To God be the Glory #3
How to Glorify God, Part 3
Psalm 16
 
Let me ask you a question:  if you were to have the conscience realization that Jesus was with you every moment of the day, would your life and conduct and behavior change?  I have an idea it would.  Even for the most devout among us, I would submit that there would be, not only change, but radical change, if we were physically aware of the presence of Christ in every moment of the day. 
 
I think that is similar to what was in the mind of David when he wrote the 16th Psalm.  It is in the eighth verse where we hear him say, “I have set the Lord always before me,” and because of that attitude, his life was radically changed. 
 
He goes on to talk about the security of his life, the happiness, joy and hope that he has because of the awareness every moment of the Lord.
 
We have used that seed thought to launch us into a study of learning how to glorify God.  And so far, we’ve discovered that we serve a God of glory.  It is Who He is.  But we are also to reflect His glory and make sure the world is aware of His glory. 
 
We are to give Him glory because that’s what He created us to do, and ultimately we will, even if we have to be judged to do it. 
 
We also saw there are numbers of ways to give glory to God.  We begin with recognizing Him as Savior and Lord of our life.  Then we must aim our life at living for Him. 
That is the thought of Paul in Philippians 1 when he says, But for me to live is Christ”.  Now when we are aiming our life at glorifying God that means we’ll be confessing our sin, bearing fruit and trusting God. 
 
Now today, I want to give you five more ways you can glorify God.  Remember these are very practical, down-to-earth, hands-on things that we can and should do every day.
 
Here’s number six. We glorify God through
 
6. Praise
 
Psalm 50:23
 
Praise is all about exalting God for what He's done and what He's made and what He's accomplished.
 
Did you ever think about the fact that most our praise is past tense?  What do I mean by that?  I mean we are to praise God for what’s He’s already done.  We can praise Him for what He’s going to do by faith, certainly.  But most of the time we are praising Him for what He’s already done, whether we read it in Scripture, hear it from someone else or experience it ourself.
 
Why is that so important?  Because that’s what  builds confidence in your life. You know how to trust God in the present? Watch Him in the past. God has already established the pattern of His faithfulness. 
 
Listen:  God wants us to recite His wondrous works because it's a continual reminder that He's never proven unfaithful in history.  
If you need no other reason to study the Old Testament, you have this reason:  It is there where you can find out that God is a faithful God.
 
And if you will just take some time to recite in your own mind the accomplishments that God has done and include in there some thanks to Him, you’ll be surprised and how much more confident you will be in life. 
 
What did Paul say in 1 Thessalonians 5:18?  "In everything give thanks, for this is the will of God for you." Why? Because you learn to trust God in the present when you thank Him for the victories of the past and, at the same time, that gives Him glory.
 
Here’s number seven:  We glorify God by
 
Contentment
 
Who made you the way you are minus your sin? God did.  So you ought to be content with yourself. Who put you in the situation you're in and all of its circumstances apart from the sin in it? God did. You are what you are where you are because God put you there. If you're content, then, you're acknowledging God's sovereignty in your life. That gives Him glory.
 
If you're discontent and unhappy your real gripe is with God's wisdom. And if you just endure it in a state of discontent, you are, in effect, blaming God. And you are questioning God's authority which He allowed that thing to happen to begin with. Contentment acknowledges God's sovereignty, and God, therefore, is glorified.
 
Let me illustrate that from the life of Paul from two different angles. 
 
Turn to Philippians 4.
 
Now here we find a contented man.  He had just received an offering from the Philippians. They'd sent him some money. And you say, "Well, it's easy to be content in that situation."
 
Well notice what’s going on. 
 
Verse 10
 
Notice he didn't say I rejoiced in the money. Listen:  if your “happiness” is determined by your “happenings” then you are destined for a very frustrating life.  If, on the other hand, you learn to rejoice in the Lord, you can stay the same, because He doesn't change.
 
Notice how he continues. 
 
v. 10-17
 
In other words, He says, "You know why I'm happy about you sending this money? Not because I need the money, but because you need to learn how to give."
 
Paul says, “I’m doing fine.  God supplies everything I need”.
 
And by the way, He reminds them, “God will supply your need also.”  Listen, they gave him so much that they didn't have enough left to live their own lives.
And so he says in verse 19, "My God shall supply all your need." You know what the implication is? The implication is they gave more than they could afford to give. And they put themselves in a position where God had to give to them to sustain them.
 
Then notice verse 20.
 
"What's he glorifying God for?" Because he's content. You say, "Well it would be easy to be content under those conditions. He just got an offering. I could glorify God in that situation."
 
