MOTIVATE

Some handicaps are more challenging than others.

• Handicap of golfing/bowling novice vs experienced or professional is trivial.
• Handicap in wheelchair is indeed challenging but there is still much to be grateful: alert mind, eat independently, communicate relationally, etc.
• Handicap of being deaf has levels based upon 
  • Diagnosed with mere selective hearing.
  • Hearing impaired vs fully deaf.
  • Deaf in one or both ears.  
  • Deaf since birth.
• Handicap of paralysis whether paraplegic (legs) or quadriplegic (all limbs); either would be significantly impacting.

All these physical handicaps are devastating with lists of life disadvantages. Likewise, when it comes to describing God and defining God’s glory, as finite humans, we have a significant handicap. Yet, we are grateful for many examples for how individuals with disabilities or handicaps instruct us about greater depths of human purpose and inspire us with their example of perseverance and testimony of strength through human weakness.

• Helen Keller, Stevie Wonder, Andrea Bocelli
• Joni Erickson Tada, Nick Vujicic, Bethany Hamilton
• Abigail Joy Leach, Daniel Ritchie, Baierlein foster girls, SPBC young adult boys (Will Swartz, Mcgee’s, Tod Delp), and others.  

So, when it comes to knowing God and understanding God’s glory, we will fall short, but we can still have glimpses and foretastes:

• When we stand on a mountain top and look over high peaks and colorful tree lines in the valley.
• When we step onto the shoreline and watch the sunrise fill the sky and radiate across the ocean.
• When our favorite athletic team, or family/friend performs well and makes an accomplishment or wins an award. {consider watching Olympics}
• When we are disciplined to walk with God and dedicate prayers for years for personal awakening and corporate revival… we begin to catch glimpses of God’s glory.
• When we fight against being a spectator and we participate with God’s body of different believers to gather in faith, grow in hope, and go in love, then we experience a foretaste of God’s kingdom.

EXAMINE: God is Glorious[1] (Psalm 29/Isaiah 40:28-31)

So far, we’ve focused on the names:

• YHWH: “I am that I Am”
• Elohim: “God” “strong one”

• Today: El Kabod: God Of Glory

Today we’re going to view complementary texts from OT & NT to understand principles for the meaning and application of God is Glorious.

Unfading glory belongs to God.

Psalm 29 ¹ Ascribe to the LORD, O heavenly beings, ascribe to the LORD glory and strength. ² Ascribe to the LORD the glory due his name; worship the LORD in the splendor of holiness… the God of glory”

Like a court subpoena, the psalmist summons the whole earth to glorify God.

For us, we must give disciplined effort to be rewarded or earn accomplishments. No matter the race, we arrive at any finish line from a far different place.

• Brilliant, High IQ types didn’t exit the womb with knowledge. They still started ABC’s and math equations in elementary school.
• Athletes in professional sports don’t just step on the court or playing field with their skills and win championships. Sport abilities occur from spending time in the weight room, controlled eating habits, and painstaking practice over the course of years.
• Mechanics, Engineers, Computer IT types are all nerds – in the most positive way! They have read books, spent countless hours tinkering, fiddling, laboring, learning, and operating machines to become proficient at their trade.

But God is glorious simply by nature. God doesn’t need anything outside of His own being to show glory. God never needed to learn or develop. YWHW has always existed with flawless excellence and never needs improvement. And God’s glory never fades over the course of time, nor will any circumstance cause His glory to diminish or dissolve. Glory is owed to God and due to His name because He is the supreme and sovereign God. There is no one like God, no one compares to Him (Isa 45:5-6). Like wet is to water or heat is to fire, so is glory to God. Water doesn’t have to achieve wetness; Fire doesn’t need a matchstick. God is intrinsically glorious.

Isaiah says,

42:8 God says, “I am the LORD, that is my name; my glory I give to no other, nor my praise to carved idols.”

40:29-31 “Have you not known? Have you not heard? The LORD is the everlasting God, the creator of the ends of the earth. He does not faint or grow weary; His understanding is unsearchable. He gives power to the faint, and to him who has not might he increases strength. Even youths shall faint and be weary, and young shall fall exhausted; but they who wait for the LORD shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings like eagles; they shall run and not be wary; they shall walk and not faint.”

