What’s In it for God?

The Audience of One

What’s In it for God?

Psalm 115:1-3

Theme: God shows us what is in it for Him to get all the glory.

Introduction: If someone were to ask you, “What do you want most in the world?” What would you say? A pastor might say, “I want to see revival in my church.” Why would you want it? It sounds wonderful and honorable. There is a deeper concern with that thought. Would a revival at your church put you into an ego trip that God is doing something unusual through your ministry? In other words, would that make you look more spiritual or more special than someone else? While that may not be the motive, it can still cause us to think that way.

Does God want revival in our church? Absolutely but we must relinquish what we want to what He wants. This where we pursue God’s will over our will. This is a huge challenge.

A wife or husband my say, “I want my spouse to be saved.” Certainly, God wants all to be saved. Most believers want their whole family to be saved and ought to want their families saved. However, you may ask why do you want him or her to be saved? One lady told me her life would be better, another man told me to have my wife sitting next to me in church. Neither of those are bad. However, God wants them to be saved to bring glory and honor to His name, not our name.

As I was reading a book by RT Kendall several of these thoughts came from his book and it was a tremendous help to me personally.

When we pursue the glory of God, we must remember we are pursuing whatever glorifies, honors, and pleases Him. This means we must personally bow entirely and respect what He is pleased to do. Whenever He is pleased to do it. Wherever He is pleased to do it. With whomever He is pleased to use. We need to be willing to affirm His will and His blessing over our own will.

“Where is boasting then? It is excluded. By what law? of works? Nay: but by the law of faith.” (Romans 3:27)

Just as God say in Exodus.

“And he said, I will make all my goodness pass before thee, and I will proclaim the name of the Lordbefore thee; and will be gracious to whom I will be gracious, and will shew mercy on whom I will shew mercy.” (Exodus 33:19)

There are times in our Christian lives when we have an attitude of entitlement towards God. It is like God owes us something. I serve Him so He owes me special blessings or answer to any prayer that I ask. But God wants us to love Him for He is apart from what He might do for us. This is the meaning of this passage:

“And the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us, (and we beheld his glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father,) full of grace and truth.” (John 1:14)

The divine glory of God teaches us about the Person of God and how we are to love Him.

Kendall explains what this is about and then we will look at the principles in the passage.

1. As long as I believe that God owes me something, I have not truly affirmed His glory. I am still thinking of what He might do for me.

2. As long as I feel entitled to something from Him, I have not truly seen His glory.

3. As long as I think I have a claim on Him so that He is not obligated to me and do things for me, I have not seen His glory.

4. When I truly see His glory, I will release Him to do what He pleases to do-whether or not I am the recipient of His blessing.

There are several principles tonight we will find in this truth.

I. We must surrender completely to Him

Jesus gives some very hard sayings in John 6. The chapter opens with the feeding of the five thousand. He fed them with five barley loaves and two small fish. However, Jesus reveals their true motives in v. 26

“Jesus answered them and said, Verily, verily, I say unto you, Ye seek me, not because ye saw the miracles, but because ye did eat of the loaves, and were filled.” (John 6:26)

They were only seeking from God what they wanted for themselves rather than what God wanted. They had not surrendered to Him completely.

A. Our needs to Him

1. It seems the people were more interested in the gifts than the Giver.

2. God is asking us to surrender our needs to Him. He knows what we need.

3. They were struggling with giving God the glory that is due Him. He is God and there is none like Him.

4. We can trust Him and Psalm 37 shows us we can trust Him when we give Him the glory

“Trust in the Lord, and do good; So shalt thou dwell in the land, and verily thou shalt be fed. Delight thyself also in the Lord; And he shall give thee the desires of thine heart. Commit thy way unto the Lord; Trust also in him; and he shall bring it to pass.” (Psalm 37:3–5)

“I have been young, and now am old; Yet have I not seen the righteous forsaken, Nor his seed begging bread.” (Psalm 37:25)

B. Our identity to Him

1. The Psalmist115 here teaches us that we must put ourselves out of the picture and give Him 100 percent of the glory-not unto us-we are not to live for us or seek to bring glory to us.

