back to index2017-10-22 To Him be the glory forever. Amen.
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Please turn your Bibles with me to Romans chapter 11. 00:00:12.840 |
We are finishing up this section before we head into chapter 12. 00:00:16.640 |
We are only dealing with the very last verse, verse 36, but I want to read it again in context, 00:00:28.080 |
"Oh, the depth of the riches of wisdom and knowledge of God! 00:00:31.960 |
How unsearchable are His judgments, and how inscrutable His ways! 00:00:36.280 |
For who has known the mind of the Lord, and who has been His counselor? 00:00:39.760 |
Or who has given a gift to Him that He might be repaid? 00:00:43.260 |
For from Him and through Him and to Him are all things. 00:00:56.040 |
Heavenly Father, we are gathered here together as a community, Lord God, to focus our attention 00:01:03.400 |
on You, to thank You, to worship You, to express our adoration, Lord God, for who You are in 00:01:10.980 |
I pray as we are studying through the book of Romans that what You have intended for 00:01:15.920 |
the original readers, Lord, help us to glean and understand. 00:01:19.640 |
We know, Father, that Your truth requires more than our minds to understand, that it 00:01:26.240 |
So help us, Lord God, to be humbled that Your Holy Spirit will continue to speak and convict 00:01:30.360 |
in our hearts, to see if there's any hurtful ways in us, that we will be corrected, sanctified, 00:01:36.480 |
and that we would become more and more each day what You desire us to be, people who will 00:01:45.480 |
So we ask that You will bless us this morning. 00:01:51.480 |
One of the blessings of being bicultural is that you're able to see things from different 00:01:57.960 |
And, you know, this is something that I, when I was younger, I really didn't appreciate 00:02:01.280 |
because, and I think I've expressed to you when I was younger, you know, when I came 00:02:05.360 |
to the United States, living in Kansas, Georgia, Philadelphia, and just moving all over the 00:02:12.760 |
And I always wanted to be able to say that this is my hometown, this is where I'm from, 00:02:19.800 |
And I don't, I can't say that because I've never been in one place longer than a certain 00:02:24.420 |
But as I got older, I realized the benefit of that, that I'm able to see things from 00:02:28.380 |
a different perspective, you know, and I've pretty much lived in the Midwest, in the South, 00:02:33.560 |
in the East Coast, in the West Coast, back in Korea, back and forth. 00:02:36.800 |
And again, one of the benefits of moving around so much and being bicultural is, again, you 00:02:41.120 |
get to see things from different perspectives. 00:02:43.800 |
But one of the things that, again, the paradigm shift or the way that we look at things is 00:02:51.480 |
so radically different is our Christian perspective versus the worldly perspective. 00:02:57.240 |
And there are some things that are absolutely contradictory, that you can't possibly understand 00:03:02.760 |
unless there has been a regeneration in your heart. 00:03:05.680 |
You know, just basic things that you know, where Jesus says that if you want to live, 00:03:10.240 |
you need to pick up your cross and deny yourself. 00:03:13.000 |
If you want to be great, you have to learn to be the servant of all. 00:03:16.280 |
It's completely contradictory to what we know in this life. 00:03:20.360 |
We are taught since we were young that the reason why you get education, the reason why 00:03:24.880 |
you work hard, the reason why you get promotion, all of it is to elevate ourselves. 00:03:30.300 |
We might not use those words, but that's how this world works. 00:03:33.280 |
You're trying to be better than your neighbors. 00:03:36.200 |
But Jesus tells us exactly the opposite, that we ought to be servants. 00:03:44.360 |
Here's a passage that I want to introduce to you that, again, we may just read it, but 00:03:49.440 |
when we think about it in the worldly context, it'd be very difficult to understand if you 00:03:54.680 |
In Psalm 144, 3-4, it says, "O Lord, what is man that you regard him, or the son of 00:04:03.520 |
The psalmist is asking, what value do we have? 00:04:07.880 |
So he's already stating, why is it important? 00:04:18.240 |
He's expressing, if you really take a careful look at who we are, all we are is a simple 00:04:30.160 |
