The Glory of God

We are to be consumed with bringing Him Glory, making a big deal about a big God. Dr. Tony Evans says we each have an important responsibility in God's kingdom. So the issue for all of us, even to eating and drinking, which is the most common thing we do, is to invite Him to be glorified in your life.

Celebrating 40 years of faithfulness, this is the alternative with Dr. Tony Evans. Author, speaker, senior pastor of Oak Cliff Bible Fellowship in Dallas, Texas, and president of the Urban Alternative. Some people see God's glory in nature. Others see it when something supernatural happens. But Dr. Evans says God's glory can be found in everyday places and teaches us how we play a significant part in that for others.

Let's join him as he begins. Today, I want to talk to you about the glory of God. The glory of God. When we speak about the glory of God, we're talking about not just the name God, but the glory attached to the name, the greatness attached to the name. And the biblical word is glory. God's glory is the manifestation of His attributes, His characteristics. It's God on display. We talk about a basketball player being awesome or great or manifesting their glory on the court.

We're talking about what they display. One of my favorite all-time basketball players was Dr. J. I love me some Julius Erving. And he got the name Dr. J because of how he operated on the court. That's how he got the name Dr., how he operated.

Many of you don't know this. I'll tell you this. I got to play Dr. J one-on-one. I did.

I did. I got to play—I know you want to know what happened. Well, I'll just tell you this little story. We were at a conference, and they had break time. I was speaking, teaching at the conference, and I had a bunch of NBA guys there.

And so, you know, we kind of knew each other a little bit because being chaplain for the Mavericks and all that. And so, you know, he wanted to just go work out, and I wanted to work out. So I said, let's do some one-on-one. Let's go one-on-one. And he said, you know, all right, let's do that.

Now, what surprised him because he wasn't, you know, he wasn't all over me and all of that. You know, he's 6'6", I guess, 6'7", and he would let me shoot. And I was on that day. I was on that day. So I was hitting my shots. I was hitting my shots. And, you know, we were playing to 11, and it was 10 to 9. I actually scored nine points, okay?

Now, I was shooting outside because he wouldn't let me drive, but I was hitting that day. So he just had to get one point. And on this last point, this last point that he needed, because I needed two, he just needed one.

He says, well, I tell you what, let me go all the way to the corner and let me go uncontested. And if I miss the shot, then you right there under the basket, you can do, you know, you lay up, and then you'll get the ball back to try to win the game. Well, I thought that was pretty good because I couldn't really stop him if he drove.

So I thought that would at least give me a little chance, you know. So he went all the way to the corner, and I'm standing around the basket in case he misses, because that's my only chance. And what he does from the corner is he doesn't take what I thought he was going to do, shoot from the corner. He takes two steps and dunks with me standing on the basket like a fool.

He made a fool out of me is what he did. But this is my all-time basketball player, and because, you know, he had all these moves and everything. And so you think about greatness in their particular art form, skill set. When you look at God's skill set, the Bible says the heavens and earth declare the glory of God.

God said, look at my skill set. Look at what I... And the issue with his glory is that nobody can compete with it. Every other glorious person you know in whatever field you know them diminishes.

Give them enough time, enough age, the fast ones get slower, they get injured, the winners start losing because time catches up with them. So their glory is limited in time and space and to one area because they're not glorious in everything. They're glorious in something. God is glorious, weighty, heavy, awesome in all the things that make him God, all of his attributes. God's glory is intrinsic glory, not merely ascribed glory. Let me say that again. God's glory, his weightiness, his awesomeness, his greatness, is intrinsic, not merely ascribed.

Now what do I mean? When you go into a courtroom and the judge comes in, you ascribe glory to the judge, your honor. Because that robe and that bench and that seat has position tied to it. When a police person pulls you over, yes, officer, no, officer, because their blue uniform has an ascribed recognition based on the law to who they are. So you ascribe them glory.

Now take the robe off if you don't know them and they're dressed in ordinary clothes, another human being. But in that post, in that position, you ascribe glory. If they leave the position or pass away, the glory is not there. So we ascribe glory to people based on what they have done or are doing at the time they are doing it. God's glory is not merely ascribed—we do that when we worship him—but it is intrinsic.

In other words, he is glorious whether you ascribe it or not. What hot is to fire, wet is to water, and blue is to sky, glory is to God. You don't make fire hot. You don't make the sky blue, and you don't make the water wet. That's how it is.

