big fortune, I'm told. So the question is, where do we go from here? How do we find meaning in the ordinary things of life where the pressure cooker is on?

Where is meaning found? If I preach this message correctly, I will actually give you some principles that even apply if you were to be a slave. Imagine that. We'll get to that in just a moment. But I also need to stress that what I'm telling you now is based on a personal relationship with Jesus Christ. If you're listening to this and you do not know Jesus Christ as your savior, you're going to say this is all theoretical. I don't know how it works. I don't understand how I can believe all that. But if you know Christ as savior, this is for you.

Barna did some research and they asked this question. Is the essence of the Christian life doing all of the commandments that Jesus gives us? And 57 percent of the people said yes. But you and I know better than that. Of course, we want to do the commandments that Jesus gives us. But the Christian life is so much more than that. The Christian life is a relationship.

It isn't rules. And the better you know Jesus, the better you're going to be able to apply what I'm going to be sharing with you in just a few moments. In fact, it's going to give all of us an opportunity to think and to pray and to believe in a way that we've never had to do before. To do it in a way that enables us to think big.

Think big. The passage of scripture I want you to turn to is found in First Corinthians. First Corinthians and this passage, chapter 10, verse 31. First Corinthians, chapter 10, verse 31. This single verse is so huge.

It is like a stick of dynamite that can blow away all the mountains that stand in your way at the job that you have and the work that you may either delight to do or not delight to do. First Corinthians, chapter 10, verse 31. I may comment about the context later, but here it is. Chapter 10, verse 31. So whether you eat or drink or whatever you do, do all to the glory of God. That's the text for today.

Not the only text, but the main one. Whatever you do, do it for the glory of God. Is there an overarching principle that is so important that you can find satisfaction in your life? Even if you do a job at work, somebody else gets the credit.

You are being downsized unfairly. Is it possible to still find meaning? And the meaning is wrapped up in that little verse of scripture. Do all everything for the glory of God. You say, well, Pastor Lutzer, that's so theoretical.

I know it sounds theoretical. That's why I'm going to help you to unpack it. We're going to break it down, and we're going to bring it down to exactly where you live today. First of all, a few comments about the text itself.

Notice this. We should glorify God in the ordinary things of life. What could be more ordinary than eating and drinking?

Something that we do every day. And yet, even there, we should glorify God. Now, before the Reformation came, there was a belief in medieval times that if you wanted to do a good work that God might be pleased with, it had to be a religious work, such as saying a prayer, giving an alm, some kind of a good deed. Martin Luther came along and said that we are all priests before God, and that means that Sophie, the scrub woman, when she's washing a floor, she can glorify God more doing that if she's doing it as an act of service to the Lord. If it's an act of worship, she can glorify God while she cleans a floor better than a pompous priest who's up there trying to draw attention to himself whose heart is far from God.

Because it is not the act, said Luther, it is the attitude of worship with which we do it that makes the difference. Did you know that of the 40 characters of the Bible that we give most attention to, someone who has done a study on the 40 characters of the Bible, three-quarters of them never had a religious job? For example, Abraham. Abraham was a sheep herder.

You get to Joseph, he was a massive administrator. You come to the New Testament, Luke was a doctor. It's only a small percentage of those who had, quote, a religious job.

Most of them learned what it is like to serve God and to worship God in the ordinary things of life. Years ago, I was told that Ruth Graham, who is now in heaven, the wife of evangelist Billy Graham, used to have above her sink, because she didn't like washing dishes, she had above her sink the words, divine service done here three times daily. And it is divine service. Now, sometimes we say, well, you know, work gives us a platform upon which we can witness. Yes, and I'll talk about that, but there's something more important, and that is that the work itself is the witness. The work itself is the worship.

Even if nobody sees, nobody knows. And it's just between you and God. We're to glorify God in the ordinary things. We're to glorify God in the necessary things. Eating and drinking is necessary if you want to live.