But the whole culture that you and I live in is to elevate, like, no, you have value. 00:04:44.840 |
Consider that with a paradigm in our generation. 00:04:50.800 |
All this stuff is happening, and why don't you care? 00:04:55.240 |
Versus the psalmist who says, why do you even care? 00:04:59.720 |
Psalm 139, 4-5, it says, "O Lord, make me know my end." 00:05:05.200 |
How many of us have sat there and thought to ourselves, it's like, "Well, I want to 00:05:12.400 |
Make me know my end, and what is the measure of my days? 00:05:18.360 |
He's not asking, "Let me know how precious I am in your sight. 00:05:23.800 |
He says, "Let me know how fleeting my days are. 00:05:27.160 |
Behold, you have made my days a few hand-breaths, and my lifetime is as nothing before you. 00:05:35.360 |
We were meant to be worshippers rather than, again, that's part of my notes. 00:05:42.320 |
The whole purpose of the psalmist in the end is to come before God and say, "Lord, help 00:05:54.760 |
Think about how contrary to that, to everything that we are taught in our culture, in our 00:06:04.080 |
But the psalmist comes before God and said, "Let me know that I am worthless. 00:06:10.160 |
Let me realize just how fleeting my life is and how insignificant I am in your eyes." 00:06:19.300 |
In Psalm 90, 12, it says, "So teach us to number our days that we may get a heart of 00:06:25.520 |
He said, "Wisdom begins by recognizing what we are not." 00:06:32.320 |
Some of us have been told all our life just how precious you are. 00:06:41.720 |
But we have this paradigm, even as we approach God, that you owe me. 00:06:50.360 |
When we pray to God and God doesn't answer our prayers, so what? 00:07:00.200 |
If I get sick and God, why don't you answer my prayer? 00:07:11.120 |
If I get fired from a job, Lord, give me a job. 00:07:26.560 |
The psalmist says the beginning of wisdom is recognizing the insignificance of who we 00:07:34.800 |
And the reason why he says that's the beginning of wisdom is because the whole purpose of 00:07:39.800 |
why you and I have been created was not to be the object of worship, but to be worshipers. 00:07:49.880 |
We were not created to be objects of worship. 00:07:53.960 |
And yet, think about the whole trajectory of our life is trying to be worshipped, trying 00:08:02.120 |
to be better, get ahead in life, want to be a little bit taller, a little bit skinnier, 00:08:08.640 |
a little bit faster, a little bit better than everything else. 00:08:15.000 |
We might not use the word worship because that's blasphemy, but at the core of our paradigm 00:08:20.600 |
is we are working hard to become objects of worship. 00:08:33.620 |
So the beginning of wisdom is recognizing who we are in light of who God is. 00:08:38.600 |
That's why Ecclesiastes 12, 13, at the end of Solomon's full life, experiencing everything, 00:08:45.920 |
getting everything that a human being could possibly imagine, there's no sports figure 00:08:50.920 |
at the top of his game ever experienced what King Solomon experienced. 00:08:55.920 |
Michael Jordan may have all the adoration, he had all the skills and respect and maybe 00:08:59.760 |
even all the money, but he never had the power that Solomon did, where he could have just 00:09:12.280 |
Not only did he have all that, he was the wisest man on earth. 00:09:17.480 |
So you could think of anything that you could possibly desire in this world, he had access 00:09:23.120 |
to and the whole book of Ecclesiastes is a written document of his experiences and at 00:09:29.000 |
the end of his life he says, "The end of the matter, all has been heard. 00:09:33.120 |
Fear God and keep his commandment for this is the whole duty of it." 00:09:37.640 |
See if we don't recognize who we are, we're not going to fear God. 00:09:45.760 |
He says the end goal, the totality of life that he's experienced, he says, is to fear 00:09:53.880 |
Now Paul says it in a different way in the same passage in verse 36 where he says, "In 00:09:58.760 |
summary of 11 chapters of gospel preaching, before we get into the imperatives, he said 00:10:03.720 |
in light of this mercy you ought to live this way, the very last statement that summarizes 00:10:07.880 |
almost everything that he says is, "To him be the glory forever. 00:10:16.200 |
That's basically in essence what Solomon was saying at the end of chapter 12 in Ecclesiastes. 00:10:23.320 |
The end goal of man is to recognize God, fear God, and then to obey him. 00:10:33.560 |
