Let's Glorify God

Let’s Glorify God!

One of the things about babies is that while they are obviously a treasure and a great blessing to their parents, babies themselves don’t ACTIVELY seek to bless their parents do they? Any blessing they provide is done entirely without intent and they don’t even know they are being a blessing. They are focussed entirely on their own needs.

And any parent knows that their babies have ways of making their needs known, and in response, their parents feed them, wash them, put them down to sleep, change them, rock them, cuddle them and play with them. But at no time does the baby give the parent a round of applause or even a thank you. Their baby is focussed solely on having their own needs met.

Sometimes I think that we Christians can be very like that. We think that the Christian life is all about God meeting OUR needs. And we can be very quick to complain when He doesn’t. Many of us in fact would have to admit that very often we behave a bit like BIG BABIES rather than mature adults. As the writer to the Hebrews puts it in Hebrews 5:12 (NIV84) “In fact, though by this time you ought to be teachers, you need someone to teach you the elementary truths of God’s word all over again. You need milk, not solid food!”

Now I admit, I felt a bit like that myself when I was reflecting on some verses that I used in both of my last two sermons. I mentioned that John 12:27–28 records Jesus in facing the looming reality of the cross saying: 27 “Now my heart is troubled, and what shall I say? “Father, save me from this hour?” No, it was for this very reason I came to this hour. 28 Father, glorify your name!” And that account then goes on to record: “Then a voice came from heaven, “I have glorified it, and will glorify it again.”

I have to admit that as I read those verses my initial reaction was that I thought it sounded a little strange to think of the Father wanting to give glory to Himself. It sounded just a tad like God was being selfish!

But then, as I thought about it and began some research, I realised that actually this is an example of the solid food of the Word and my response was proof yet again that even at my advanced age, I have a great deal of growing up to do as a Christian. Because, if there is one thing that the Father is doing, it is that He is glorifying Himself.

But, if our focus is just on God pandering to our every whim, as though we were the undisputed centre of creation, we are going to miss or misunderstand or misinterpret much of the truth that God really wants and intends us to enjoy. Revelation that enables us to become spiritual adults is essential if we are to co-operate with God’s purposes and be useful in His service and ultimately join with those who bring Him glory.

Glorifying Himself, whilst not by any means, the only thing God does or is doing, IS actually the underlying PURPOSE of ALL that He has done and is doing and will do. God’s primary purpose IS in fact to magnify His glory throughout the earth.

Now in the book of Numbers we read that the people of Israel sided with the negative, fear motivated report of the ten spies, rejecting the positive minority report from Joshua and Caleb about the blessings of the Promised Land that God was leading them into. And in fact they were so incensed by the minority report that they actually wanted to stone the guys that brought it. Only the intercession of Moses spared these angry and blood thirsty Israelites from God’s judgment and their destruction because of their wilfulness, disobedience and lack of faith.

But interestingly we then read in Numbers 14:20–21 (NIV84) of God’s reply to Moses. He says: “I have forgiven them, as you asked. 21 Nevertheless, as surely as I live AND AS SURELY AS THE GLORY OF THE LORD FILLS THE WHOLE EARTH, …23 not one of them will ever see the land I promised on oath to their forefathers. No one who has treated me with contempt will ever see it.”

Now that’s a passage that tells us something very important that we need to understand. It tells us critically that “the glory of the LORD FILLS the whole earth,” which, given the use of the present tense, indicates that the glory of the Lord currently, RIGHT NOW, FILLS THE WHOLE EARTH. We may not appreciate it; we may be oblivious of it; we may not recognise or see it; but right now it IS the case. God’s glory actually fills the earth.

But the prophet Habakkuk tells us something very significant in relation to God’s glory. Looking way into the future he declares in Habakkuk 2:14 (NIV84)”For the earth will be filled with THE KNOWLEDGE OF THE GLORY OF THE LORD, as the waters cover the sea.” So ultimately, the day will come when we will receive KNOWLEDGE that will enable us to perceive God’s glory. We will see for ourselves, with the knowledge God gives us, that His Glory is indeed filling the earth.

This the very experience, in fact, that Isaiah speaks of in Isaiah 6:1–3 (NIV84) “In the year that King Uzziah died, I saw the Lord seated on a throne, high and exalted, and the train of his robe filled the temple. 2 Above him were seraphs, each with six wings: With two wings they covered their faces, with two they covered their feet, and with two they were flying. 3 And they were calling to one another: “Holy, holy, holy is the LORD Almighty; THE WHOLE EARTH IS FULL OF HIS GLORY.” Praise His name.