Ok, then, look at 2 Corinthians 11. See if you could do so well in this situation.
 
verses 23-31
 
He just blesses God and gives Him glory. Now that's a contented man. He gave glory in prosperity. He gives glory in infirmity. There's no difference. Why? Because he accepts God's lot, knowing that God is sovereign.
 
Discontent is sin, because it robs God of glory. There may be nothing more subtle in the life of a Christian than the sneaking growth of discontent.  A discontented Christian is unhappy and makes everyone else unhappy.  I don't care if you're discontent over your home, over your job, over your location, over your husband, over your kids, over whatever, a discontented Christian is a terrible advertisement for the sovereignty of God.
 
What kind of a God do we have? Can you really trust Him? Do you know that He put you where He put you and expects you to be content?
Learning to glorify God means you praise Him with a full heart in absolute contentment knowing that your lot is God's plan for you now, and accepting it with contentment gives Him glory.
 
Number eight in our list. We give God glory by
 
8. Prayer
 
John 14:13
 
Boy, what a promise. If I was not a Christian and somebody told me that verse that alone might be enough to convince me to become a Christian. Just to know there was a God who was available to supply everything I asked.
 
You say, "You mean you can ask Him anything and He'll give it to?"
 
Well, there is a qualification.
 
Notice this phrase:  "Whatever ye shall ask in My name."
 
You say, "Oh, that's easy. Lord, I want this. I want this. I want this. In Jesus' name. Amen."
 
That's what we've done with that, but is that really what it means? 
 
What it means is this. Anytime you see the idea of name, God's name or the name of Christ in the Bible, it means all that He is. His name is the composite of all that He is.
 
That means if I'm going to pray in Jesus' name, what I'm doing is asking God in the behalf of all that Jesus is as a person and all that He wills as that person.
 
So prayer is really saying something like this:  God, I’m making this request because I believe this is what Jesus would want.
 
That's asking in His name. As best I know Christ and understand His will, I'm asking You this because I feel this is what Jesus would want. We are to ask what we ask and pray what we pray consistent with Jesus Christ.
 
So when we ask in the name of Jesus, according to what He would want, then the answer comes:  "That will I do." Listen to the verse. Here's the reason. "That the Father may be glorified in the Son."
 
Prayer is for the glory of God. In what way? 
 
Think about it like this:  There’s some need going on and we can’t do anything about it, and we pray, and God answers, what happens?  When the testimony of that is shared, do we say, “Oh what a wonderful Christian you are for praying and getting down on your knees and spending time agonizing in prayer?”  Or do we say, “Praise the Lord”. 
 
That's the point. When you pray and God displays His power, He gets the glory. Listen God is sovereign, and He’s going to do what He’s going to do, but when He allows us to get in of it by praying and God does what He does in response to your prayer, and you respond by giving Him the praise that He's due, and He wants it, then that’s giving God the glory. 
So prayer is for the glory of God. God reveals His glory in answered prayer. That's one of the reasons you want to pray.
 
People who never pray really cut themselves off from the blessing of God, but they also cut God off from one of the ways in which He wants to gain glory through them.
 
And if all you ever do is just kind of pray general around the world prayers, “God bless the missionaries, God bless the church, thank You for the food, Amen," then you're never going to see God do anything specific, and you're going to eliminate one category of giving glory to God.
 
Here’s number nine:  We glorify God by our
 
9. Unity
 
If we're not one in the body, if there's not a beautiful kind of wholeness and a spiritual love and unity, God is not glorified.
 
Listen to Romans 15:5.
 
Now, our example is always Christ, right? What does it mean to be likeminded? Does that mean to think like everybody else? Does that mean that all Christians are little rubber ducks that all quack the same way? Does it mean we all have the same attitudes toward everything? That we all agree politically, we all agree with every economic view and every educational view and every social view?
 
No. Likeminded just means this. It means there is no preference in how I treat people.
It is non-preferential love. Likemindedness.  You couldn't say, "Well, Jesus was likeminded because He agreed with everybody." No, Jesus was likeminded because He treated everybody the same.
That's being likeminded. Having the same mind toward everybody.
 
"Why does the Lord want us to be so non-preferential, so equalized to everybody?" Because of verse 6, "That you may with one mind and one mouth glorify God."
 
Listen, God is glorified when Christians speak with one mind and one mouth. Now how does that get applied?  Is that a world-wide message to be broadcast universally?  It is applied best to the local congregation. 
 