You know the word for glory in the Old Testament is kabod and the literal meaning of that is 00:10:45.360 |
Old Testament is a revelation of the glory of God and whenever God's glory is revealed 00:10:53.520 |
Whenever God would show up there would be fear, maybe even terror. 00:10:57.440 |
And you see that in the tabernacle, you see that in the clouds, you see that in the Shekinah 00:11:01.400 |
glory, you see that at the giving of the law, you see that even as he carries out his judgment. 00:11:07.280 |
Whenever God appears there's a sense of weightiness and seriousness. 00:11:11.600 |
And that's the word for glory in the Old Testament in Hebrew, kabod. 00:11:16.440 |
In the New Testament the word for glory is interesting. 00:11:26.400 |
So the word in and of itself doesn't really describe anything in particular. 00:11:29.720 |
All it means is your thoughts, your opinions. 00:11:33.080 |
Now that's a strange word to use to describe a heavy word like glory in the New Testament, 00:11:40.960 |
The word doxa, you probably know this word, I mean orthodox is again a combination of 00:11:57.120 |
And we should use the word orthodox of right doctrine, right? 00:12:06.120 |
The word paradox means to be above, to be above thinking. 00:12:11.280 |
So paradox is something that is beyond comprehension, paradox, beyond thinking, beyond understanding. 00:12:17.460 |
So something that you can't simply comprehend by using logic, we call that a paradox. 00:12:23.560 |
So the word in and of itself could be positive or negative. 00:12:27.640 |
So what's interesting about even the word glory in the Old Testament, New Testament, 00:12:32.560 |
the Old Testament word for glory is kabod, and whenever God showed up there was a sense 00:12:38.280 |
And so at the end, if you were an Old Testament saint, when you thought about God, you thought 00:12:48.040 |
Whether that would be his deliverance or whether that would be his judgment, it would be something 00:12:55.320 |
I don't know if you guys still use that word now, but when I was younger, and maybe you 00:12:59.720 |
still use it, but whenever you heard something profound, the hippies would say, "Dude, that's 00:13:12.960 |
So back in the '70s and the '80s, they would say, "Well, that's heavy." 00:13:19.200 |
And again, that's the word in the Old Testament, but in the New Testament, it's simply to be 00:13:25.840 |
Now I thought that was really interesting because in the New Testament, the way God 00:13:29.440 |
revealed himself was through the display of Christ. 00:13:33.640 |
He came taken on very common form, human form, that initially you wouldn't even recognize 00:13:44.560 |
His revelation was gradual, and then the climax of his revelation, we recognize on the cross 00:13:53.060 |
But in the New Testament, God simply displayed himself. 00:13:58.720 |
In the New Testament, it was like an HD version of who God is, and we were able to see him 00:14:06.440 |
So the word glory in and of itself is simply God's nature on display. 00:14:17.720 |
Now the significance between all of this and giving God the glory is in the Old Testament, 00:14:21.560 |
in the New Testament, when the disciples asked him to teach us how to pray, Jesus said, "Pray 00:14:27.880 |
Our Father who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name." 00:14:29.800 |
So the very first statement is recognizing God as God. 00:14:39.960 |
Before we are concerned about our life, our sustenance, our well-being, our safety, he 00:14:48.320 |
And then the second thing he says, "Thy kingdom come, thy will be done on earth as it is in 00:15:02.880 |
That's basically in essence what Solomon would say in Ecclesiastes, that's the end of his 00:15:08.840 |
The chief end of man is to fear God and keep his commandment. 00:15:15.600 |
He says the totality of the gospel, "Let his name be glorified." 00:15:23.400 |
Jesus said in his prayer, "To hallowed be his name. 00:15:30.320 |
How much of our frustration in our life happens because we are in conflict with his kingdom 00:15:38.640 |
And everything that's happening in heaven, let it be done here. 00:15:41.760 |
So those of us who have been studying, again, through the book of Revelation, every time 00:15:45.960 |
we see a glimpse of heaven, what's happening up there? 00:15:50.120 |
You don't need to answer because I've mentioned this several times already. 00:15:54.320 |