And I'll talk about that in a moment. We're also supposed to glorify God in the controversial issues of life. The context of this verse is whether or not people should eat meat sacrificed to idols. And Paul says some of you can and some of you can't, depending on your conscience, because this is a matter that is not black and white. It's not either right or wrong. It has to do with a certain context as to how you view the meat that was offered onto idols. If it was offered to an idol and then brought into a shop, and you buy it and you don't know that it was offered to an idol, that's perfectly fine.

If it causes someone to stumble, you might think twice before you eat it. And that's what Paul says, in all things we glorify God. We're to glorify God in the television programs that we watch. We're to glorify Him in our relationships because universally, whatever you do, do in the name of Christ, giving glory to Him.

All right, all that by way of introduction. Now what I'd like to do is to give you five principles that will help you to understand the glory of God in your situation. It may be the glory of God where you work, if that's what we were talking about, and we were, but it also may mean the glory of God in your marriage, the glory of God in the tough time that you are going through, the glory of God in all of life, because remember, nothing else matters. Ultimately, your happiness doesn't matter.

Your success doesn't matter, however important it may be in a certain context. Only the glory of God matters. But how do we do it?

I'm so glad that you're asking that question because I thought you would. One other verse before I give you the five principles. Keep your finger there in 1 Corinthians 10, verse 31, but then turn to Ephesians.

This is a remarkable passage of Scripture. People say the New Testament condones slavery. The New Testament clearly is opposed to anything that we would call today the slave trade, and slavery is an evil. But when Paul was writing about slaves, remember this, there were 40 or 50 million slaves in the Roman Empire.

There was no way that they could begin to organize to cast off the injustices that they were facing. Many of them had good masters, many of them had bad masters, so in no way do we mitigate or try to water down the evils of slavery. But in this context, people were slaves and they were locked into a system. Notice what Paul says, Ephesians chapter 6, verse 5. Slaves, obey your earthly masters with fear and trembling, with a sincere heart, as you would Christ. Not by way of eye service.

That is working only when somebody is watching. As people pleasers, but as servants of Christ doing the will of God from the heart, rendering service with a good will as to the Lord and not man, knowing that whatever good anyone does, this he will receive back from the Lord, whether he be slave or free. Wow, talk about an explosive passage for slaves. Think of the slaves. I mean, many of them were intelligent, but they never had an opportunity to study. Many of them, their aptitude lay perhaps in the more intellectual side, but they were expected to do slave labor.

In that situation, they can also see the glory of God. And here now are the five principles. And I know that you don't have time or the space, I should say. You have plenty of time, but you don't have space necessarily to write them down. And I want you to feel free today.

I give you permission to write all over the bulletin, wherever you can find a strip of white, because these principles should be laminated, put on your refrigerator, put at your bedside, and may be reviewed every day that you might see the glory of God where you are. Are you ready? Are you ready? Everybody ready out there? Sometimes I think I'm alone up here, and I just need to make sure that I didn't get any coffee this morning, and I said to somebody, did you hear about the preacher who dreamt he was preaching? And then he woke up and found out he was. Yeah.

I want to make sure everybody's ready for this. Number one, accept your situation as from the hand of God. Accept your situation as from the hand of God. You say, well, I don't like what I'm doing, and I'm trying to get another job. Fine, but you don't have the other job yet, as if I understand it correctly. So accept your situation as it now exists as God's will as from his hand, unless you're in some kind of a business that is morally impure.

And we could list some of them, but I won't. You and the Holy Spirit can figure that one out pretty easily. But accept your situation as from God's hand.

Notice what it says regarding the slaves. Do the will of God from the heart. That was God's will for them in that terrible situation. Do you have enough faith to believe it? I received an email from a friend who may be listening to this who said that he was offered a job, he accepted, and then they withdrew the offer.

That's not very nice. You accept it as from God. Now, how do you know whether or not you've accepted your situation from God?

