Our Satisfaction, His Glory

One of the things that I am finding about preaching is that I can’t just go from subject to subject, or from passage to passage very easily .

It seem that my mind is always circling back around to a subject that maybe I have just talked about or to a passage that we have covered

And often I see new things in the passage, or I start seeing it from another perspective.

But that’s the amazing thing about how the Holy Spirit works and how He leads us into truth. It’s our tendency, I think to maybe read a passage and say, “Well, that’s that. I read it, I understand what it’s talking about. I have the truth.”

But maybe the next day or the next year or several years down the road, you find yourself reading the same passage and thinking, “wow, I never saw that before. How amazing is that!”

That’s the Holy Spirit revealing things to you and leading you into discovering layers upon layers of truth.

-------------------------

We have been talking about the Glory of God and how that should be our highest priority and desire.

Pews (hopefully padded)

All of them facing the same way

religious looking things on the walls

A raised platform

Microphones

a pulpit

I’m often curious about things that are normal to us. I sometimes wonder how things came to be…certain things we do, or certain ways of living or acting.

What is the history behind this?

Church is one of these things that I have questions about.

I’m kind of curious about how you can walk into almost any traditional Mennonite Church and basically have an idea of what’s going to happen.

You can expect a Sunday School, sometimes before, sometimes after the sermon

There is a sermon

In many traditional churches, you have two songs between the SS and sermon

At some point you will pass the offering plate or bags

There will be announcements

These are all things that you can expect.

But there’s one thing that is always the focal point of every Sunday morning service in just about any church that you will attend

What is that?

The Sermon. Am I right?

You can have a church of 5000 people, all uniquely gifted for ministry, yet the entire Sunday morning service is focused on one man behind a pulpit.

Did you ever wonder how that came to be?

I have. Probably more so since I am that one man behind the pulpit.

I don’t know the history behind all of that, but I have thought quite a bit about

(ESV)

The Fellowship of the Believers

42 And they devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and the fellowship, to the breaking of bread and the prayers. 43 And awe came upon every soul, and many wonders and signs were being done through the apostles. 44 And all who believed were together and had all things in common. 45 And they were selling their possessions and belongings and distributing the proceeds to all, as any had need. 46 And day by day, attending the temple together and breaking bread in their homes, they received their food with glad and generous hearts,

And we’ve been exploring the question of how do we give Him the most glory.

We talked about loving God and loving our neighbors being the two highest callings on which our whole life depends

How, actually they are ONE calling....we can’t say we love God if we hate our neighbor and we can’t truly love our neighbor without love for our God

But there’s something else to think about in regard to what gives God the most glory

And to get us thinking about that, I have a question for you.

What is is that satisfies you? What is it, or who is it that gives you the most joy and the most delight?

There are a lot of things that bring us joy

For some it’s turning over the soil and planting the seeds and watching those seeds grow and looking forward to the harvest.

For others, it’s being behind the controls of large machines

For others, it’s coffee and good conversation with a friend

For others, if we are blessed like this, it’s the company of our spouses,

Or spending time with our kids.

What is it that gives you the most joy?

Now you may be wondering, “How does this relate with the Glory of God?”

Lately I have been reading a book by John Piper called

“Let the Nations Be Glad: The Supremacy of God in Missions”

In this book he makes this statement which He actually takes from another book of his.

“God is most glorified in us, when we are most satisfied in Him.”

God is most glorified in us when we are most satisfied in Him.

Have you ever thought about that? If you have, what do you think about that?

Now, I realize that you aren’t going to find that sentence in the Bible. This is one man’s attempt to express His thoughts about biblical truth.

But have you thought about it this way? That God is most glorified in us when we are most satisfied in Him?

Piper illustrates it this way:

Suppose that you are in the hospital and I go to visit you. And I walk into the room and you look up and say, “Oh, wow, I’m so glad to see you. Thanks so much for coming…it means a lot.”

And I raise my hand as if to deflect your grattitude and I say, “Don’t mention it. It was my duty.”

What does that do to you?

Why would that be such a thoughtless statement

Do you feel honored? Valued? Does it make you feel like you were worth my time?

It’s really a very rude and thoughtless statement.

And the reason that it’s such a thoughtless statement is because it does not honor you as a person.

Yes, it is my duty, part of my responsibility. But you do not feel honored in that response.

It does not bestow honor or value on you. You don’t feel like I am there because of you or that I really even want to be there.