Every time we see a glimpse of what's happening in heaven, what is happening up there? 00:16:01.920 |
All throughout the book of Revelation, we see scenes of the elders, of the holy creatures, 00:16:09.320 |
of the saints, of the angels, of the 144,000 Jews and multitudes behind them. 00:16:16.000 |
Every time we get a glimpse of the throne of God, they are in worship. 00:16:20.160 |
So when Jesus says, "Pray this way, our Father which art in heaven, hallowed be thy name, 00:16:26.200 |
holy and honored and feared and glorified are thy name, let your kingdom come here." 00:16:34.680 |
Because this kingdom down here is in rebellion against God. 00:16:42.560 |
That let your kingdom come and be established here and that what's happening up there happen 00:16:59.440 |
You and I were not created to be objects of worship, but to be worshipers. 00:17:05.540 |
And the main reason why we face frustration in our lives is because we have that thing 00:17:16.880 |
Now let me ask you, how much would it affect your life if you didn't have to worry about 00:17:28.680 |
You probably save a lot of time in the morning, right? 00:17:32.160 |
Worry about how your face looks, about certain clothes you wear. 00:17:37.640 |
There's a lot of things you wouldn't do if you didn't care at all what other people thought. 00:17:43.440 |
I mean, as long as you can eat and live and have a family and have life and friends and 00:17:55.920 |
But so much of our frustration in life is because we care a lot about what other people 00:18:01.360 |
think and there's not a single person in here that's like, "Well, I'm not that." 00:18:19.500 |
If you just didn't care at all about what other people thought, about what your parents 00:18:26.020 |
thought, what your friends thought, what your husband thought, what your wife thought, what 00:18:30.500 |
I mean, it would take away a lot of weight in our lives. 00:18:35.140 |
See, God didn't create us to be objects of worship. 00:18:43.180 |
It doesn't fit us well because that's not who we are and everything that we do to try 00:18:47.980 |
to be objects of worship, it just causes more frustration. 00:18:58.700 |
See, he's not saying, "Hey, let it be about me." 00:19:02.180 |
God's not saying, "I've heard stories about celebrities and famous people saying that 00:19:07.740 |
I stopped going to church because God is an egomaniac. 00:19:11.220 |
When I first heard that God is seeking his own glory, I mean, he said, "Okay, instead 00:19:15.220 |
of me," he said, "give him the glory," and he said, "He's an egomaniac. 00:19:21.060 |
You see, it is when he is worshipped we feel alive. 00:19:31.980 |
You know, last Sunday, I know that we had a wedding, right? 00:19:36.060 |
Tim and Sarah had a wedding and a bunch of guys were watching the Dodgers baseball, and 00:19:41.260 |
I know that there was a grand slam that was hit right in the middle of the—not the ceremony, 00:19:47.420 |
And I wasn't watching, so I didn't know what was going on, but there was an instantaneous 00:19:51.780 |
worship that was happening at the corner, and I had no idea what happened. 00:19:55.980 |
So I thought maybe there was a rat or maybe something good, maybe some, you know, the 00:20:02.180 |
snacks came out or the cake was so delicious and they instantaneously yelled in one voice, 00:20:07.320 |
but something spectacular happened in the corner. 00:20:10.060 |
And we all turned around, whether we were watching the game or not, we all turned around 00:20:13.220 |
to look, and then eventually we had to, "What happened over there?" 00:20:16.700 |
Then eventually we found out that one of the Dodgers players hit a grand slam, and eventually 00:20:22.180 |
as a result of that, that they ended up winning the game. 00:20:24.340 |
So, you know, this is in the context of Chasing the World Series, so it was a huge game. 00:20:28.780 |
But instantaneously, instantaneously, there was an eruption of worship. 00:20:37.700 |
And I bet you at that moment, there was not a frown in that circle. 00:20:44.180 |
For that moment, nobody was thinking about how hungry they were, nobody was thinking 00:20:50.120 |
about the human problems that they may have had, nobody was thinking about anything other 00:21:04.300 |
Do you get money because they hit a grand slam? 00:21:07.180 |
What did you get out of it, other than you're a fan? 00:21:12.680 |