But for us, of course, as those who have by personal experience found ourselves rescued from judgment and saved by grace through the selfless sacrifice of Jesus, there is the issue of OUR ROLE in recognising and indeed contributing to God’s glory while we are here on earth.

In view of all that God has done for us and all that He has provided for us, how should we, how do we, respond to our Heavenly Father and give Him glory?

Do we just continue to sob and cry and scream expecting to force Him to meet our self-centred wishes and desires? Or, do we respond by giving Him the glory through OUR LIVES not just our voices, in expressing our love and praise?

At this point though, I think that we need to appreciate that there is in fact a great convergence between GLORIFYING GOD and LOVING HIM because when we love God we do actually bring Him Glory.

Just as the display of God’s GLORY here on earth is demonstrated through His selfless LOVE FOR US which is seen in the Father’s provision of a route to salvation, and through Christ’s obedient, selfless sacrifice at Calvary, so, our love for Him brings Him Glory. His salvation-work in our hearts actually displays and demonstrates HIS LOVE, and therefore it speaks of His glory. And the GOD GIVEN love in our hearts rebounds to return to Him that glory.

Remember when that teacher of the Law posed that question to Jesus: “Of all the commandments, which is the most important?” Mark records: “The most important one,” answered Jesus, “is this: ‘Hear, O Israel, the Lord our God, the Lord is one. 30 Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.’ (Mark 12:28-30) And this, of course is a quote from Deuteronomy 6:4-5 and a picture of the way in which we can bring glory to God which is picked up again Deuteronomy 10:12 (HCSB) which reads: 12 “And now, Israel, what does the LORD your God ask of you except to fear the LORD your God by walking in all His ways, to love Him, and to worship the LORD your God with all your heart and all your soul?

Both these passages make clear then that our love, delivered with heart, soul, mind and strength, is what our Father most desires from us, and wonderfully it follows, that when we respond like this we will be demonstrating the effectiveness and the fruitfulness of HIS WORK in our lives, and so we will be BRINGING HIM GLORY.

Paul, in his second letter to the Corinthians picks up on the truth that God’s love for us, which is a demonstration of His glory, actually works something amazing in us when we are born again. It produces an inner compulsion, an inner desire, to worship, to please and to serve our Saviour.

Our personal allegiance begins to transfer from our own selfish, self-centred, baby-like, desire to satisfy our own wants and wishes, to one that seeks to please and glorify God.

As Paul puts it in 2 Corinthians 5:14–15 (NIV) “14 For Christ’s love COMPELS us, because we are convinced that one died for all, and therefore all died. 15 And he died for all, that those who live should no longer live FOR THEMSELVES but FOR HIM who died for them and was raised again.”

So this inner compulsion arising out of our glorious experience of salvation, which is quite impossible without the Holy Spirit working within us, means that we are now motivated and empowered to glorify God. And whilst, of course, our effectiveness in doing so is varied and very variable, there is at least the seed of a new birth desire to comply with Paul’s instruction to the Corinthian church when he wrote: “…whatever you do, DO IT ALL FOR THE GLORY OF GOD.” (1 Corinthians 10:31 (NIV84))

With the same understanding of the central place of bringing glory to God, the Apostle Peter, writing probably from Rome around AD62 or 63, puts the same heartfelt concept into a powerful directive in 1 Peter 4:11 (NKJV) where he says: “If anyone speaks, let him speak as the oracles of God. If anyone ministers, let him do it as with the ability which God supplies, THAT IN ALL THINGS GOD MAY BE GLORIFIED THROUGH JESUS CHRIST, to whom BELONG THE GLORY and the dominion forever and ever. Amen.”

Now in my last two sermons I made the case that looking at and listening to Jesus is THE way in which we get to appreciate His true worth and preciousness. It is what Jesus understood was happening with Mary of Bethany as she sat at His feet gazing at Him, and absorbing His words. It was what Jesus described to “busy-bee” Martha, when she was trying get her sister Mary to come away and help with the chores as “42 that good part, which will not be taken away from her.” (Luke 10:42 (NKJV))

The truth is then, that we can never really love God completely until we treasure and desire Him fully. And treasuring and desiring Him fully DEPENDS on us acquiring real, EXPERIENTIAL KNOWLEDGE of Him.

