Letting God glorify Himself through me
Glorifying God • Sermon • Submitted • Presented
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Our theme is “glorifying God”
Day 1 was supposed to start the process of reflection.
It’s all about God and His glory!
He’s the big picture that puts our lives into perspective.
Day 2 we got personal.
We talked about real struggles.
We encourages self-examination and self- awareness.
Day 3 we kept the same vulnerability, but focused outward.
Our story is connected to others as part of a larger story.
God’s power and life flow through that interconnectedness.
Now we are going to talk about glorifying God again, but with a renewed approach.
After today, we will go back to our assignments.
We will go back to doing what we were doing, which is what we are supposed to be doing - glorifying God.
But when we have spent time in God’s Presence, in personal reflection and in each other’s company - it should make a difference in how we glorify God.
Not in what we do, necessarily, but in the energy and the means by which we do it.
We may even have a different reason for doing what we do.
I will go back to the question that I asked on day 1; Are you working for God or are you working with God?
Maybe it’s not entirely one or the other.
To what degree are you depending on God day by day and moment by moment?
To what degree are the things you are thinking, saying and doing coming from Him?
Are you really the one glorifying God or is God glorifying Himself through you?
I know that sounds like semantic language, but its biblical.
The prayer of Jesus
The prayer of Jesus
1 When Jesus had spoken these words, he lifted up his eyes to heaven, and said, “Father, the hour has come; glorify your Son that the Son may glorify you, 2 since you have given him authority over all flesh, to give eternal life to all whom you have given him. 3 And this is eternal life, that they know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom you have sent. 4 I glorified you on earth, having accomplished the work that you gave me to do. 5 And now, Father, glorify me in your own presence with the glory that I had with you before the world existed.
There is a circular nature in the way Jesus describes glorifying God.
The Father glorifies the Son, so that the Son glorifies the father.
Everything that the Father does gets reflected back because the Son is the perfect image of the Father.
Everything that the Father does, He does through the Son, but it is still the Father doing it.
There is a complete interdependence in the Godhead, each one working with and through the others - Father, Son and Holy Spirit working in perfect harmony.
There is a Latin word which describes the harmonious relationship of the Trinity - perichorisis
The term was coined by Gregory of Nazianzus in the fourth century to describe the relationship between the Father and the Son - literally means interpenetration or mutual indwelling.
11 Believe me that I am in the Father and the Father is in me, or else believe on account of the works themselves.
Mideval scholars used the term to describe the unique relationship of the Trinity
If you are familiar the old European dances, they usually involve a methodical weaving in and out and exchanging partners.
C.S. Lewis picked up on the dance metaphor in the Cosmic Trilogy Peralandra
In Christianity God is not a static thing–not even a person–but a dynamic, pulsating activity, a life, almost a kind of drama. Almost, if you will not think me irrelevant, a kind of dance… The whole dance, or drama, or pattern of this three Personal life is to be played out in each one of us: or (putting it the other way round) each one of us has got to enter that pattern, take his place in that dance.
Humanity, according to Lewis, is invited into the dance - the life- of the Trinity.
That is essentially what Jesus prays in John 17, except he uses the language of glory.
22 The glory that you have given me I have given to them, that they may be one even as we are one, 23 I in them and you in me, that they may become perfectly one, so that the world may know that you sent me and loved them even as you loved me.
If the awe inspiring concept of the glory of God were not enough to motivate us to serve Him for the rest of our lives, consider that we are invited to participate in that glory!
18 And we all, with unveiled face, beholding the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from one degree of glory to another. For this comes from the Lord who is the Spirit.
Just as Jesus glorified the Father who also glorified him - we glorify God by participating in and reflecting His glory.
It is as if God is glorifying Himself through us.
Not just as if… That is exactly what God is doing = He is both the source and the recipient of glory!
We get to participate in that glory by reflecting - just being who God made us to be.
What does that mean for my life and ministry?
It means that reflecting God -bearing His image - is the primary way that I give Him glory.
What I do for God comes out of who I am in Christ - doing comes from being.
We are not “human doings” we are “human beings”
I had a prayer partner during my first term of service in Denmark who would write the most encouraging letters. This was in the days before email and our letters would often cross in the mail. He would respond to things that I said before he could have possibly recieved my letters.
I would struggle ever time newsletter time came around. I felt like I had to share some great story - something that would justify that sacrifices that my supporters were making to keep me on the field. Sure, God was doing some great things, but I didn’t feel like I should be taking credit for any of it.
He used to tell me, “Don’t think that God has called you there to do anything. God has called you first and foremost to be! What you do will come from knowing who you are.”
One of my colleagues in Denmark once told me, “ I don;t know what to tell you, except that your being here is making a difference!”
Glory to God!
Working from a place of rest
Working from a place of rest
If giving glory to God is more about being than doing, then it follows that much of our human striving is not giving glory to God.
Unless your striving is with God’s energy!
29 For this I toil, struggling with all his energy that he powerfully works within me.
Did you hear that? Paul’s energy in all all his striving isn’t really even his energy - it comes from God!
That sounds like working with God, and not for God.
