Worship: The Glory of Man

I leave my house for work at 5am. Most of the year it’s dark. But during the Summer it starts to get light out at that time. The other morning, I woke up and my alarm hadn’t gone off, but I saw that it was starting to get light outside. I panicked. I shot out of bed, thinking that I had overslept. When I looked at my phone, I saw that I still had 30 minutes before my alarm went off. Where was the light coming from? It was a full moon.

The moon doesn’t give off light. It reflects it. In the same way we were made to reflect the light, revelation, and glory of God. We do not possess inherent glory. It all comes from God. So, if there is any glory (weight, heaviness, greatness) about our lives, that glory is to God.

Our glory comes from God. We were made in His image – He is glorious. We, therefore, were made to reflect His glory. Not produce the glory in and of ourselves. We can’t do that.

One of the ways that we give God glory is by doing what we were made to do.

Dr. George Washington Carver was born in 1865. He was the first black student and first black faculty member at Iowa State University. He was encouraged to move to the Tuskegee Institute in Alabama by Booker T. Washington as the Director of agriculture. Cotton depletes the soil of nutrients, and Carver came up with a rotation of crops that were both profitable and sustainable. It has been said that as he was praying one evening, the Holy Spirit told him to take apart the peanut and put it back together. He came up with hundreds of inventions such as modern paper, plastics, synthetic rubber, adhesives, axel grease, instant coffee, linoleum, just to name a few. He developed 300 products from peanuts, and 118 from sweet potatoes. He held many patents and laid the groundwork for what would eventually become peanut butter. Without him, we would just be eating... and jelly sandwiches.

Dr. George Washington Carver, almost single handedly, modernized agriculture and industry. He lived according to his purpose and he gave God glory for his success. This is the highest form of worship. Living for God, doing what you were created to do, for His glory.

Proverbs 25:2 It is the glory of God to conceal a matter; to search out a matter is the glory of kings.

Last week we looked at Exodus 33 when Moses cried out to God, “Lord, show me Your glory”
Today, we are going to see the result. Please stand for the reading of God’s word.

Exodus 34:29-35 Now it was so, when Moses came down from Mount Sinai… that Moses did not know that the skin of his face shone while he talked with Him. So when Aaron and all the children of Israel saw Moses, behold, the skin of his face shone, and they were afraid to come near him. Then Moses called to them, and Aaron and all the rulers of the congregation returned to him; and Moses talked with them. Afterward all the children of Israel came near, and he gave them as commandments all that the Lord had spoken with him on Mount Sinai. And when Moses had finished speaking with them, he put a veil on his face. But whenever Moses went in before the Lord to speak with Him, he would take the veil off until he came out; and he would come out and speak to the children of Israel whatever he had been commanded. And whenever the children of Israel saw the face of Moses, that the skin of Moses’ face shone, then Moses would put the veil on his face again, until he went in to speak with Him.

Moses was filled with the glory of God. That light faded through the day until he met with God again. He was light a glow stick that kept going back under the light, and continually reflected the glory of the Lord as a result.

Our faces may not physically shine with light, but we are all made to do the same as Moses. To spend time in God’s presence and reflect the light, life, and glory of God to a dark, lost, sick, and dying world. The Greek word for the gifts of the Spirit is charismata. It literally means outshining. The quantity and quality of the out shining of God are directly linked to the amount of time you spend in His presence.

2 Corinthians 3:18 But we all, with unveiled face, beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory, just as by the Spirit of the Lord.

You become what you behold. You behold the light and glory of God in His word, in prayer, and in worship, the more like Him you become through the Holy Spirit. The more darkness and evil you expose yourself to, the less light you have and the more worldly you become.

Matthew 6:22-23 Your eye is like a lamp that provides light for your body. When your eye is healthy, your whole body is filled with light. But when your eye is unhealthy, your whole body is filled with darkness. And if the light you think you have is actually darkness, how deep that darkness is!

The moon reflects the light of the sun on the earth, unless there is earth between the sun and the moon. The more earth blocks the light of the sun, the less light the moon can reflect.

