United to Show God's Glory
Mission Statement • Sermon • Submitted
0 ratings
· 114 viewsA church united in Christ to share God's grace and show God's glory.
Notes
Transcript
Prayer
5 Thus says God, the Lord, who created the heavens and stretched them out, who spread out the earth and what comes from it, who gives breath to the people on it and spirit to those who walk in it:
6 “I am the Lord; I have called you in righteousness; I will take you by the hand and keep you; I will give you as a covenant for the people, a light for the nations,
7 to open the eyes that are blind, to bring out the prisoners from the dungeon, from the prison those who sit in darkness.
8 I am the Lord; that is my name; my glory I give to no other, nor my praise to carved idols.
9 Behold, the former things have come to pass, and new things I now declare; before they spring forth I tell you of them.”
Prayer
Introduction
Today we are finishing our series on the church’s mission statement. You will find the mission statement in the bulletin insert. It proclaims that we are “a church united in Christ to share God’s grace and show God’s glory.” This is the fifth and final sermon on the topic and we will be dealing with that last little bit – what it means to show God’s glory.
One thing I hope you have noticed is how interrelated all the parts of the mission statement are. It all starts with our individual union with Christ. That union has far reaching ramifications. Since we as individuals are united to Christ, we as a church are united to each other. That union then radiates outward and affects how we interact with one another. Since we have received grace upon grace, we share that grace with others. First, we do that within the church, then we do it outside the church. We are a gracious people because we recognize what we once were as sinners and rebels and now we realize who we are called to be as ambassadors of Christ. As Christ’s ambassadors, we proclaim the Good News and we live the Good News. And living rightly in a sinful world is our primary topic this morning.
Scripture
Our Scripture passage this morning is . If you are able, please stand for the reading of God’s Word. We do this in recognition that God’s Word is the most important thing we can hear today and to show appreciation to God for His Word. says,
9 But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for his own possession, that you may proclaim the excellencies of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light.
10 Once you were not a people, but now you are God’s people; once you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy.
11 Beloved, I urge you as sojourners and exiles to abstain from the passions of the flesh, which wage war against your soul.
12 Keep your conduct among the Gentiles honorable, so that when they speak against you as evildoers, they may see your good deeds and glorify God on the day of visitation.
“But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for his own possession, that you may proclaim the excellencies of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light. Once you were not a people, but now you are God’s people; once you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy. Beloved, I urge you as sojourners and exiles to abstain from the passions of the flesh, which wage war against your soul. Keep your conduct among the Gentiles honorable, so that when they speak against you as evildoers, they may see your good deeds and glorify God on the day of visitation.”
Thank you, you may be seated.
I want to warn you now that some of the things I mention this morning are going to be very similar to things I said last week, but that simply underscores how interrelated all of these concepts are.
So, the question at hand is what on earth does it mean to show God’s glory? We often talk about glorifying God and giving God the glory doing all to the glory of God, but perhaps we should think for a moment about what it means to glorify God generally before we discuss how we do it.
The Greek word for glory is doxa and it literally means praise. We have a song called the Doxology. It literally means word of praise. You know the song, sing it with me. “Praise God from whom all blessings flow. Praise Him all creatures here below. Praise Him above ye heavenly host. Praise Father, Son and Holy Ghost.” Right, it is a song of praise to God. That is what glorifying God is. It is giving God honor and praise for who He is and what He has done and is doing.
But we need to be careful in the way we think of glorifying God. We must never slip into a mindset that when we glorify God, we are giving to God something God is lacking. We must never think that we are filling a need God has. God has no needs. God is not lacking in glory. God is perfect in all His ways; He is perfect in majesty.
A better way to think about glorifying God is to think of it as revealing God’s glory. Since God is already perfectly glorious and truly awesome, we as Christ’s ambassadors reveal that glory. We show and proclaim what is already true of God. We show God’s glory.
So, how do we show God’s glory? Well, there are two ways, but they are connected, and I don’t think they can be divorced from each other. They go hand in hand. The first is to proclaim the excellencies of God. Look again at . It says,
9 But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for his own possession, that you may proclaim the excellencies of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light.
“But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for his own possession, that you may proclaim the excellencies of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light.”
God has set us apart as a people. As His people so that we would proclaim His excellencies. I know I hit on this point last week, but do not miss the point here. God has chosen and set us apart for a purpose – so that we will glorify Him. God is working to reveal His glory to the world through His people – through the church.
So, as I said, the first way we glorify God is to proclaim the excellencies of God. We are called to tell everyone about how awesome God is for calling us from the darkness into the light. Like I’ve mentioned before in this series, we cannot do that if we never left the darkness, if we aren’t actually people of God. Nor can we do that if we never realize or admit how deep the darkness was that we were saved from.
We proclaim the excellencies – the glory – of God in a few different ways. We’ve been doing it this morning already as we sing to and about God. When we pray to God and tell Him how great He is and how needy we are. When we speak the truth in love about who God is and what He has spoken. And, especially important, when we proclaim the Gospel to the lost. Again, God has united us to Christ and to each other for the purpose of bringing Himself glory. What a great privilege and honor it is to be a part of that!
The second way we show God’s glory is by living righteous lives. Look again at our passage in . They say,
11 Beloved, I urge you as sojourners and exiles to abstain from the passions of the flesh, which wage war against your soul.
12 Keep your conduct among the Gentiles honorable, so that when they speak against you as evildoers, they may see your good deeds and glorify God on the day of visitation.