Nothing you can do can interfere with that. So not giving God glory doesn't diminish his glory, doesn't take away his glory, doesn't limit his glory because it's built in. It's intrinsic to who he is. So if you don't give him glory, it's okay because he can give it to himself because it's built in. In Exodus 33, Exodus chapter 33 verse 17, the Lord said to Moses, I will also do this thing of which you have spoken, for you have found favor in My sight, and I have known you by name. Then Moses said, I pray you show me your glory. And he said, I myself will make all my goodness pass before you and will proclaim the name of the Lord before you, and I will be gracious to whom I will be gracious and will have compassion on whom I will have compassion. But he said, You cannot see My face, for no man can see Me and live. Then the Lord said, Behold, there is a place by Me, and you will stand there on the rock, and it will come about while My glory is passing by. Then I will put you in the cleft of the rock and cover you with My hand until I pass by. I will take My hand away, and you will see My back, but My face shall not be seen. Moses makes a request. Show me your glory.

Let me say it another way. I want to see more. Now, Moses had seen quite a bit. I mean, he had seen a bush that couldn't burn. He had seen the plagues in Egypt bring Pharaoh to his knees. Moses had seen the opening of the Red Sea.

Moses had seen the mountain quake. So he had seen so much. He wanted to see more. More.

Show me more. God tells him, I can't let you see Me face to face because it will kill you. No man can see My face and live. You can't see the inner core of Me and survive it.

It would be like going into a nuclear reactor and disintegrating. I mean, we complain when it gets over a hundred in Texas. When it gets over a hundred in Texas, we run to the air conditioning because we want to escape the heat of the sun, and God made the sun.

It's been burning for thousands of years. Undiminished glory. That is, light coming from the sun, and when it gets too bright in the middle of summer, we run from it because its glory is too hot. That would be the illustration of the glory of God. It is beyond comprehension.

He says, My glory. You couldn't handle it in your own human limitations. But I'll let you see My back, because that's all. And even to show you My back, I have to hide you in the cleft of a rock.

I'm a pass by. I'm going to cover, I'm going to cover the cleft with My hand until all you see are My hinder parts. The best way to explain that is all you're going to see is the exhaust. Have you ever looked up in heaven, in the sky, after a plane has passed by, and you don't see the plane, but you see what the plane left behind? You see the exhaust.

That's the concept here. You're not going to see Me, you're going to see My back. You're going to see what I left behind. Now, where they left behind was the Pentateuch. First five books of the Old Testament, Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy. Moses was able to write the first five books of the Bible through the exhaust. I'm going to let you see my history. That's how Moses could write Genesis, even though he wasn't there with Genesis.

He could write Genesis because he saw the exhaust of God go by. Show me your glory. I want more. So guess why you're here? I'm here for His glory. Dr. Evans will have more for us on the glory of God when he continues in just a moment.

Stay with us. Words cannot express my gratitude to God for His faithfulness. Who would have thought He would have taken this urban kid out of Baltimore, Maryland, given him the opportunities, allowing me to earn a doctorate degree and to build a church ministry that would model what we've been doing nationally and internationally through this ministry, that He would build up and give us a staff who are committed to getting this truth out, reaching hundreds and hundreds of thousands of people with the truth of God in all manner of ways, and to impact individuals and families and churches and even communities with the worldview of the kingdom agenda, the visible manifestation of the comprehensive rule of God of every area of life. And I'm certainly grateful for all the friends He's given us to keep us being able to get God's truth into a needy world.

I praise God for 40 years of His favor on us. Now Tony has a brand new book that can help you better understand God's character and qualities, even as it helps you seek His guidance and support. It's called Prayers for Knowing God, and in it he provides a number of prayers that can be prayed word for word or used as a springboard for your own dialogue with God. This book goes hand in hand with God's Heart Revealed, the name of Tony's current teaching series. And for just a few more days, we have a special offer. We'll send you all 12 full-length messages from the series on CD and digital download, as well as the Prayers for Knowing God book as our way of saying thanks when you make a contribution to support Tony's ministry here on the air. We're completely listener supported, so your faithfulness is the only way we can keep bringing you these broadcasts each day.

So please, let us hear from you right away. You can make all the arrangements at TonyEvans.org, or give us a call at 1-800-800-3222. Again, that's 1-800-800-3222, or online at TonyEvans.org. Dr. Evans will come back with more of today's lesson right after this.

As with all of the resources we mention on this broadcast, you can request your copy at TonyEvans.org. And now here's Dr. Evans with part two of today's message. You are here as God's advertisement agency.