The first command of the 10 Commandments, God said, “You shall have no other gods before me.” The second, “You shall not make for yourself a carved image, or any likeness of anything… for YHWH your God am a jealous God” (Ex 20:3-4).

Romans 1:21 “For although they knew God, they did not honor Him as God, or give thanks to Him”

• Give honor to God with your words and deeds.
  
  
• Give thanks for lessons – for when life went differently than you desired with twists and turns.
  In Ps 29, the Psalmist references “The voice of the LORD is over the waters; God of glory (El Kabod) thunders… The voice of the LORD breaks the cedars…. shakes the wilderness… The LORD sits enthroned as king forever.”

Humans are hardwired for glory.

The Bible describes Almighty God making the heavens and earth.

• Ps 19:1 “The heavens declare the glory of God and the sky above proclaims His handiwork.”

Further, Almighty God made humanity in His own glorious image.

• Gen 1:26 “God said, ‘Let us make man in our image, after our likeness’”
  • I’ve shared before that being made in God’s image includes at least 3 aspects:
    • 1) Relationship. Unlike God’s other created elements, God spoke to humanity. They related to one another with trust and treasured devotion. We image God with our relationships to love others in His name.
    • 2) Reasoning. Humanity was given moral commands to follow. We image God with our obedience; or distort God’s image with disobedience.
    • 3) Responsibility: Humanity was charged as stewards of creation to care, cultivate, and have dominion. We image God by using our time and talents to serve society and care for others.

• Isaiah 43:7 “everyone who is called by my name, whom I formed and made, whom I created for my glory”
• Colossians 1:15 “all things were created through Him and for Him.”

God has intentionally placed us in a world jam-packed with glory. Everyday bursts and beams with glory and individual faces are brimful of beauty and wonder. All of creation serves as a spiritual GPS alerting us to follow to the home of glory.

Illus: Imagine taking your family to vacation at Disney World. Driving down I-95 you stop at the billboard signs that say “South Of The Border” and take pictures with each billboard. Then about 30 miles away you see the Disney World logo on a billboard. So, you stop to take pictures at those signs, and then you return to your vehicle to go back home.
Would your family be satisfied?
Would they feel cheated?
Would they be longing for something more?

So, it is with the glory of God in creation. Humanity is hardwired for glory, and if we do not orient ourselves and help others to the glory of Jesus, then we will be perpetually disappointed and everlastingly empty.

God has intentionally placed us in a world jam-packed with glory. Everyday bursts and beams with glory and individual faces are brimful of beauty and wonder. All of creation serves as a spiritual GPS alerting us to follow to the home of glory.

• Where in creation are you stopping at the signs but not advancing to the source of glory?

Humans are glory thieves.

Because humans are hardwired for glory, we crave it greedily. Instead of living for God’s glory, we attempt to rob God.

• We demand to be at the center of stories. We fail to look beyond our situation to consider what God might be doing in the life of someone else.
• We exercise cosmic plagiarism by taking credit for work and results that belong to God.
• We establish our own territories and kingdoms where we are the sovereign, and we punish those who think or act differently than we do.
• Over time, we think we are deserving and entitled to more gifts and blessings, and we complain when others commended or promoted.

There’s a passage in the Bible that reflects this:

Acts 12:20-24 ²⁰ Now Herod was angry with the people of Tyre and Sidon, and they came to him with one accord, and having persuaded Blastus, the king’s chamberlain, they asked for peace, because their country depended on the king’s country for food. ²¹  On an appointed day Herod put on his royal robes, took his seat upon the throne, and delivered an oration to them. ²²  And the people were shouting, “The voice of a god, and not of a man!” ²³  Immediately an angel of the Lord struck him down, because he did not give God the glory, and he was eaten by worms and breathed his last. ²⁴  But the word of God increased and multiplied.

Herod had the position of king. He had the power over populations. He had the authority of Rome.

In this case, the neighboring cities came to Herod asking for peace and provision. Many cities relied on the Judean region for stability and sustenance.

Herod, having the authority of Rome also had the ability to use speech to persuade people for selfish gain. He dressed with royal robes and sat upon the throne to make an eloquent speech. Like many politicians, he was probably making promises of peace and provision that would go empty. Yet, the people were hungry for hope.