We are called to abstain from our own sinful desires that we know destroy us from the inside out. We are called to live such lives that even though the wicked slander us, our righteousness serves to act as a beacon of the glory of God. Our lives should be so pure that the unrighteous are convicted of their sin and repent and trust Christ.
The way we live our lives reflects on the God we serve. When I was a kid, I grew up in children’s homes. Most of you probably already know that, but my parents served in Christian ministries as professional parents. Our church gives towards supporting these very types of ministries. Anyway, I was continually reminded by my parents that I had to be above reproach. My behavior had to be exemplary because if I was disobedient or rebellious, it reflected poorly on them and it gave the other children living with us the license to do the same.
In much the same way, we are called to be holy as God is holy. Not to earn God’s favor, but to reflect God’s character. And in doing so, it brings God glory. It shows others how great God is and even brings others to proclaim God’s glory.
As we have been looking at our mission statement and unpacking it, I have each week taken the time to look at a number of other passages. I’ve done this to underscore the fact that the points in our mission statement aren’t just small side issues. I hope that I have illustrated how central and core to the mission of the church this statement is. This mission is not just a side quest or detour. It is taught pervasively throughout the Scriptures. And so, in like manner, let’s look at some other passages that teach the same thing that we’ve already seen.
Perhaps the most obvious passage that comes to mind is . In fact, I think Peter had this teaching of Jesus in mind when he wrote his letter. It says,
14 “You are the light of the world. A city set on a hill cannot be hidden.
15 Nor do people light a lamp and put it under a basket, but on a stand, and it gives light to all in the house.
16 In the same way, let your light shine before others, so that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father who is in heaven.
14 “You are the light of the world. A city set on a hill cannot be hidden.
15 Nor do people light a lamp and put it under a basket, but on a stand, and it gives light to all in the house.
16 In the same way, let your light shine before others, so that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father who is in heaven.
Our good works ought to be so evident that others see them and in turn glorify God. To be clear, these passages are not saying to go around telling everyone how good you are, but to simply, faithfully live rightly and others will notice. Our lives should look different than the unbelieving culture around us because our lives should be reflective of God’s holiness.
Our good works ought to be so evident that others see them and in turn glorify God. To be clear, these passages are not saying to go around telling everyone how good you are, but to simply, faithfully live rightly and others will notice. Our lives should look different than the unbelieving culture around us because our lives should be reflective of God’s holiness.
says much the same thing,
14 Do all things without grumbling or disputing,
15 that you may be blameless and innocent, children of God without blemish in the midst of a crooked and twisted generation, among whom you shine as lights in the world,
– Our lives are living testimonies to the glory of God.
says,
8 By this my Father is glorified, that you bear much fruit and so prove to be my disciples.
– The Father is glorified when we bear good fruit. And that good fruit proves something about us. That we are Christ’s disciples. A chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for his own possession.
One more: says this,
1 What shall we say then? Are we to continue in sin that grace may abound?
2 By no means! How can we who died to sin still live in it?
3 Do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death?
4 We were buried therefore with him by baptism into death, in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might walk in newness of life.
Easter is upon us, and one of the great themes of Easter is the fact that the power of the resurrection. The power to raise the dead to life is the power of regeneration. The power to give life to a dead and cold heart. Our union with Christ is such that we have been buried with Him. Baptism signifies that. Our death with Christ also means we are raised up with Him to walk in newness of life. We are no longer dead to sin but alive to Christ. Our actions and attitudes, our words and deed, everything we do should and ought to reflect and reveal the glory of God in Christ.
I know that I have made a few hard statements the past few weeks but bear with me once again. If you are not living in such a way that you rightly represent God, there is something terribly and dangerously wrong. If we are truly united to Christ, we will show God’s glory in our actions. We will mortify the deeds of the flesh. We will abstain from the passions of the flesh. We will live lives of humble repentance as we are made aware of our sin.
But if we find that those things are not true of us. If we are without good deeds. If we look like our culture. If we aren’t repentant over sin – even if it is “little” sin, then there is great cause for alarm. There is good, biblical reason to think that there is no actual unity with Christ.
Let me put that on a more corporate level, then we will close. The church. Christ’s blood-bought people. The church is powerful when she is pure and holy, however when she allows sin to inhabit her body and fester, she undermines the Gospel and is anti-missional. We undermine the Gospel and hurt missions when we allow sin in our lives or our midst.
Conclusion
If you have never repented of your sin and trusted in Christ alone for salvation, then you can never bring glory to God with your life. No amount of “good behavior” or “good deeds” will actually please God. Only when righteous behavior flows from a redeemed heart does it bring glory and honor to God. Do not think that you can fool God by outwardly being “good”, but inwardly being wicked. God knows the thoughts and intentions of your heart. Please repent of your sinful heart and actions and trust in Christ alone for salvation.
If you are here this morning and you are already a believer. Listen well to Peter’s urging. Act and live in a manner worthy of your calling. Where there is sin in your life, repent of it. Forsake it. Where you are walking in holiness, take heart in knowing that it brings glory to your God and King. Continue and persevere in that with a satisfied joy.
We are about to move into a time of worship through response. We believe that any time we hear the Word of God, we respond either in worship or in rebellion. Please do not be rebellious. Give God the glory He is due. I will be on the front row worshipping with you. If you need to talk with someone or want someone to pray with, I’d be delighted to do that. Just come on to the front and get me. The front is also always opened if you would like to pray up here. I will be around after service also if you would like to talk then.
Let’s pray.