An advertisement agency advertises a product. You are here, I am here, for His glory, not for our own glory. Everything God does, He does to bring greater glory to Himself. And the more we want to pursue His glory, the more we find favor with Him. He tells Moses in the passage we read in Exodus, you have found favor in my sight.

I'm pleased with you. Moses says, show me your glory. God says, because you found favor, I'm gonna let you see more. So many of us don't get to see more because His glory is not our goal.

Our glory is our goal, and He will not share His glory with any man. So if you want to see more of God on display, more of His greatness, more of His advertisement, more of His supernatural nature, then you need to find favor. That is, to find favor is to seek to please Him. Look at 1 Corinthians 10, 31. 1 Corinthians 10, 31.

It says, Whether then you eat or drink, or whatever you do, do all to the glory of God. We are to be consumed with bringing Him glory, making a big deal about a big God. Because isn't that what we do with great people? We make a big deal of them. Their name just don't pass lightly.

We go, whoa, did you see that? We have whole ceremonies to bring actors' glory, to bring singers' glory, to bring athletes' glory. We hold them in, you know, the Hall of Fame's to bring glory.

And they're here today and gone tomorrow. Psalm 115 verse 1, I believe, says, Not to us, but to your name give glory. It's that mentality that says, I want God advertised in my life. Now, when we rebel against God, God has a way of still getting glory. Nebuchadnezzar, Nebi, he said, look at this great Babylon that I have built. I am the man. And he then did what no man should never do. He built an idol to himself and demanded worship in Daniel chapter 3.

God said, okay, well, we're going to show you who's God. For seven years, you're going to become a mad man. You're going to eat the grass with the animals in the field. Your hair is going to grow long.

Your fingernails will grow long. And so he was turned into a mad man. After a period of time, he came to his senses. And the next thing you hear is, there is only one God. It ain't me.

It's not me. God told Moses, and you'll find the word glory if you just look up the word glory, you'll find the word glory all through the Bible. It's just everywhere. But he told Moses, he said, nobody can see my face and live. In other words, if you see my face, it will kill you.

I mean, it would be too much radiation, too much glory. Which means, in order to see his face, you've got to die. Paul said, right now we see through a glass darkly in 1 Corinthians 13. He says, we know he's there, we know he's great, but it's like the sun shining on a cloudy day.

It's out there, but there are clouds, and we can't figure it out. When we physically die, we will see him manifested in his glory without the limitations of our humanity. But this helps me to understand a statement that Paul makes. Paul makes the statement about himself.

He says, I die daily. We're told, what, in Luke 9 23, to go to our cross daily. John the Baptist put it this way. He says, I must decrease and he must increase. In other words, the smaller I get, the bigger he gets. So the principle is, the more of me I die to, the more of him I see.

The more of me I die to, that is, seeking my own glory, the more of his glory can be displayed, because then he's not competing with me, and I'm not competing with him. Dr. Tony Evans will come back in just a moment to wrap up this message on the glory of God. But first, a reminder to ask about that limited-time offer I mentioned earlier. You can get all 12 full-length messages in the powerful God's Heart Revealed collection as our gift to you. Just visit tonyevans.org, make a contribution in support of this ministry, and we'll send the audio series to you, along with a special bonus of Tony's brand-new book, Prayers for Knowing God, Our Way of Saying Thank You. This offer will only be around for a few more days, so be sure to check it out right away. All the details are waiting for you at tonyevans.org. That's tonyevans.org.

Or call our 24-hour resource center at 1-800-800-3222. A good parent will give their children rules to follow for their safety, happiness, and long-term benefit. Well, God has done the same for us. And although we don't always choose to obey those rules, that doesn't change who's ultimately in charge. Tomorrow, Dr. Evans will tackle the complexities of God's rule and how our choices for good or bad fit into the picture.

Right now, though, he's back with this closing thought. So the issue for all of us, even to eating and drinking, which is the most common thing we do, is to invite Him to be glorified in your life. Be glorified, Lord. Be glorified in my successes and be glorified in my struggles. Be glorified in my pleasure and be glorified in my pain. Be glorified if we can be a people growing in this, that I exist for God's glory. And today, whatever day it is, I want to be His advertising agency. I want Him to be glorified in my life. The Alternative with Dr. Tony Evans is brought to you by the Urban Alternative and is celebrating 40 years of faithfulness thanks to the generous contributions of listeners like you.