God hasn't made me the pastor of the world. He's just made me the pastor of Trinity Baptist Church and the struggle in my heart is to make sure that at least we, with one mind and one mouth, glorify the Lord.
 
There's certainly room for different views on different things, but not different views on the cardinal doctrines of the Word of God. 
 
You can see a lot of things differently, and God has certainly designed the church to have strengths in different areas, and every one will have different concerns and interests, but I'll tell you one thing:  If we all agree on the things that are cardinal in the Word of God, then we can stand with one mind and one mouth, and we can declare a united front for Jesus Christ.
 
God is not the author of confusion, and even an unbeliever who sees confusion can assume that God couldn't have done that. God wants unity.
 
"Wherefore...verse 7...receive ye one another."
 
Instead of shutting people out of your little group because they don't all do the things you do and they don't tie their shoes the way you tie 'em and tie their tie the way you tie them, and they don't cook the beans at their house the way you cook the beans at your house, and they've got a little bit of a quirk over here, and so forth and so on, don't turn 'em off.
 
Guess what?  You’ve got some quirks too!
 
You receive them as Christ received you. You weren't any big deal. I mean you had a lot of rough edges and Christ accepted you. You say, "Why should I receive everybody like Christ received me?"
 
Verse 7, "To the glory of God." God is glorified, beloved, when there's unity.
 
Here’s number ten: 
 
10. We give God glory by proclaiming the Word
 
Let me tell you why that’s true:  God wants to communicate to people.  How does He do that? He gave us a Bible.  So when I then take His Word and communicate it to you, then you're getting directly the mind of God. Consequently, He's glorified, because He is being able to speak to you. So when you communicate the Word you're glorifying God.
 
Listen to this verse, 2 Thessalonians 3:1
How was it was glorified in them? They heard the Word and believed, got saved, and God got glory. And so what Paul prays here is you pray that the Word of God may have freedom to work because when it does, it brings glory to God.
 
That’s true in regard to teaching and preaching, but it is especially true when it results in salvation.  God gets glory when people proclaim the Word of God and people get saved.
 
2 Corinthians 4:15
 
Think about it like this:  God wants a whole lot of people giving Him glory.  So it stands to reason that the more people that get saved, the more thanksgiving's going on, and the more thanksgiving's going on, the more there are in the choir singing hallelujah.
 
That's the idea. He's simply saying, "God is preaching through me the Gospel that many might lift their voices to give glory to God." Watch how this works:
 
When somebody gets saved, that individual gives Him glory. But beyond that individual, the rest of us who are already saved give Him glory.  At least we ought to. 
 
And the Bible says, the angels in heaven rejoice over one sinner who repents.  So now we have the person who was saved, and the family and friends around them and the church and all of heaven giving glory to God!
 
When we preach and share the Word of God and somebody gets saved, God gets glorified. In fact, God is going to display saved people in Heaven as a sign of His wisdom to the angels forever.
 
Listen, all through eternity, God's going to point to us and say, "See how wise I am, angels, see?" And they're going to say, "Yes, anybody that could bring that kind of mess this far...that's wisdom, Lord."
 
That's right. That's Ephesians 3:10.
 
See, "To the intent that the principalities and powers in heavenly places might know by the church the manifold wisdom of God."
 
God is glorified in front of the angels when we get saved. God is glorified by the rest of us who praise Him when somebody gets saved. And God is glorified by the one who gets saved.
 
And so salvation brings Him glory. That's the point of it. He wants to save us that we might bring Him glory.
 
Listen to Ephesians 1:12. What does He do all this for? Why does He forgive us? Why does He give us redemption? Why does He give us the mystery of His will? Why does He give us an inheritance?
 
Verse 12
 
That's the point.
 
Verse 14
 
You're saved to give God glory. That's the purpose of your existence. That's the reason you are a Christian. And so when people are saved, that gives God glory, directly, for it puts on display His power. It causes other Christians to praise Him, and it causes the angels to praise Him.
 
We were saved for the purpose of giving Him glory. This is the pinnacle of everything. And when we bring somebody else to Jesus Christ, that is the pinnacle, for we add another one who can multiply the glory to God.
 
Listen to Acts 11:18. After the Gentiles got saved at Cornelius' house, Peter reported back to the Jews in Jerusalem, and they said this. "When they heard these things, they held their peace, and glorified God."
 
You say, "What for?" "
 
They said, 'Then hath God also to the Gentiles granted repentance unto life.'" They glorified God for salvation that came to the Gentiles.
 
And I want you to know there is a heaven full of angels and a church full of believers who are anxiously awaiting the opportunity to give glory to God when you get saved today!