Living for the Glory of God

QUOTES FOR REFLECTION

“The glory of God is man fully alive, and the life of man is the vision of God.”

~Irenaeus (c.130-c.202), early Christian leader in Against Heresies

“…Christian vision illuminates the whole of our experience with incomparable splendor. Far from beckoning us away from raw human experience, this vision opens up to us its full richness, depth, and meaning.”

“The final dignity of a thing is its glory—that is, the realizing of its built-in potential for good…. The true glory of all objects appears when they do what they were made to do.”

“To the Christian, every human being has intrinsic and inalienable dignity by virtue of being made in God’s image and realizes and exhibits the full potential of that dignity only in the worship and service of the Creator.”

~J. I. Packer and Thomas Howard, in Christianity: The True Humanism

Q: What is the main purpose of mankind?

A: Mankind’s main purpose is to glorify God and to enjoy him forever.

~Westminster Shorter Catechism (1647), Question 1

“To please God … to be a real ingredient in the divine happiness … to be loved by God, not merely pitied, but delighted in as an artist delights in his work or a father in a son—it seems impossible, a weight or burden of glory which our thoughts can hardly sustain. But so it is.”

~C.S. Lewis (1898-1963) in The Weight of Glory

“Recognizing who we are in Christ is the ultimate self-care because the Word of God doesn’t reinvent itself along with a constantly changing culture.”

~Alisa Childers, singer-songwriter and author

“If you look at the world, you’ll be distressed. If you look within, you’ll be depressed. But if you look at Christ you’ll be at rest.”

~Corrie Ten Boom (1892-1983), Dutch watchmaker and Holocaust survivor

SERMON PASSAGE

selected passages (NASB95)

John 17

1 Jesus spoke these things; and lifting up His eyes to heaven, He said, “Father, the hour has come; glorify Your Son, that the Son may glorify You…. 4 I glorified You on the earth, having accomplished the work which You have given Me to do. 5 Now, Father, glorify Me together with Yourself, with the glory which I had with You before the world was….

6 “I have manifested Your name to the men whom You gave Me out of the world; they were Yours and You gave them to Me, and they have kept Your word…. 13 But now I come to You; and these things I speak in the world so that they may have My joy made full in themselves…. 20 I do not ask on behalf of these alone, but for those also who believe in Me through their word…. 22 The glory which You have given Me I have given to them, that they may be one, just as We are one…. 26 and I have made Your name known to them, and will make it known, so that the love with which You loved Me may be in them, and I in them.”

Romans 5

1 Therefore, having been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, 2 through whom also we have obtained our introduction by faith into this grace in which we stand; and we exult in hope of the glory of God.

Romans 8

14 For all who are being led by the Spirit of God, these are sons of God. 15 For you have not received a spirit of slavery leading to fear again, but you have received a spirit of adoption as sons by which we cry out, “Abba! Father!” 16 The Spirit Himself testifies with our spirit that we are children of God, 17 and if children, heirs also, heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ, if indeed we suffer with Him so that we may also be glorified with Him.

18 For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory that is to be revealed to us.

Colossians 3

1 Therefore if you have been raised up with Christ, keep seeking the things above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God. 2 Set your mind on the things above, not on the things that are on earth. 3 For you have died and your life is hidden with Christ in God. 4 When Christ, who is our life, is revealed, then you also will be revealed with Him in glory.

1 John 3

1 See how great a love the Father has bestowed on us, that we would be called children of God; and such we are. For this reason the world does not know us, because it did not know Him. 2 Beloved, now we are children of God, and it has not appeared as yet what we will be. We know that when He appears, we will be like Him, because we will see Him just as He is.