Galatians 5:18 Walk in the Spirit, and you shall not fulfill the lust of the flesh.

The kingdoms of light and darkness are not only morally and principally opposed, but they are also opposites in their very nature. You can have a dim light, but you can’t have dark light or bright darkness. Light is not defined by the amount of darkness. Darkness is measured by the presence or absence of light.

James 4:4 Whoever therefore wants to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God.

You can’t live for your own glory and pleasure and God’s. If you live for yourself, you burn bright in the good times, but eventually you will burn out and burn up for eternity.

1 Peter 2:9 But you are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, His own special people, that you may proclaim the praises of Him who called you out of darkness into His marvelous light

His marvelous light, not our own.

He is the Father of lights
James 1:17 Every good and perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of the heavenly lights, who does not change like shifting shadows.

We are, then, to be His Children of light
Ephesians 5:8 For you were once darkness, but now you are light in the Lord. Live as children of light

God is light and the light source. He calls us into His light so we can shine in the world.

Matthew 5:14-16 You are the light of the world. A city that is set on a hill cannot be hidden. Nor do they light a lamp and put it under a basket, but on a lampstand, and it gives light to all who are in the house. Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works and glorify your Father in heaven.

Adam and Eve reflected the glory of God until they fell.

Psalm 8:4-5 What is man that You are mindful of him, and the son of man that You visit him? For You have made him a little lower than the angels, and You have crowned him with glory and honor.

Angels (Hebrew – Elohim): Translated God 2,346 times. Translated angels in only this verse.

Conclusion: Bad translation

Psalm 8:4-5 What is man that You are mindful of him, and the son of man that You visit him? For You have made him a little lower than [God], and You have crowned him with glory and honor.

Satan wanted to be God and that’s why he was kicked out of heaven. Adam and Eve wanted to be God and that’s why they got kicked out of the Garden. When you and I try to be our own gods, we lose the glory, the revelation, the presence, the authority of God along with our purpose and identity.

Jesus came to show us what a life for the glory of God looks like.
Submission, service, obedience, & sacrifice. Prayer, praise, & power. Resting in God’s love and waging war on sin and the enemy.

He taught, He healed, cast out demons, preached, & prophesied.

1 John 4:17 As He is, so are we in this world.

John 14:12 Most assuredly, I say to you, he who believes in Me, the works that I do he will do also; and greater works than these he will do, because I go to My Father.

John 1:1-4 In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things were made through Him, and without Him nothing was made that was made. In Him was life, and the life was the light of men. And the light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not comprehend it.

Jesus is the revelation of God just as the SUN is the source of the light and heat that makes life possible in our solar system. We are also to be light in the darkness and reflect the glory of God in our world.

In creation God said, “Let there be light”. The Father spoke, Jesus is the word, and the Holy Spirit responded with creation. He filled time and space with the building blocks of all matter and reality which is energy.

Bohr’s model of and atom (1913)
Differing energy levels = different elements, ergo the Periodic Table.

The law of conservation of energy: energy can neither be created nor destroyed - only converted from one form of energy to another. This means that a system always has the same amount of energy, unless it's added from the outside.

All atoms and sub-atomic particles are comprised of energy that have varying frequencies, which are essentially vibration.

Matthew 24:35 Heaven and earth will pass away, but My words will by no means pass away.

Hebrews 1:3 Upholding all things by the word of His power.

This is why it is so important for us to get into God’s word and to allow His word to get into us. We live in a very dark world that needs the light of God. The problem is that we comfort ourselves knowing we have access to light and still sit in the dark because we don’t want to read, or have the Holy Spirit convict us of our sin.

John 3:19 And this is the condemnation, that the light has come into the world, and men loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil.

David writes
Psalm 119:11 Your word have I hidden in my heart, that I may not sin against You.

We see that we are to repent of sin, crucify the flesh, discipline ourselves in God’s word, and to allow the Holy Spirit to illuminate God to us, and through us in the world.

But what does this mean to us practically?