I'll give you a test. Can you give praise for it? Can you say, Lord, I thank you today that I am in a situation. I thank you for my boss. I thank you for my co-workers. In fact, it is important that you pray for each of them by name. I thank you that even though this isn't what I would have chosen, this isn't my preference.

But here I am. Thank you, Lord, because you're going to do the will of God from the heart. Lesson number one, accept your situation as from the hand of God.

And you know whether or not you have if you give praise to God. Second, never substitute, this is very critical, never substitute the lesser glory for the greater glory. Don't ever substitute the lesser glory for the greater glory.

Now you and I are just alone together enjoying a cup of coffee or possibly a cup of tea, and I'm looking into your eyes and you're looking into mine. I have a question for you. Is there something that you value more than the glory of God? It could be sports. Football has its own glory. Baseball has its own glory. And it's possible for us to get so wrapped up in these things that we miss the glory of God. Sensuality has its own glory. But is it true in your life?

Is it true in my life? And this message is being preached to me much more than it's being preached to you. Is it really true that we do not, we do not accept lesser glory for the greater glory of God?

We have no substitutes. When I was a little boy, my brother convinced me to give my small dime to him in exchange for his big nickel. And I thought I was getting a bargain. Money can be a substitute for the glory of God. I know you need it to live and the more we have it, the more of it, the easier life becomes. I understand that. But at the same time, money, success, recognition, all of those can be more important than the glory of God. Do not ever accept a lesser, a lesser glory for the greater glory of God. Now I gave you a word of praise for the first principle. Let me give you a word for the second principle.

It is the word surrender. There has to come a time in our life when we die. We die to our own ambitions. We die to our own things that we think we deserve.

We have to die to our own desire to be well-known or well-accomplished or rich because we say to ourselves that these are lesser glories and nothing can substitute for the glory of God. Number three, God is most glorified in us. God is most glorified in us when we bear fruit in a desert. God is most glorified in us when we bear fruit in a desert.

Herein is my Father glorified, Jesus says, that you bear much fruit to be a fruit-bearing Christian in the midst of a wasteland. I know where some of you work. You work at a place that is just morally, on behalf of the employees, morally impure. Let's put it that way. By the words that come out of people's mouth, by the kind of jokes that are told, by the undercutting, by the vicious criticism of others, and you live in that environment.

Do you participate in that environment or is there something different about you that shows that you have roots that go down to a hidden stream, to an oasis? And you don't have to live that way. And when you are sinned against, you don't have to sin in return because God is most glorified in us when we bear fruit in a wasteland, in a desert, and God plants us there. Remember what your responsibility is. Your responsibility, when you go to work, is to show other people, to show other people what Jesus really is like and who he is. That's why God has you in that hard place. That's why he's putting you through difficult circumstances is you are his witness there.

Yes, in that sense, work can become a platform for it. And this means that you live a life of integrity because what does the text say, as we'll see in a moment, you're not serving man, you're serving Christ. Would you cheat from Jesus?

Let me ask you that question. I remember a man saying that he was supposed to cheat in a bank. And he told the bank manager, if you expect me to cheat for you, what makes you think that I won't cheat against you? If you expect me to steal for you, what makes you think that I will not steal from you when I have the opportunity? Absolute integrity. Now, when you go to work, don't say to yourself, I wonder who I can buttonhole for Jesus.

Go with an attitude of expectancy. Have you ever met people who are maybe, what shall I say, they're over-saved? Have you ever met anybody who's over-saved? A light bulb at work has to be changed and they say, well, you know, Jesus is the light of the world. Somebody loses his keys and he says, you know what you really need is keys to the kingdom.

And the guy said, I'm not driving a kingdom. Don't be over-saved. If you are available to the Holy Spirit and available to God, God will give you an opportunity to represent Jesus Christ. And the word that we need to connect with this is courage. Courage. Don't be intimidated.

