To the Glory of God
To God Be the Glory • Sermon • Submitted
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Prayer
Living Against Our Design
I was listening to the radio the other day and heard a story about a car, a Chevy Suburban, that was found in the Yakima River in Washington. According to the story, the man who owned the car had driven it into the river because he needed to add water to the radiator.
Now I have no idea whether or not that’s what really happened, or rather, that’s why he really did it.
But what’s clear is that whether or not he got water in the radiator, he sure got water in lots of other places in his vehicle. As you can imagine, he could not drive his car out - it had to be towed out of the river.
Why? Because cars were not designed to be driven in rivers. Doesn’t work so well. Cars drive wonderfully well on dry, paved surfaces. That’s what they were designed for! On the other hand, boats work wonderfully well on rivers - because that’s what they were designed for.
Turns out, when you use things for the purpose for which they were made, they tend to work well. And when you use them in ways that run counter to that purpose, it doesn’t go so well. Things can quickly go awry…and that’s true for us as well. We were designed, created for purpose.
That’s true for our bodies - for example, our bodies were not made for copious amounts of alcohol. A little bit of alcohol, a beer or two, a glass of wine, enjoy! But you start drinking more than that and the body gets saturated with alcohol, starts impacting your brain functioning…your judgment, your reflexes, ability to process and think rationally.
The other night, I stayed up too late. In retrospect, it wasn’t a good idea. Our bodies need sleep, rest. That’s part of the design of our body.
As humans we’re actually amazing. Beautifully designed. It’s pretty incredible to think about all things we can do. Years ago I heard a discussion on artificial intelligence - discussion was in context of driver-less cars, cars driven by computers and the idea that eventually, they could do this better than us because computers don’t get tired or drive impaired or make poor decisions.
There’s growing concern among some that super computers are going to get so advanced, they’ll surpass us in every way. But one of the speakers made the point of all the work it takes just to try to get computers to do one task - drive a car (which admittedly is a pretty big task). But humans can drive the car, get out, walk into the store, make purchasing decisions, go back into the car, drive over to the library, read a book, drive car, go to local park, play tennis…list goes on. Our capabilities go on and on. We’re amazingly designed.
We were designed to learn, to grow our minds. That’s evident when you look at babies, little children. They are sponges for knowledge, they just soak up learning. According to Warren Berger, children ask an average of 40,000 questions between ages two and five. Estimates that 4 years old ask as many as 200 to 300 questions a day.
And that’s not just in childhood. It continues through our lives. People who continue learning - reading and exercising their minds function much better in their latter years. My Mom is a great example of this - she takes not just physical exercise classes, but mental exercise classes - she’ll often mention to me that she’s been working on her “homework.”
So, we really are amazingly designed - if you just start thinking through all the things we do even on a daily basis. We don’t give it much thought because we’re so accustomed to it.
But what’s it all for? What’s our primary purpose? Why do we have bodies that consume food, that sleep, that learn, that are designed for work, to build things, to create?
Our denomination, ECO, is a confessional church. A confession is a theological document of what we believe to be true. We confess these things to be true (Bible is our foundation, Confessions are what we believe Bible teaches). Several of our confessional documents come from the Reformation period, written in 1600’s. One such document is the Westminister Catechism. It was a teaching document that used a series of questions and answers to teach the faith.
The very first question asks, “What is the chief end of man?” In other words, what is our primary purpose? What were we created by God to be and do?
This is a huge question! I want you to think for a moment - how would you answer that question? It’s vital that we know and understand this - after all, we don’t want to be the suburban in the river. We don’t want to be living in a way that goes against what we were designed to be and do? What do you think is our chief end?
The Westminster Catechism answers the question this way: The chief end of man is to glorify God and enjoy him forever.
Our primary purpose - the reason you exist, the reason you have a mind and a body and a soul - is that you might live for the glory of God in everything you do, and enjoy an eternal relationship with him.
When you glorify and enjoy God, you are living exactly what you were designed to do - you’re car cruising down the interstate.
When you don’t glorify and enjoy God, you are living in a disordered way, counter to your design. You’re car sputtering in the river.