2. When we begin to see His glory, we give Him 100 percent of the glory, our identity now is not is who I think I am, or who I want people to think I am, or what I want to be, but my identity, my purpose, my calling, desire is 100% God’s glory.

3. Satan cannot produce in us a love for God’s glory—if we love God’s glory, it is the work of God in our hearts.

4. This means God is not a partner or one who we control, but He is our all and all.

5. We surrender our identity to Him as a child of God. Everything we are able to see accomplished in our life is because of Him, not us.

C. Our future to Him

1. Strangely enough, not everyone is willing to give God 100% of the glory

“From that time many of his disciples went back, and walked no more with him. Then said Jesus unto the twelve, Will ye also go away? Then Simon Peter answered him, Lord, to whom shall we go? thou hast the words of eternal life. And we believe and are sure that thou art that Christ, the Son of the living God.” (John 6:66–69)

2. Our future is not wrapped up in this world or the things of this world, but it is centered solely in Jesus and Him alone. He alone will give us a wonderful future with Him.

3. Our hope is built on nothing less than Jesus and His righteousness.

Some will say, “what’s in it for me.” The question really is, “what’s in it for God?” When Jesus died on the cross, His death satisfied the justice of God, and the blood turned the wrath of God away from our sin..

II. We must worship Him for who He is

A. He is the Lord of glory

1. Jesus taught us when we pray, we reverence Him first and foremost.

2. We recognize Him as the Lord of glory.

3. Our reason for coming to church is not for personal recognition or making us look good but for His glory.

4. The more we worship Him, the less we will think of ourselves.

B. He is the Great I am.

1. As we worship Him, we will recognize He is the “I am of our the Bible” which Moses records for us and we experience through our relationship with Him.

2. I am teaches us an understanding of being the eternal “I am” for all of us.

3. Moses took His shoes off to worship Him because of His holiness-God not only is holy but we must approach Him in the holiness or righteousness of Christ.

4. Our prayers ought not to be about us and what we want, our prayers should be centered around God and His glory.

C. He is the only God

1. There is no other God but one.

2. In our humanistic world, where man is the center of his own universe, we must come to God as the One and Only Savior.

3. The world is filled with gods to satisfy its personal need; however, only Jesus can satisfy.

Some of you might remember a man by the name of Evel Knievel. He was stunt performer and road a motorcycle in his stunts and according to him broke all the bones in his body at least once. One day someone gave him a book written by Lee Stroebel called the Case for Christ. He read the book and called Lee Stroebel. He was very weak with multiple health problems. Evel said he had accepted Christ and according to Lee Stroebel he got all in. He told him, he has searched all his life for what only Christ could satisfy.

III. We must accept His glory over our glory Psalm 115:1-3

A. He is the only honorable one

1. Man may try to gain His glory by “doing” certain things.

2. Man may try to gain His glory by “religious” exercise.

3. God reminds us His glory belongs only to Him and not unto us.

“I am the Lord: that is my name: And my glory will I not give to another, Neither my praise to graven images.” (Isaiah 42:8)

4. His name gets the glory.

B. He does what He pleases

1. God’s way is perfect and His will is always right.

2. Even though we may not understand the way or know the way, He does what He pleases.

3. We bow to the God who is heaven looking over all

“The eyes of the Lordare upon the righteous, And his ears are open unto their cry.” (Psalm 34:15)

Conclusion: What is in it for God? It should be everything. We need to give Him 100% the glory. “Be ye therefore followers of God, as dear children; And walk in love, as Christ also hath loved us, and hath given himself for us an offering and a sacrifice to God for a sweetsmelling savour.” (Ephesians 5:1–2)