And the people started to worship Herod as God. And as any prideful leader, Herod relished the attention rather than rejected their adulation. The contrast is in an earlier chapter with Peter receiving the celebration of the crowd but instead, he responds, “I too am just a man” (Ac 10:26).

Thus, immediately the Lord struck Herod down because he did not give God the glory – and Herod was eaten by worms! And God will do the same for us if we are glory thieves.

• Do you recognize God as placing you in the positions you are in today?
• Do you acknowledge God’s provision by giving back to Him through financial offerings?
• Do you serve or sing or share for others to notice you, or do you genuinely want God to receive the glory? Here’s how you can know your answer – how do you react when others do your role/job? Do you not still participate and show up? Do you encourage and applaud them? Or, are you jealous, judgmental, and overall negative?
• Or how about this… do you attend church for God’s glory or for your needs to be met? Here’s how you can know your answer – how do you react when your song choices don’t get played? How do you react when your favorite ministry doesn’t get announced? Who else are you thinking needs to hear the sermon more than you do, when the real likelihood is God is speaking to you!?!

The Herod personality and mindset is far too often prevalent in church. And sadly, you’re trading worship of God for worms in the grave. The worms of selfish pride and manipulating power will rot before the judgment seat of God.

Herod personality and mindset is far too often prevalent in church. Sadly it leads to trading worship of God for worms in the grave. And the worms of selfish pride and manipulating power will rot before the judgment seat of God.

Acts 12 ends with Herod getting eaten and rotting from worms, but “the word of God increased and multiplied.” One way we can be certain to give glory to God is to spread God’s word.

Isaiah 40:8 “The grass withers, the flower fades, but the word of our God will stand forever.”

Isaiah 55:11 “my word that goes out shall not return to me empty.”

Illus (shared before)[2] – French philosopher Voltaire (1694-1778) predicted “One hundred years from my day, there will not be a Bible on earth except one that is looked upon by an antiquarian curiosity seeker.” Yet, within 50 years after his death, the very house he once lived became the Evangelical Society of Geneva, which hosted printing presses for Voltaire’s work, and even the paper he purchased, then began printing Bibles, and gospel tracts. 

• Where are you robbing God of glory in your life?

Satan wants us to have lots of religion with “el.” Religiously paying attention to “el” keeps you busy and blinded to true glory.

2 Corinthians 4:4 “the god of this world has blinded the minds of the unbelievers, to keep them from seeing the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God.”

What Satan does not want, is for you to have a relationship with El Kabod – the God of Glory.

2 Corinthians 4:6-10 ⁶ For God, who said, “Let light shine out of darkness,” has shone in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ. ⁷ But we have this treasure in jars of clay, to show that the surpassing power belongs to God and not to us. ⁸ We are afflicted in every way, but not crushed; perplexed, but not driven to despair; ⁹ persecuted, but not forsaken; struck down, but not destroyed; ¹⁰ always carrying in the body the death of Jesus, so that the life of Jesus may also be manifested in our bodies.

APPLY/THINK

Areas we can give God glory:

Your health/body.

1 Corinthians 6:19-20 “Do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit, within you, whom you have from God? For you were bought with a price. So, glorify God in your body.”

1 Cor 10:31 “So, whatever you do, do it all for the glory of God.”

Your home. 

Psalm 127:1 “Unless the LORD builds the house, those who build it labor in vain.” Your home is your #1 mission field. You can glorify God everywhere in public, but if your personal home life and private integrity are neglected, then you have labored in vain.

Your community

1 Peter 4:10-13 As each one has received a special gift, employ it in serving one another as good stewards of the manifold grace of God. Whoever speaks, is to do so as one who is speaking the utterances of God; whoever serves is to do so as one who is serving by the strength which God supplies; so that in all things God may be glorified through Jesus Christ, to whom belongs the glory and dominion forever and ever. Amen.

Your testimony.

Jesus said, “let your light shine before others so that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father in heaven.” (Mt 5:16)

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[1] Message research in addition to passage commentaries, Tony Evans “When We See God’s Glory” (2017), Paul Tripp “The Doctrine Of Glory,”

[2] https://crossexamined.org/voltaires-prediction-home-and-the-bible-society-truth-or-myth-further-evidence-of-verification/