And because you're a fan, when that happened, you're filled with joy. 00:21:17.020 |
And I bet a lot of you talked about it afterwards. 00:21:20.700 |
I bet you today, you know, you're still talking about it with your friends, with other fans. 00:21:30.180 |
Why were thousands, hundreds of thousands of people so happy about what some other guy 00:21:39.800 |
Why are people willing to pay $1,000 for the cheapest World Series tickets? 00:21:46.860 |
That's what I heard on the radio, cheapest, like cheap seats are going to start selling 00:21:52.020 |
Why would people pay that kind of money to watch a bunch of guys run around on the field 00:22:09.740 |
Not quit your job, but miss your work, right? 00:22:25.940 |
Imagine if you went to this game and paid $1,000 and you're pouting because nobody's 00:22:33.740 |
You know, you dressed up so nicely and combed your hair and put on the best shoes and you 00:22:37.460 |
walked in and nobody's paying any attention to you. 00:22:54.220 |
This stadium was for the purpose of watching this game. 00:22:58.580 |
You see, God created us to be His image bearers. 00:23:02.340 |
See, the first thing that He says, He said, "God deserves the glory because He is the 00:23:09.380 |
He says, "From Him," that's the first thing He says, "From Him." 00:23:14.300 |
The reason why He deserves to get the glory is because all things are from Him. 00:23:19.540 |
Revelation 411, "Worthy are you, our Lord, our God, to receive glory and honor and power, 00:23:24.260 |
for you created all things, and by your will they existed and were created." 00:23:34.060 |
Colossians 116 and 17, "For by Him all things were created in heaven and on earth, visible 00:23:37.820 |
and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authority, all things were created 00:23:42.420 |
through Him and for Him, and He is before all things, and in Him all things hold together." 00:23:50.420 |
He deserves the glory because He is the originator of all things. 00:23:55.660 |
How short-sighted we are in Romans chapter 1 when it says that God put His imprint, His 00:24:02.260 |
glory upon creation, and we see creation and we glorify the people. 00:24:09.180 |
Every time I go to the Great Wall, people pay thousands of dollars to come and see this 00:24:13.380 |
Great Wall because it's supposed to be so long. 00:24:18.180 |
It took hundreds of years, 500 years to make, and so many people gave their lives, and there's 00:24:25.820 |
But every time I go there, it reminds me, like, look at the mountain that it sits on. 00:24:34.660 |
And we travel over there, we look at the rocks that were piled up, and we glory on the piled 00:24:40.820 |
rocks, and then we completely forget about what it's sitting on. 00:24:46.220 |
You don't look at a painting and then worship the paint. 00:25:02.100 |
See, but that's the insanity of mankind, that we look at the universe, and clearly there 00:25:20.740 |
First and foremost, it says He deserved the glory because He's the Creator. 00:25:24.300 |
In Genesis 1, 26 and 27, it says, "Then God said, 'Let us make man in our image.' 00:25:31.000 |
He made us in His image, not Him in our image. 00:25:34.460 |
For God created man in His own image, and in the image of God, He created Him." 00:25:42.640 |
We were the canvas that He painted on, and He put imprint of Himself on us. 00:25:49.880 |
So the man who is seeking glory for himself is no different than a painting who is sad 00:25:57.120 |
that the observers are not recognizing the quality of the paint, the quality of the canvas. 00:26:08.000 |
In Genesis 9, 6, it says, "Whoever sheds blood of man, by man shall his blood be shed. 00:26:16.240 |
So the whole reason why murder is an egregious sin is because of innate value of mankind. 00:26:28.420 |
You're not going to go to jail for killing an ant. 00:26:48.480 |
But most of the world would not consider that murder. 00:26:50.760 |
Most of the world would not have an issue with that. 00:26:53.080 |
Well, the Bible says because we have innate value. 00:27:00.360 |
Because our Creator's imprint is on humankind. 00:27:04.740 |
So our very value comes from the fact that we were created by Him and put His imprint 00:27:13.800 |
See, but in the immediate context that you and I are looking at, it's not just talking 00:27:23.840 |
Not only is he the author of creation, he is the author of recreation, which is the 00:27:30.560 |
