"Therefore, whether you eat or drink, or whatever you do, do all to the glory of God. "(1 Corinthians 10:31)
What is it that will bring the greatest satisfaction to your soul? What is the highest purpose that God has made and redeemed you? It is important to know God's purpose in creation and redemption because that tells us why we are here on the earth, and common sense says that if you know what something was made for, you can get more out of it. That's true for your life. If you know that a lawn mower is made for cutting grass and not for cutting your hair, your life will be happier. And if you know that you are made for God's glory, you will make better use of it and be happier.
I have been humbly attempting to do a basic primer on the glory of God the past few weeks. We have learned that it is something you see or reflect upon or point to rather than define. But, for definitions sake I simply defined it as the beauty of God unveiled. It is what makes God, God, and shows Him so worthy of our praise, our love, our allegiance, our admiration, our boasting, our hope, our trust, our joy, and our confidence
God means for us to see His glory with our eyes, know His glory in our minds, and relish his glory in our hearts, and reflect his glory in our lives.” God has made us to see His glory, to savor and delight in His glory.This is fundamental in order to be able to live for His glory. God's glory is not something we merely see; it is something that transforms us (2 Corinthians 3:18). His purpose in seeing His glory is designed to evoke breathtaking delight and incomparable joy.
THE PASSIONATE AND JOYFUL ADMIRATION OF SEEING AND EXPERIENCING GOD IS THE GOAL OF OUR EXISTENCE!
When that begins to happen to you dear reader, you are ready to begin to live for His glory. I said last week that the whole duty of the Christian can be summed up in this: feel, think, and act in a way in your life and in your death that will make God look as great as he really is. Be a telescope for the world of the infinite starry wealth of the glory of God. We are supposed to be like well-polished mirrors of God's truth to the world. Or like prisms that take the beams of God's greatness and break them up into lots of varied colors for the world to see in our actions and words (Philippians 1:21; Ephesians 3:10; Matthew 5:16).
So, the way we glorify God is to acknowledge it, to value and delight in the glory of God above all things, and to desire and act to make it known. In short, to glorify God is to make Him look good, to place Him on display so that when others see our lives, they stand in awe of God. What does it mean to glorify God?
WE LOVE HIM: Matthew 22:37, "You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind."
WE ARE THANKFUL TO HIM: Psalm 50:23, "Whoever offers praise glorifies Me; and to him who orders his conduct aright I will show the salvation of God."
WE TRUST HIM: Romans 4:20, "He did not waver at the promise of God through unbelief, but was strengthened in faith, giving glory to God."
WE SERVE HIM: 1 Peter 4:11, "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."
WE OBEY HIM: Matthew 5:16, "Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works and glorify your Father in heaven."
The great duty of the Christian life is summed up by Paul in 1 Corinthians 10:31, "whether you eat or drink, or whatever you do, do all to the glory of God. Whatever you do, whatever circumstance you are in, in other words, in the totality of your life: GLORIFY GOD! Even in the most mundane activities of life, Paul says, make God look good! So that is what every man and woman and child should devote his or her life to. That is why we live. That is our duty. Or you could say, that is God's will.
But perhaps there is a great disconnect here for some of you.First, because you do not know what it means to do everything to the glory of God and it seems disconnected from my daily routine and mundane activities. Secondly, because the words "duty" and "will" are not words of joy or freedom or happiness. They tend to sound oppressive,legalistic, and burdensome. What does it mean that it is the duty or the will of Gods to glorify Him? How do we joyfully, delightfully, passionately, compellingly glorify the Lord? Let me illustrate with the help of John Piper.
If you want to glorify a beautiful painting, you don't feel a burden to work to improve it. You simply enjoy it. You love it. You talk about it excitedly to your friends. Or if someone makes a wonderful meal and serves it up before you, how do you glorify the excellence of the meal? Not by putting on your apron and going out to the kitchen to make a few more dishes or add a few spices. No. You glorify a perfect meal by eating a lot and by feeling contented and saying, ahhh. In other words if it is your duty to glorify something infinitely beautiful and wonderful, that is no burden. It is a pleasure. In fact when you take from it pleasure, you show it's a treasure.
Or suppose it's your duty to glorify the strength of a new metal alloy that holds up a bridge. How do you glorify the strength of the metal? Not by working hard to provide some extra supports, but by getting in your car with all your family and trusting the bridge with your life as you peacefully drive across without any anxiety. You glorify strength by trusting it not by working to supplement it. So the duty to glorify power is not a burden. It's a restful pleasure.
Or suppose your duty was to glorify someones generosity. Suppose someone was so rich and so generous that they just spilled over in love and generosity and grace and kindness to you. How would you glorify that quality in them? Not by trying to pay them back. That would turn their kindness into a business deal. It would treat their free gift like a trade. Tit for tat. That would not glorify the wealth of their generosity. No the way to glorify their generosity and their kindness is to be lavish and genuine in your gratitude and thanksgiving. And that is no burden. If you get a billion dollar gift, you do not groan under the duty to feel thankful. It is a pleasure not a hardship.
Finally, suppose it is your duty to glorify someones great wisdom? Say the wisdom of your coach (if you're on some team) or your counselor (if you are in some kind of therapy)? The answer is that you don't glorify their wisdom by trying strenuously to help them figure out the answer to some problem. You glorify their wisdom by doing what they say. If you want to show that your coach is really wise, you run and do his drills without doubting or grumbling. If you want to glorify your counselor's wisdom, you do his assignments without doubt or grumbling. In other words, glad-hearted obedience glorifies great wisdom. And this is not a burden (1 John 5:3).
Now do you see what all this means? It means that God is love. It means that when He created us for His glory, He also created us for our joy. How so? Because the way He seeks to be glorified in us is by making us satisfied in Him. The good news of Christianity is that God is the kind of God who is most glorified in us when we are most satisfied in Him.
This duty is not a burden. It is freedom and joy. You glorify God's beauty and excellence by loving it and delighting in it. You glorify God's power by trusting him with all the hard and threatening things in your life. You glorify God's bounty and generosity and kindness and grace by overflowing with gratitude. And you glorify God's wisdom by obeying his counsel. And everybody knows that this is no burden. This is no heavy law. This is love.
God is a God of infinite love because He wills to share all that He is with us for our enjoyment and His glory.
You glorify God's beauty and excellence by loving it and delighting in it. You glorify God's provision for your thirsty souls by drinking and being satisfied in Him alone. You glorify God's bounty and generosity and kindness and grace by overflowing with gratitude. It is there spontaneously. It is not consciously willed. It is not analyzed in terms of an appropriate response. It is not decided upon. It comes freely from deep within, from a place beneath the conscious will.
The only right way to live, serve, work, worship, eat, and drink is when we do it to His glory “God is most glorified in us when we are most satisfied in Him.”
Oh may you dear reader, see His glory. May you delight, treasure, and savor His glory. May you be changed by his glory, so that we will reflect it to a world that is blinded to His glory and has sinned and fallen short of His glory.
Next week I will give you some practical ways to stoke the fire of seeing his glory in your daily life.
Longing to live for His glory in everything that I say and do,
Pastor Bill
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