And if you are intimidated, talk to people one on one. And in those environments, it's amazing how they will open up to you if you are a good listener and care about them. And then you can share Jesus with them. Let your light so shine before men that they may see your good deeds and glorify your Father who is in heaven. Let's go on to number four. Number four, and this is what gave the slaves the ability to show the glory of God in horrendous conditions, way beyond what you and I have ever experienced. Number four, what you do is not as important as the person for whom you do it.

What you do is not as important as the person for whom you do it. Look at what the text says. You have to read it again. Now we're in the sixth chapter of Ephesians again.

Look at this. You don't want to work for that boss? Stop working for him. Work for Jesus. If Jesus came out of heaven and said, I want to give you an assignment. I want to put you in where you are today, working with the people that you are today. And I want you to serve me here. And because you love me, I want you to serve with an attitude of cheerfulness in the midst of all of this. Wouldn't you say, wow, if Jesus asked me to do that, I'd be glad to do that for him?

Well, here's the news. News flash, he's put you there because he's asked you to do that. You see, to Jesus, it didn't matter whether he was washing the disciples' feet. Talk about being overqualified for his position, washing the disciples' feet. The person who flips burgers, who has a PhD, there's nothing wrong with that, nothing shameful about that. Because you see, after all, he is doing it for Jesus, and it isn't what you do.

It's for whom you do it that gives it significance. Remember that story? It's a legend, but it has a point that as the disciples were walking along, Jesus said to them, please pick up some stones. And so they picked up stones. And later on, Jesus turned them into bread. Later on, he asked them to pick up stones again.

And this time, Peter especially picked up a really big, heavy one. They got to a river, and Jesus said, I just want you to throw the stones in the river. And the disciples thought, what is this?

What sense does that make? And when Jesus saw their consternation, he said to them, for whom do you carry the stones? If Jesus asks you to pick up a stone and throw it in the river, isn't that OK? If Jesus asks you to do it, and you're doing it for him, even though there doesn't seem to be any sense to it? Because it isn't what you do that's important.

It's the person for whom you do it. And if you do it for Jesus, you can live in difficult circumstances. And in those circumstances, display the glory of God. Because whatever you do in word or deed, you do all to the glory of God.

Not just the religious things, but everything. Elizabeth Elliot, we had her here a number of years ago. And you remember, her husband was killed along with four others in Ecuador, I think it was. But I remember she spent two years working on a language, trying to break it down into writing with an informant. This is a laborious process.

And in those days, no computers, no Xerox machines, no duplication. Somebody stole the suitcase with all of her work. Had to be done all over again from point zero. Somebody says, weren't you angry at God? And she said, no. She said it was lost to us, but it wasn't lost to God. That was my worship to God for two years. I was worshipping. I did that for Jesus.

And if he wants the suitcase stolen, he can have it stolen. But what I did for him lasts. What you do, the Sunday school classes that you teach, that you have long ago forgotten about, the blessing that you have said to people as you have encouraged them, and you can't remember that you even said it, all those things the Bible says that God takes care of our works and keeps them and remembers them if they are done in his name for his glory. Even though this isn't what you were born for, even though it seems as if your aptitude is in one direction and your work in another, you are there to glorify God. You are there to glorify God. It's all about God and not about you.

Finally, and by the way, the word there that we should highlight is focus. You focus on Jesus. Finally, number five, you live your life with the assurance that heaven is coming. Heaven is coming.

Do you have enough faith to believe this? We live in such a litigious age. Everybody's suing everybody else. Oh, you know, I was fired from the job, age discrimination. We've got a lawsuit on our hands.

I'm not saying that all lawsuits are wrong. But why is it that we get so jumpy when we are wrong? Did you know that as Christians, when we get so nervous about it, it's because we don't believe God?

That's why. You know, there's a passage of Scripture almost the first 12 verses of James chapter 5 are devoted to the whole issue of employer-employee relationships. And James is very critical of the rich that are exploiting the poor. As a matter of fact, he says, go weep and howl for your miseries. You'd better know that judgment is coming to you.

