Sermon Tone Analysis

Introduce self...

Pray...

Heavenly father,

I praise you that you are great.

I praise you that you were before all things and that by you all things hold together.

I praise you that you are good.

I praise you that all your ways are righteous and just.

There is no imperfection in you.

Thank you for coming down from heaven in likeness of sinful men, to make a way for rebels like me to return to you.

I confess that I fall short of your righteous standard of thought and life, I trust your steadfast love and mercy.

Grant me words to speak today; my lips belong to you.

I ask that you would glorify yourself and make your own name great in all the earth.

For those listening this morning, I pray that the Holy Spirit would speak.

I pray that each person here would hear and learn from you through my words.

I pray that we would be a congregation that is thoughtful and reflective when you speak, God.

I pray for renewal for myself and for this congregation.

Renewal to remember and embrace the truth about who you are - to be refreshed by the truth of your gospel.

I pray for equipping for myself and for this congregation.

I pray for practical equipping in the fight of faith - for sanctification - that you would continue to close the gap between what we say we believe, (what we know to be true), and how we actually live our lives.

And finally I pray for salvation.

I pray that the hearts of those here this morning that don’t know you would be softened.

I pray that repentance would be granted.

I pray that lost souls would be united to you.

All these things I pray in Jesus name,

Amen

For advent this year, we have been going through the 4 G’s.

These are four simple truths, that if we fight to believe them will transform our behavior and thus our lives.

These four simple truths are:

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God is GREAT - so we don’t have to be in control

God is GOOD - so we don’t have to look elsewhere

God is GLORIOUS - so we don’t have to fear others

God is GRACIOUS - so we don’t have to prove ourselves

Underlying assumptions for this series:

Every sin is a result of believing a lie

When we sin, it is true that we are DOING something bad...

But in every case, the reason we are DOING something bad is because we are BELIEVING something wrong.

That is, we are believing a lie.

Belief is root.

Behavior is fruit.

What you deeply hold to be true will flow out of you as be behaviors and emotions.

Real faith is head, heart, and hands.

Few Christians would read the 4 G’s and have any issue with them intellectually…

But those things which we believe in our head,

Must transfer to our heart,

And must flow out of our hands...

Two weeks ago we talked about:

God is GREAT - so we don’t have to be in control

Last week we talked about:

God is GOOD - so we don’t have to look elsewhere

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“It would seem that Our Lord finds our desires not too strong, but too weak.

We are half-hearted creatures, fooling about with drink and sex and ambition when infinite joy is offered us, like an ignorant child who wants to go on making mud pies in a slum because he cannot imagine what is meant by the offer of a holiday at the sea.

We are far too easily pleased.”

C.S. Lewis, The Weight of Glory

Today we’re going to talk about:

God is GLORIOUS - so we don’t have to fear others

Before we get going on that, we need to review a term:

What is “glory”?

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Glory is the expression of worth, value, significance, or power.

Violin Example:

Imagine the most excellent violin...

Imagine the most accomplished violinist...

Imagine the most beautiful theater, maybe Carnegie Hall

Imagine you are seated in the front row of a final performance...

What is “glorious”?

“Glorious” is an adjective.

Which means it’s a word that describes a noun.

To say that “God is glorious” is just to say that God has glory.

So,

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To say that “God is glorious” is simply to say that God’s being and character express worth, value, significance, and power.

When we properly understand that God is glorious, it ought to lead to what the Bible calls, “The fear of the Lord”

Fear of the Lord

The “fear of the Lord” is the appropriate response to his glory.

HOW GLORIOUS IS GOD?

THIS GLORIOUS????

Reverence and awe.

I think that is the best simple definition of the fear of the Lord...

I want to try and paint a picture of the fear of the Lord by looking at a few stories.

We could look at so many stories, but I want to hand pick just a few out of the Bible...

God passes by Moses...

Skipping down to 34:29...

THIS IS THE GLORY OF GOD.

Jesus calms a storm

THIS IS THE GLORY OF GOD.

Jesus’ betrayal and arrest...

And transitioning to the exact story in Matthew...

A legion would be no fewer than 6000.

12 legions would be no fewer than 72,000.

THIS IS THE GLORY OF GOD.

Jesus’ meekness on the cross

I read this story and I feel anger and indignation running through my body...

I think to myself, Jesus, explode off that cross, speak and crush those no good, despicable, sinful rebels...

And then I realize who I am in this story...

I am the no good despicable, sinful rebel...

Jesus had every right and reason to crush them.

Jesus had every right and reason to crush me.

But Jesus did the unthinkable.