This is our North Star. This is the compass point for our lives, our default GPS setting. Life directed toward God, to live for him and with him. We were meant to live to the glory of God. That’s our main point this morning. The big question is - what does that mean? What does that look like? Paul gives us a perfect example in his first letter to the Corinthians.
All to the Glory of God - 1 Corinthians 10:23-11:1 -
Paul begins here by anticipating the counter argument from anyone reading his letter. You say, “I have the right to do anything.”
The argument is, “We are free in Christ.” Free to do as we please. Jesus Christ has set us free, therefore we have the right to do anything. Paul would absolutely agree with that. - we are set free in Jesus.
Paul counters, not by disputing the point of freedom, but what we do with that freedom. You do have the right to do anything - but some things aren’t beneficial. Some things aren’t constructive. Instead, they are destructive.
You can drive your car into a river. Absolutely free to do that. But there’s no benefit to that.
You can stay up to all hours of the night…but it’s not very constructive.
What we really want to do is use our freedom for the benefit of others - because that’s one of the ways that we glorify God in everything we do. Paul gives a very specific example of this - and it has to do with a very ordinary activity - eating.
In ancient world, if you went to the meat market, some of the meat sold there would have been part of an animal that was sacrificed at a temple to an idol, a false god - one of Roman gods or goddesses.
So there was debate among early church about whether or not you should eat that meat, since it had been used in idolatry.
As far as Paul was concerned, why even ask the question. His belief was, “The earth is the Lord’s, and everything in it.” Every animal is a gift from God. He made all creatures of the earth, they all belong to him. So any meat that comes from animal is good gift from God for us to enjoy. So give thanks and eat it.
So if an unbeliever invites you to dinner and puts some meat in front of you, don’t ask questions about whether or not it was offered in sacrifice - dig in and enjoy the meal!
But, Paul says, if someone makes a point of telling you that it was part of a sacrifice, don’t eat it. Question is why, why wouldn’t you eat it then? It’s same meat. Nothing’s changed there.
Because of the impact that your eating that meat might have on person who raised the issue - for the sake of their conscience.
A fellow believer who’s concerned with eating meat that was part of a sacrifice - they would make a point of saying the meat was an offering as a warning. If you go ahead and eat it anyway, you might tempt them to eat it as well, to eat the meat they don’t think it’s right to eat. They’d be eating against their own conscience because of your example, and you’d be causing them to stumble.
And causing others to stumble because you weren’t willing to forsake your freedom to eat the meat would not glorify God. It would be self-serving, seeking your own good rather than the good of others.
But to willingly give that up, to not eat meat that you normally would give thanks to God for and enjoy - for the sake of another - glorifies God. It’s an act of freely loving others.
Now, that’s clearly not an issue for us today. But you might take something like gambling - betting, going to a casino. Or drinking alcohol. Some Christians believe that those are sinful things to engage in. Other Christians would say no, there’s nothing in Bible against gambling. Bible says you not to get drunk, but it never speaks against drinking. But those are things a believer might think they have the freedom to do but would willingly give that up for a believer who thinks it would be wrong, so as not to tempt them.
So things as mundane as eating and drinking can be done for the glory of God, or for our own glory. This is Paul’s main point: So whether you eat or drink or whatever you do, do it all for the glory of God. Because that’s what we were designed to do, glorify God in everything.
I want to take a few minutes just to work some examples of how this plays out in our lives. Mindset that we want to have is that this can be done (and should be) in every area of our lives, everything we do - can be done in line with our design (glorifying God and enjoying him), or against it.
We sometimes separate our lives into the secular and spiritual - here’s church stuff and here’s everything else, day to day stuff, my regular life.
But God doesn’t see it that way. Everything in our lives is to be directed towards him. Everything is spiritual in that sense. We don’t just glorify God here on Sunday mornings during worship, we are to glorify him in eating and drinking and in everything we do.
Remember, we have absolute freedom. We have right to do anything. But is it beneficial? Constructive? Is is drawing us closer to Jesus and more fully into his Kingdom. Is it in line with how God made us to be, way we function? Is it for the good of others? Does it build them up in faith and love of Jesus?