He initiated the first creation, and because of our fall, he also initiated our recreation. 00:27:36.960 |
In Ephesians 1, 4-6, it says, "He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world 00:27:42.080 |
that we should be holy and blameless before Him. 00:27:45.480 |
In love, He predestined us for adoption through Jesus Christ according to His purpose and 00:27:51.480 |
will, to praise of His glorious grace with which He has blessed us in the beloved." 00:27:57.960 |
He says from the very beginning, not only creation, the physical world, but the recreation 00:28:02.600 |
of the spiritual to bring us back to life, is that He is the author of that. 00:28:14.960 |
Thank God that I had enough sense to go to church when I did. 00:28:18.760 |
Thank God I had enough sense to ask the right questions." 00:28:22.800 |
Even for our creation and for our recreation, God deserves all the credit. 00:28:30.440 |
That's why He says, "From Him, from Him, we glorify Him." 00:28:36.880 |
Again, Ephesians 5, 25-27, "Husbands, love your wives as Christ loved the church and 00:28:41.360 |
gave Himself for her that He might sanctify her, having cleansed her by the washing of 00:28:45.840 |
water with the Word, so that He may present the church to Himself in splendor without 00:28:51.740 |
spot or wrinkle or any such thing that she might be holy and without blemish." 00:28:55.880 |
So from the very get-go, our salvation was initiated by Him. 00:29:01.560 |
So He deserved the glory because He is the initiator. 00:29:06.520 |
Secondly, God deserves the glory because He is the sustainer of all things. 00:29:11.080 |
Colossians 1:17, it says, "He is before all things, and in Him all things hold together." 00:29:18.200 |
Acts 17, 28, "For in Him we live and move and have our being." 00:29:27.160 |
I think a simple way to describe hell is right now is not hell. 00:29:31.520 |
No matter how hard life may be, this is nowhere near hell. 00:29:37.200 |
Because every human being, Christian or non-Christian, experiences what we call common grace. 00:29:48.880 |
Christian and non-Christians also experience love. 00:30:01.800 |
Not only did He create it, not only is He responsible for the recreation, but everything 00:30:06.980 |
that you and I know is because God is sustaining us. 00:30:20.440 |
You can't will yourself to have enough oxygen. 00:30:23.680 |
If you have a heart problem, you don't will yourself to have a better heart. 00:30:29.160 |
You don't will yourself to make sure that political... 00:30:34.840 |
A nuclear bomb goes off, you get hit by a car, or the universe just gets too hot, or 00:30:41.000 |
it gets too cold, or you get infected by some disease. 00:30:44.920 |
I know, this may sound morbid, but you and I don't have control over any of that. 00:30:51.120 |
But again, the insanity of mankind is we wake up every day thinking it's us. 00:30:56.520 |
That's why Jesus says, "You cannot bear fruit unless you abide in me." 00:31:00.080 |
You can't survive physically, and neither can you survive spiritually. 00:31:06.580 |
He deserves all the glory because not only is it all from Him, but He says it is all 00:31:13.520 |
In Hebrews 12, too, it says, "Looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith, 00:31:17.160 |
who for the joy that was set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame, and seated 00:31:22.080 |
at the right hand of God, right under the throne of God." 00:31:24.960 |
He is the founder and the sustainer and the perfecter. 00:31:33.320 |
There's so much attention on the justification of our salvation. 00:31:37.480 |
And then when it comes to our sanctification, we have a tendency to think, "Well, if I read 00:31:40.440 |
the Bible enough, if I attend the right church, if I sit under the right teaching, that somehow 00:31:47.000 |
sanctification is just going to happen if I will myself." 00:31:54.280 |
Even the bearing of fruit, we're completely dependent on Him. 00:32:00.540 |
Everything that you and I know is completely dependent on Him. 00:32:03.840 |
He deserves the glory because every single one of us is here because somehow God is allowing 00:32:09.600 |
Do you understand when we open up the scriptures, it made sense to you? 00:32:12.760 |
Because some of you may remember what the Word of God sounded like before you became 00:32:21.000 |
Reading the Bible, nothing made any sense to you. 00:32:26.420 |
Maybe it sounded like instructions on how to put together IKEA furniture that you have 00:32:34.840 |