But this is what he says. Behold, the wages of the laborers who mowed your fields, which you kept back by fraud, are crying out against you, that is to say that these poor, exploited people are crying out against you, and the cries of the harvesters have reached the ears of the Lord of hosts. He says you have lived on this earth in luxury and self-indulgence. You have fattened your hearts in a day of slaughter because you have condemned the righteous person.

And be patient, he says then to the brothers, because the Lord is at the door. God is going to straighten out these injustices. Of course you should work toward justice, especially in the lives of others. The people in James Day did not have a labor relations board, and if you can work with a labor relations board or some kind of a union so that you can address certain wrongs, we can do that in today's society. They didn't have that, and God says, what I want you to do is to trust me. I've heard the cry of the exploited, and judgment is on its way. Rest knowing that it's in God's hands. You can't settle all of the wrongs.

You have to give it to the Lord. In fact, that's exactly what Jesus did. You remember when Jesus was being crucified before it, it says, when he was reviled, he reviled not again. When he suffered, he uttered no threats. He didn't say, wait till I get a chance to blow you away.

I'm going to sue you. He didn't say that. When he was reviled, he reviled not again. When he suffered, he uttered no threats, but he kept entrusting himself to him the judges righteously. Jesus said, I'm being falsely accused. I'm in the midst of a difficult situation.

People are talking about me. Things are tough. The cross is just around the corner, but I'm content with the fact that someday my Father will set this right, and I rest with confidence in that. And so you go to work, and this is the way you do it. Tomorrow morning, you wake up. I hope you wake up. Of course, if you don't wake up here, there's another place where you're going to wake up. It'll be much better, I hope, I think.

If you're going to heaven, it certainly will. But here's what you do. Remember now, during this series of messages, I'm teaching you. Before you get out of bed, I did it this morning.

I've been doing it now for months. I say, oh Lord, today glorify yourself at my expense. That's the way you begin the day, because nothing else matters. Are you starting to get the point?

Nothing else matters? And then you say, Lord, if this body were yours, if Jesus were in bed getting up to face his day, how would he go to work today? Would he chisel the boss? Would he talk behind the boss's back? Would he find that he'd join in the criticism and the office talk, which oftentimes is decidedly unholy? No, Jesus wouldn't do that. And neither should you, and neither should I. Because remember, we exist to help people to get a better conception of who Jesus is. And that's the whole point. It's not whether you're fulfilled.

It's whether or not God gets glory. Three men were on their knees working with stones, and someone went to the first one and said, what are you doing? He said, I am cutting stones. I'm chiseling stones. They went to the second and said, what are you doing?

He said, I'm earning a living. And they went to the third, and he said, I'm building a cathedral. And I was to think big, all of life, under the banner of the glory of God. Whatever you do, whether it's eating, drinking, word or deed, let all be done to the glory of God.

Nothing else matters. Let's pray together. If God has talked to you today, would you talk to him? What issue are you bearing in your soul that you ought to give to him?

Because it's not about you. It's about his glory. And it's about the work that he does in our hearts to accept our circumstances. Father, bless your word, however inadequately preached, and make it transforming, and may we live our lives from beginning to end for your glory. And if you've never trusted Jesus as Savior, right at this moment, I pray that you will. Receive him, his forgiveness, and then trust him.

Learn to trust him. And thank you that Jesus was willing to go to the cross. And thank you that he was willing to die within your goodwill, Father. Bless us, we ask in Jesus' name.

Amen. On today's Moody Church Hour, Pastor Lutzer spoke on God's glory in our lifestyle, the fourth of nine messages on Nothing Else Matters, how the glory of God gives meaning to all of life. Next week, we'll probe way down inside our motivations as Pastor Lutzer talks about God's glory in our sexuality.

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That's 1-800-215-5001. Or you can write to us at Moody Church Media, 1635 North LaSalle Boulevard, Chicago, Illinois, 60614. Join us next week for another Moody Church Hour with Pastor Erwin Lutzer and the Congregation of Historic Moody Church in Chicago. This broadcast is a ministry of The Moody Church.