I have a lot of other duties as well…like taking out the trash.

I don’t honor the trash, but I do my duty. And that’s how you would feel if I responded that way.

Suppose on the other hand, when you say, “Oh thank you for coming!” I would respond, “It’s my pleasure to be here. I’m glad that I could come.”

What does that do for you?

How does that make you feel about yourself?

Does it make you feel honored? Valued? Cherished?

Probably so!

And here’s the paradox in this response: “It’s my pleasure. I’m glad I could come”: My response doesn’t mention you at all. Instead, I talk about me in the reponse:

It’s MY pleasure. I”M glad I could come

Yet it says volumes about YOU.

The thing that gives me the most pleasure is the thing that gives you the most honor.

In expressing what gives me pleasure (coming to see you), I am honoring you

Couldn’t this also be true of God?

Couldn’t it also be true that the more we are pleased at being with God, the more He is glorified and honored?

Couldn’t it be true that the more we are satisfied in Him, the more glory He receives?

Could it be that the more we express our

Now, it’s possible that when I come to see you that I could overdo my expressions of pleasure at being there. And then you would wish that I would just go away.

But I don’t think that it is so with God.

The more we express to Him our pleasure and our delight in who He is, the more honor He receives. The more Glory He receives.

I would like us to take a look at

I think this Psalm gives such a clear picture of this connection between our satisfaction and His glory.

(ESV)

Make Your Face Shine upon Us

67 To the choirmaster: with stringed instruments. A Psalm. A Song.

1 May God be gracious to us and bless us

and make his face to shine upon us, Selah

2 that your way may be known on earth,

your saving power among all nations.

3 Let the peoples praise you, O God;

let all the peoples praise you!

4 Let the nations be glad and sing for joy,

for you judge the peoples with equity

and guide the nations upon earth. Selah

5 Let the peoples praise you, O God;

let all the peoples praise you!

6 The earth has yielded its increase;

God, our God, shall bless us.

7 God shall bless us;

let all the ends of the earth fear him!

The Psalmist is expressing his satisfaction and complete fulfillment of God

He is reveling in the blessing of God

He is desiring the blessing of God and favor of God

He expresses how God brings the increase upon the earth

And how God is a righteous judge

IN the Psalmists mind, God’s glory is bring elevated upon him personally and upon the nation of Israel.

But that’s not where it stops. Because as we have talked about before, and as I will continue to repeat, there is a SO THAT.

SO THAT, why? Why should our satisfaction in Him elevate His glory in our hearts and on our church and community?

Here’s why:

SO THAT

His way will be known on all the earth

People are searching and lost, wondering in darkness

Just look at our culture, society. Just look at our community, listen to the news and you quickly discover that people don’t know the way

Everyone does what is right in their own eyes.

And the result is chaos

People need to know the way of God

His glory needs to be increases so that people will know the way of God

So that His saving power will be known among all the nations

Do we need saving? Do you and I need saving?

Do we believe that people really need to be saved

Do we believe that people are headed for an end that spell destruction?

People need to be saved.

His glory needs to be increases so that people will know His saving power

So that ALL the nations and all the peoples will praise Him!

What is it that people currently praise

When you travel around the world, even though our cultures are very different and we look and act differently, there are still things that people all over the world praise

We praise sports, money, politicians, power, position and prestige.

We praise everything and anyone except the One who deserves to be praised.

God’s glory needs to be increased so that the nations will praise Him!

So that all the ends of the earth will fear Him.

What do people reverence? What do people fear

They fear death, warfare, disease, poverty, violence…the list goes on

People live in fear.

We live in fear sometimes. We fear letting people into our hearts. We fear pain and rejection.

If there is anyone we should fear, it is the ONE who judges our hearts! It’s the one who has our lives and our eternities in His hands

Scripture tells us again and again to fear the Lord

But it should not be a paralyzing fear

It should not be a fear that causes us to cower down, hide, or run away.

It should be a fear which makes us run TO Him because of His sovereign power and infinite love

It should be awe and reverence which brings us to Him

The nations live in fear of many things

But God’s glory needs to be elevated so that people will fear Him!

What brings you the most satisfaction? Is it God?

The Westminster Shorter Catechism, written around 1646 asks this question:

Q. What is the chief end of man? A. Man's chief end is to glorify God, and to enjoy him forever.

Our satisfaction in Him should result in Him receiving more glory not just in our lives, but in the lives of all the people of the world.