We need, as Peter urges us in 2 Peter 3:18 (NKJV) to “grow in the grace and KNOWLEDGE of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. And one of the things he tells us that we must add to our faith in 2 Peter 1:5 is knowledge. Do this, 2 Peter 1:8 says, and we will be “neither barren nor unfruitful”.

And listen to Paul in Philippians 3:8–11 (NIV84) “8 What is more, I consider everything a loss compared to the surpassing greatness of KNOWING Christ Jesus my Lord, for whose sake I have lost all things. I consider them rubbish, that I may gain Christ 9 and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which is through faith in Christ—the righteousness that comes from God and is by faith. 10 I WANT TO KNOW CHRIST and the power of his resurrection and the fellowship of sharing in his sufferings, becoming like him in his death, 11 and so, somehow, to attain to the resurrection from the dead.”

KNOWLEDGE of Christ is absolutely essential to our bringing Him glory. And as I indicated in my last two sermons, this knowledge comes as we really look at Christ and as we listen to Him. This knowledge comes from a PERSONAL ENCOUNTER with Christ, not from the pages of a book. It is not head knowledge; it is the knowledge that comes as we respond by faith to the Holy Spirit as He speaks to us and as we then ACT ON THAT KNOWLEDGE. It is more like the knowledge of a skilled craftsman whose skills are seen in what he produces rather than academic knowledge seen only on the printed page.

Not one to avoid calling a spade a spade, Paul tackles the issue of the spiritual immaturity of the Corinthians head on when he says in 1 Corinthians 3:1–3 (NIV84) “1 Brothers, I could not address you as spiritual but as worldly—mere infants in Christ. 2 I gave you milk, not solid food, for you were not yet ready for it. Indeed, you are still not ready. 3 You are still worldly. For since there is jealousy and quarreling among you, are you not worldly? Are you not acting like mere men?” So what about us? Are we prepared to step up and be those who seek to become spiritually mature and leave behind our self-centred, babyish ways and begin to live lives that focus on bringing glory to God?

How are we spiritually? Are we aiming to really LOOK at our Saviour, to really SEE Him as He is? Are we really LISTENING to Him so that we HEAR what He is saying to us. And are we acting on the truth that He shows us by putting it into practice in our daily lives?

Does it seem too hard for us to grow up though? Are we really ready to leave our childish ways behind us and become those who begin to bring glory to our God and determine to live as the spiritual adults we are meant to be?

I well remember the day I stowed my heavy suitcase in the boot of the bus at Uxbridge, took my seat and waved goodbye to mum as I set off to Birmingham to begin my degree course. I think of that as the moment I stopped being a child and began to be an adult. Ahead of me lay new experiences and new challenges, and now I would very much have to fend for myself without mum and dad to sort me out. From that moment, though I went home from time to time in the holidays, I knew that I was now responsible for my own life. I had flown the nest and that was the right thing to do.

As Christians we need that same experience in our spiritual life. We need to be the people God intends us to be and make sure that we take on the responsibilities and opportunities of adult Christian life. No more excuses. Now we need to take personal responsibility.

So what then is our response? Will we stay as babies, only focussed on our own needs and motivated by our own desires? Or will we grow up, give God the GLORY He deserves, and begin to do the things He calls and commissions us to do?

Our time here on earth is finite. We only come here once. This is our moment. It will never come again and we must decide how we’ll use it. Will we shrink back from the opportunity in front of us, or will we seize the chance to bring some GLORY, feeble though it may be, to the Lord. Will we choose to say with Jesus: “No, it was for this very reason I came to this hour. 28 Father, glorify your name!” (John 12:28)

How will we respond to Paul’s plea given first to the Christians in Rome: “I urge you, brothers, in view of God’s mercy, to offer your bodies as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God—this is your spiritual act of worship. (Romans 12:1 (NIV84))

Will we seize our one-time opportunity and in the words of the Psalmist: “Ascribe to the LORD the GLORY due his name; bring an offering and come into his courts.” (Psalm 96:8 (NIV84)) and will we declare with our LIVES, not just our voices: 1Praise be to his glorious name forever; may the whole earth be filled with his glory. Amen and Amen. (Psalm 72:19 (NIV84))?