Some of it, it just didn't make any sense to you. 00:32:41.440 |
It didn't make any sense to you, but now it does. 00:32:48.960 |
Did one day you just learn how to do better math and you put it together and it just made 00:32:56.160 |
And the whole reason why we are able to understand, why we're able to study the Bible, why we're 00:32:59.440 |
able to pray and understand even what I'm saying to you is because God is allowing it. 00:33:08.560 |
In fact, one of my favorite verses, Romans 8.32, it says, "He who did not spare his own 00:33:13.240 |
son but gave him up for us all, how will he not also with him graciously give us everything?" 00:33:20.120 |
How will he not along with him give us everything? 00:33:23.920 |
If he loved us enough to send his only begotten son, will he not love us enough to sustain 00:33:34.420 |
It starts with him and everything is sustained by him. 00:33:38.040 |
"Knowing all these things, we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. 00:33:42.760 |
For I am sure that neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present 00:33:47.840 |
nor things to come, nor powers, nor heights, nor depth, nor anything else in all creation 00:33:52.080 |
will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord." 00:33:57.280 |
The reason why we are sustained is because we are held in his hands of love. 00:34:05.320 |
Everything is from him and everything is sustained through him. 00:34:09.260 |
But finally, God deserves the glory because he is the ultimate goal of all things. 00:34:18.180 |
It is not simply through him, but it is also to him. 00:34:22.460 |
First Corinthians 8.6, "Yet for us there is one God, the Father, from whom are all 00:34:37.340 |
The first and the most important vision of BCC is what? 00:34:52.580 |
That's the most important part of our church vision. 00:35:03.020 |
The most important question in the church ought to be, "What does God desire? 00:35:11.600 |
So whether it is preaching or teaching or the organization of the church or the decision 00:35:15.140 |
that's being made, all of it is first and foremost to honor God because all things are 00:35:20.420 |
not just from him, through him, but is also to him. 00:35:29.120 |
And that's the part that if we don't understand, we can still, recognizing he's a creator, 00:35:35.620 |
recognizing he's a sustainer, but if we don't recognize the third part, we can still live 00:35:39.180 |
all our lives using him to glorify ourselves. 00:35:49.740 |
I can stand up on the pulpit here to glorify myself. 00:35:54.780 |
Instead of making a lot of money, clearly I can't play basketball. 00:35:58.020 |
I'm not going to make money playing basketball or any particular sport. 00:36:02.140 |
Maybe wrestling, I had some chance, but clearly I wasn't going to be a professional basketball 00:36:08.300 |
And it's much harder to make a billion dollars. 00:36:17.260 |
They made a computer before I even recognized what it was. 00:36:23.740 |
So I could easily come into the ministry, stand in front of a lot of people to glorify 00:36:31.140 |
It could happen in a smaller scale in the church. 00:36:32.980 |
Every decision that we make, everything that we do, we can use God. 00:36:42.640 |
If we don't recognize the third part of this, everything's from him, everything's through 00:36:54.280 |
Ultimately for me, so that I can have a better life, so that I can be happy. 00:37:05.280 |
Romans 5, 10 through 11, "For if while we were enemies, we were reconciled to God by 00:37:09.360 |
the death of his son, how much more now that we are reconciled, shall we be saved by his 00:37:16.240 |
More than that, we also rejoice in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have 00:37:21.920 |
So the goal of our salvation is to be reconciled with God. 00:37:27.960 |
If I got in a fight with my wife and I said, "Oh, reconcile," because I sent her a letter. 00:37:36.080 |
Reconciliation is I have an ongoing relationship with my wife. 00:37:59.440 |
Lot of Christian relationship that we have with God is no different than that. 00:38:05.320 |
We've been justified, but there is no personal relationship with the Father. 00:38:10.480 |
And that's why prayer is so strange to nominal Christians. 00:38:16.280 |
You can study the Bible because your knowledge increases and you can immediately show if 00:38:22.560 |