We were actually talking about this just this past week in our Spiritual Formation group, thinking through how we could “seek first the Kingdom of God and his righteousness” in the everyday activities in life. It’s exact same idea - the idea of living a God-directed life, for him, his glory, seeking him first and his righteousness, true inner goodness he wants us to have in our lives. So, what are some examples?
How do we glorify God in way we spend our money - that’s something we do on an everyday basis. How do we deal with the money God’s blessed us for His glory.
One way we glorify God with our money is to live within our means. To spend more than we have is not be content with what God’s given us. I think being debt free is a way we can glorify God with our money (exception of a house).
Another way is to buy things for their usefulness. Clothes are to be worn, food to be eaten, cars to be driven. They all have a function. When we start buying for prestige or we think this product is going to make me happy or cool or whatever - we’re looking to other things to satisfy our hearts rather than God.
Live generously, trusting God and his abundant provision
Thinking through some other areas of just day-to-day life. This past week, I made a road trip down to Atlanta for Pastor Learning Community I’m a part of
How do I drive to the glory of God?
Drive safely, patiently, thoughtfully (let that other vehicle in!)
I was in the car for hours - how should I use that time?
Of course I prayed and meditated the entire trip…No, I didn’t! I mean, I did, some.
But, remember, there’s freedom - freedom to enjoy the good things of God…I listened to some old CD’s I hadn’t listened to in a long time. I listened to some podcasts I enjoy. Some of the podcasts were pure entertainment (Longhorns sports stuff), some were cultural and political commentary - I like to keep up on what’s happening.
Does the way I spend my time reflect that God is THE priority in my life? That I seek him first? So that there is time spent each and every day that helps me direct my heart and mind toward God, just to be with him? (Spiritual Disciplines!)
Then, when I get there in Atlanta, how do I glorify God sitting in a time of teaching?
Love God with all of my mind…Lord, what do you have for me here?
I humble myself, come with a teachable spirit (urge to “look good” in front of others)
In group discussions, I offer thoughts, willingness to share - honestly, affirming others (gift of community)
We literally could go on and on - because this involves EVERYTHING. Whether you eat or drink or whatever you do, do it all for the glory of God.
We could talk about our marriage relationships. Way we handle our sexuality - that’s true whether we’re single or married.
How we work. How we spend our leisure time. How do we spend all of our time - is God glorified in our schedule? Do we seek him first?!? Our relationships - within our families, our neighbors. How we care for our bodies. How we eat and drink.
So, let me offer some ways to put this into practice. How will you seek to grow in glorifying God in all you do this week?
Very helpful exercise…take some time this week, think through everything you did previous day. All activities. Write them down. Then take some time to reflect on how you could do those things to the glory of God. In a God-directed way.
Memory verse - 1 Corinthians 10:31…So whether you eat or drink or whatever you do, do it all for the glory of God.
Let that be a life verse for you. Compass point for your day…Make it your prayer throughout the day. At the end of the day, spend some time in prayerfully reflecting on how you spent your day - places where you lived this out, to the glory of God, and places where you did not.
So, let me finish with this.
And this part is absolutely true. You can bank on this. More we do this - more we direct our lives toward God, make that fundamental shift from a “me” perspective to a “thee” perspective, better our lives will be. Filled with God’s love and peace and joy. Here’s why I can guarantee that - because we are living as we were made to live, according to our design, way God made us.
Better, more loving relationships (let go of judging, anger…practice forgiveness, generosity, seeking good of others)
That’s true in romantic relationships - the happiest people, ones with the most satisfying sex lives are those who are married.
Problems arise when we go against that…children out of wedlock, sexual diseases, guilt & shame, broken relationships
See that God’s way, his teachings are always for our good. We benefit when we live according to what Jesus teaches, when we live to glory of God.
Philip Yancey - his experience of people who live a life of serving others are the most content, joyful people he knows.
Which is wonderful to think that when we consider others and their good, their benefit - we benefit as well. It’s almost as if God knew exactly what he was doing when he made us.
So that’s it. It really is pretty simple. I can either choose to live against God’s design for me. I can live with the slogan Paul cites at the beginning, “I have the right to do anything.” We sure do. But the much better way is to live the way God designed us, to know the joy of whether I’m eating or drinking, or whatever I do, do it all for the glory of God.