God will place His glory on our lives as long as we are giving Him all the credit and giving the glory back to Him. The problem is when we want to take it for ourselves.

Isaiah 42:8 I am the Lord, that is My name; and My glory I will not give to another.

Jesus explains this dynamic

John 17:22 And the glory which You gave Me I have given them, that they may be one just as We are one: I in them, and You in Me; that they may be made perfect in one, and that the world may know that You have sent Me, and have loved them as You have loved Me.

God gets glory when His children do what they were made to do. To worship Him, and to demonstrate His greatness by how we live.

Righteousness: Performing the function for which something was designed

Romans 11:29 For the gifts and the calling of God are irrevocable (without repentance).

Ametameletos (Greek): Firm, unchanging decision. [A-Meta, not changing His mind]

God made Beyonce, Katy Perry, John Legend, Whitney Houston, and Justin Timberlake to lead worship. They all had their start in the church. But, for one reason or another, they traded using their gift for the glory of God, to instead bring glory to themselves and the world system and kingdom of darkness that they were supposed to help destroy.

Those that are still alive still have their gifts. They are still called to lead worship. God will not take that away. They are just leading the worship of sex, money, sin, and the world. They will one day stand before God and have to give an account.

God is a giver of gifts and callings.

1 Corinthians 12:11 But one and the same Spirit works all these things, distributing to each one individually as He wills.

God, like any father, wants more for His children than what they want for themselves.

Glory vs attention, Purpose vs. Validation, Fear of God vs fear of man

Isaiah 40 3, 6-8 The voice of one crying in the wilderness: The voice said, “Cry out!” And he said, “What shall I cry?” “All flesh is grass, and all its loveliness is like the flower of the field. The grass withers, the flower fades, because the breath of the Lord blows upon it; surely the people are grass. The grass withers, the flower fades, but the word of our God stands forever.”

We are here today and gone tomorrow. The greatest of us will one day fade and die. All the greats and even the GOATs will eventually return to dust. In fact, at the judgement the angels will separate the sheep from the goats. The ones that lived for God’s glory versus the ones that lived for their own.

Matthew 22:14 For many are called, but few are chosen.

How to get chosen? How do we discern our call, fulfill our purpose, and reflect the glory of God?

John Bevere: Driven by Eternity
1. Seek God Diligently
Hebrews 11:6 He is a rewarder of those who diligently seek Him.
Colossians 3:3 your life is hidden with Christ in God.
Jeremiah 29:13 seek Me and find Me, when you search for Me with all your heart.

2. Stay Planted
Psalm 92:13 Those who are planted in the house of the Lord shall flourish

3. Reject worldly or sinful entanglements
Hebrews 12:1 Let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles.

I would add that we are also to learn to discern and reject the counterfeit glory of the world, of pleasure, relationships, attention, etc.

What do you call fake spaghetti? An impasta.

Counterfeits mimic the real, but lack the substance. Adina’s Dream

We were made to desire and to experience the wonder, holiness, magnitude and greatness of an infinite God, and yet we are so easily distracted with the lights or likes. God wants to give us the butterflies of His transforming Spirit, but we settle for the moths and squirrels of this life.

We need to be washed by the water of His word so we can once again become bearers of His glory. We must remember the stern warning from our Savior.

Matthew 16:25 For whoever desires to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for My sake will find it.

Whether its science or sports, medicine or mechanical, whether you’re a stay at home parent, high powered executive, business owner, student, bus boy, or stewardess, we are to do all for the glory of God by His Holy Spirit.

1 Corinthians 10:31 Therefore, whether you eat or drink, or whatever you do, do all to the glory of God.

God is writing history, His Story with our lives. He made our minds, our hearts, and our personalities. Follow Him, and He will reveal Himself to you. When He does, He will also reveal you to you – the you He created you to be.

I know that I’m created to be a worshiper, a husband, a father, a pastor and teacher, and a mechanic. I do all those things for the glory of God.

Do you know what you were created to do? If not, it could be because you are living for your glory instead of God’s.