Sunday 05:06:12

1. God’s glory is almost beyond our comprehension. 2. He has given us revelation of his glory (enough to move us and excite our hearts). a. Hebrew “glory” in the OT is “kabod” i. Means weightiness, significance or meaningfulness. ii. There is nothing more meaningful than Him. iii. Psalm 96:3 “Declare his glory among the nations, his marvelous deeds among all peoples.” iv. He is the creator and sustainer of the universe. v. He is infinitely weighty – more than all the suns and worlds of the universe. b. Greek “glory” in NT is “doxa” i. Means “outshining.” ii. His glory shines out in his creation and his word. iii. His glory most clearly shines out of Jesus Christ. iv. John 1:14 – “The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the One and Only, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth.” v. The heavens declare the glory of God. It shines in the created order, but clearly in the life, death and resurrection of Christ. vi. His glory shines in the life of believers. His redemptive glory shines out of believers as we grow in the fruit of the Spirit, reflecting Jesus' life. c. God’s glory is in his attributes i. The glory of God is the sum of all of His attributes. ii. The combination of his goodness. iii. All that makes Him God. iv. Exodus 15:11, Song of Moses “Who among the gods is like you, O LORD? Who is like you—majestic in holiness, awesome in glory, working wonders?” v. His holiness, righteousness, beauty of his moral character, omniscience, omnipresence, omnipotence, goodness in compassion, mercy, love - for his own greatness and for us sinners. vi. Love for those he's saved. His glory is in his willingness to love us to the end. d. God’s Glory is his beauty i. Jonathon Edwards said God's glory is his beauty. ii. There is no beauty greater than his. He is righteous, just and at the same time perfectly loving. iii. He doesn't love just people like himself - the majestic, best ones, but the least. iv. He delights in us in spite of our sin. He loves sinners. This is part of his beauty. v. Our sin did not get in the way of his love. vi. Jonathon Edwards essay - The End for Which God Created the World. Clearly lays out the glory of God. It is God's purpose for creating and saving mankind. 3. God made people made for his glory. a. Isa 43:6-7 6 I will say to the north, ‘Give them up!’ and to the south, ‘Do not hold them back.’ Bring my sons from afar and my daughters from the ends of the earth— 7 everyone who is called by my name, whom I created for my glory, whom I formed and made.” b. God created man with the capacity to receive, comprehend and respond to his glory. i. God has created beings that are thoughtful, discerning, discovering, able to see his glory, recognize what God accomplished in Christ’s life, death and resurrection. ii. We were created to understand, receive, and be changed by his glory and to participate in it. iii. Only humans were created with the capacity to understand God's glory and enter into it by his grace. "Yes, it's true, you are glorious.” iv. Jeremiah 9:23-24 “23 This is what the Lord says: “Let not the wise man boast of his wisdom or the strong man boast of his strength or the rich man boast of his riches, 24 but let him who boasts boast about this: that he understands and knows me, that I am the Lord, who exercises kindness, justice and righteousness on earth, for in these I delight,”declares the Lord.” v. We are then able to participate in God's agenda and praise him, and live our lives in a way that communicates that glory as a gift of his salvation. c. Our focus is constantly diverted to ourselves. i. The world is a system of societies, not interested in God, but ourselves. ii. Our society in particular, has self as its center. iii. We have indwelling sin that further compromises us from to focus more on us than God. 4. We were created to bear his image – to show his glory a. He is the majestic One, Beautiful One. b. God has created us such that we can only find our fulfillment in radical re-orientation. c. This is what it means to be saved. To find freedom from self and value in God. 5. We are growing in his image. a. Augustin’s The City of God. b. God is saving us from the city of humanity (where people love self and hate God) and moving us by journey to the city of God (those who love God and despise self). c. We are in the city of God in principle, but it is more like we are on a journey toward the city of God than we have arrived. d. The City of God is the New Jersusalem in which we will fully love God. e. We have begun this journey and left what Bunyan calls “the city of destruction.” f. God is in the process of changing our hearts. g. It is a journey, thought by thought, step by step, desire by desire. h. 2 Corinthians 3:18 “And we, who with unveiled faces all reflect the Lord’s glory, are being transformed into his likeness with ever-increasing glory, which comes from the Lord, who is the Spirit.” 6. All of life is meant to aim at the glory of God. a. When I am in my best moments as a Christian, when I worship and see the beauty and glory of God, it is better than anything else in the world. b. It is pure, holy, good, cleansing. This is what I was made for. This life at its fullest. c. We can't sustain it for long. Sin makes it hard to sustain. d. It feels right b/c it is right. It gives us happiness like no other. e. Relationships, family life, church life, money, parenting, marriage, suffering – it is all for the glory of God 2 Thessalonians 1:8-10 “8 He will punish those who do not know God and do not obey the gospel of our Lord Jesus. 9 They will be punished with everlasting destruction and shut out from the presence of the Lord and from the majesty of his power 10 on the day he comes to be glorified in his holy people and to be marveled at among all those who have believed. This includes you, because you believed our testimony to you.”