Karie and I take an annual personal retreat where we take time to pray and reflect on the past year and set goals for the year to come. I have a number of questions that I use to reflect and journal on. One of those questions is:
Did we work out of obedience to Christ? Did we work out of Christ's strength or our own strength?
What were our motives for doing this? Was my attitude restful and my work style peaceful? Did we minister with integrity?
The purpose of these questions is to keep us working from a place of rest.
If my attitude is restful and my work style is peaceful - then I am reflecting the character of God.
People are seeing Christ in me - I’m giving God glory.
On the other hand, if what people see is human ambition and striving - like its my reputation on the line - how does that give glory to God?
God wants us to work from a place of rest.
9 So then, there remains a Sabbath rest for the people of God, 10 for whoever has entered God’s rest has also rested from his works as God did from his. 11 Let us therefore strive to enter that rest, so that no one may fall by the same sort of disobedience.
The only striving we should be doing is striving to rest.
That is not the same as passivity.
It’s an active dependence on God.
Like Moses - “God, if you don’t go with us, we’re not going anywhere.”
Like Elijah - “God, if you don’t show up, nothing is going to happen.”
Like Daniel - God, I’m just doing what you told me,my life is in your hands!”
Heidi - “We’re only doing what God told us to do. Let just trust Jesus!”
This is what the book of Hebrew calls faith - not doing great things for God, but simply believing Him and obeying Him.
6 And without faith it is impossible to please him, for whoever would draw near to God must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who seek him.
Sometimes in ministry we wonder what we are doing wrong and the answer is simply that we are trying too hard.
When I served in Denmark I had just come from a two-year internship at a mega-church where I learned how to set goals and achieve results. I had plans and ideas for how to change Denmark. I was going to do great things for God!
Well, you know a little bit about what happened. But I also didn’t take into account the Danish culture and mindset. Danes have this thing called “hygge.” it is world renown as the art of creating comfortable environments. If there is one thing that Danes are really good at it is knowing how to relax and have a good time.
They were not impressed by my ambition. Just the opposite. They would say to me, “slap af!” Relax! You are too uptight!
We don’t care about your goals and your ideas. Obviously, they didn’t even care about planting churches. What did they want from me?
We just want to get to know you. We want to have a relationship where we can learn about what makes you tick. We want to see who you really are and we want you to tell us how you see us.
I know God used me to glorify Him in Denmark, but it wasn’t really anything I did.
When I look back on that time of ministry, the best fruit was in the relationships that were formed.
My best ministry was the time I spend relaxing and enjoying friends.
God was being reflected and glorified in those moments.
Abiding and bearing fruit
Abiding and bearing fruit
The Bible tells us that bearing fruit comes from abiding.
4 Abide in me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit by itself, unless it abides in the vine, neither can you, unless you abide in me. 5 I am the vine; you are the branches. Whoever abides in me and I in him, he it is that bears much fruit, for apart from me you can do nothing.
What does it mean to abide?
It means to be!
It means to stay in one place, to wait, to stand your ground, to continue, to endure, to be patient and to live.
In this context, it speaks of connection - abide in me.
Have you ever spent time in an orchard? My grandmother had an apple orchard behind the house. I used to spend time around the apple trees. They were great for climbing because they were pruned to have low spreading branches that you could lay on.
Are orchards busy, productive places? Have you ever heard a tree grunting to produce fruit? No they are peaceful, but they are also productive! The only thing a branch needs to do to produce fruit is remain connected. The rest is just natural!
Do you know what else is natural? Giving glory to God as a person created in His image.
Before you do anything, just preserve that connection with God and the doing will come naturally.
I’m not against planning and goal setting - I still do that - but its secondary to the connection that I have with God through the Holy Spirit.
The Holy Spirit is our constant connection to Jesus and to the Father.
15 “If you love me, you will keep my commandments. 16 And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Helper, to be with you forever, 17 even the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it neither sees him nor knows him. You know him, for he dwells with you and will be in you.
Remember from yesterday, the helper is the paraclete - the comfort that we both receive and give.
20 In that day you will know that I am in my Father, and you in me, and I in you.
Does that sound like the divine dance?
You in me and I in you?
That’s perichoresis - that’s God stuff!
That’s the glory of God flowing from Him to us and back to Him.
That’s God glorifying Himself through you.
And in the process of God glorifying himself though us, there is also fruit.
The glory magnifies as it multiplies.
22 But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, 23 gentleness, self-control; against such things there is no law.
We tend to think of fruit as souls saved.
We think of fruit as measurable outcomes.
We like to use the term fruit to refer to numbers and finances and ministries.
But fruit is really about character.
All of those other things are the result of the fruit.
They are the fruit of the fruit.
But if the fruit - the first-fruit (character) is not good - the rest won’t last.
Bearing fruit is about reflecting God’s character.
It’s reflecting His attributes.
No we are not omnipotent, omniscient or omnipresent.
But we reflect His love, His goodness and His compassion.
We reflect His goodness, His truth and His faithfulness.
The fruit of the spirit are simply God’s attributes manifesting through our humanity.
It’s God glorifying Himself through us and in us.
Questions for reflection:
Questions for reflection:
Check your spiritual pulse. Are you at rest?
Check your connection. Are you abiding?
Reflect on your life. How is God glorifying Himself through you?