But this one particular activity of prayer, unless you're going to walk around with a 00:38:27.120 |
dot on your head and say, "I prayed this morning," and then you put 10 minutes or 30 minutes 00:38:31.600 |
so that people can see, unless you have a personal relationship with Jesus Christ, you 00:38:38.680 |
won't be able to pray because that's just like closing your eyes, doing nothing for 00:38:47.880 |
You can't get into a restaurant with some noise going on. 00:38:50.840 |
You can't get into your car without something turned on. 00:38:53.380 |
You can't sit for five minutes without the phone being turned on and going through Facebook. 00:38:57.400 |
So sitting quietly, talking to somebody that you don't know for more than just a few seconds 00:39:10.800 |
No matter how much we emphasize how important it is, you can't pray. 00:39:14.800 |
You can only pray if He really is your refuge. 00:39:19.300 |
You will only pray if you really think He's your hope. 00:39:23.720 |
You can only pray if you really have a personal relationship with Him. 00:39:29.120 |
But when you do, my gosh, it changes everything. 00:39:39.760 |
There's nothing that is hopeless because a sovereign God, you have access to the sovereign 00:39:45.520 |
You have a personal relationship with the sovereign God. 00:39:47.560 |
So the whole purpose of the gospel is to reconcile with us because every problem that you and 00:39:54.320 |
I have is because we've been disconnected with the author of life. 00:40:05.160 |
You missed the whole point of salvation because the whole benefit of salvation is to know 00:40:14.800 |
Everything is from Him, everything is through Him, and ultimately everything is to Him. 00:40:22.320 |
The whole reason why the door has been opened is so that we can enter the throne of grace 00:40:35.840 |
So if our pursuit is not Christ, you missed the whole point. 00:40:39.360 |
If our pursuit of Bible study is not Christ, you missed the whole point. 00:40:42.760 |
If our pursuit and our fellowship is just so that we can have friends, you missed the 00:40:46.720 |
whole point because the point of fellowship is to draw near to Christ. 00:40:51.600 |
The point of evangelism is to point people to Christ. 00:41:04.640 |
All things are from Him, through Him, and to Him. 00:41:07.880 |
And let me summarize all that Paul has been saying in these simple words. 00:41:16.160 |
As I wrap up, Psalm 19, it says, "Heavens declare the glory of God, and the sky above 00:41:29.000 |
But in Romans chapter 119, it says, "For what can be known about God is plain to them, because 00:41:32.840 |
God has shown it to them, and yet mankind decided not to give Him the glory." 00:41:45.680 |
In Romans 3:23, it says, "All have sinned and fall short of," what? 00:42:00.240 |
His rebellion is to refuse the acknowledgment of His glory. 00:42:05.080 |
The man's sin is described as falling short of His glory. 00:42:14.360 |
Is to display His glory in a greater way on the cross. 00:42:22.360 |
If glory is what we fell short of, it is glory that must be reestablished. 00:42:29.880 |
And when His glory is reestablished, when we are in the presence of His glory, what 00:42:40.800 |
Book of Revelation chapter 21, 22, we are not there yet, but heaven is described as 00:42:48.320 |
And the reason why is because it's that God's glory is going to light up heaven. 00:43:02.640 |
Worship ultimately is not something that you and I stir up. 00:43:05.320 |
Worship is a response, just like the people watching baseball, right? 00:43:19.160 |
I'm going to high five and then you high five him." 00:43:24.520 |
It was just an eruption of pure joy when they saw something spectacular. 00:43:35.420 |
In the presence of His glory being revealed, we will erupt in worship. 00:43:42.100 |
What you and I are experiencing now is a glimpse of that. 00:43:46.440 |
And that's what Romans chapter 12, that'll take us into Romans chapter 12. 00:43:50.080 |
He says, "I appeal to you therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies 00:43:55.240 |
as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship." 00:44:02.720 |
All that Paul has been saying has been leading up to chapter 12. 00:44:06.960 |
All of the display of His grace, of His mercy, of His holiness, His judgment, His patience, 00:44:13.600 |
all the gospel, chapter 1 through chapter 11, is to bring us to chapter 12, therefore, 00:44:25.720 |
Ultimate purpose of the cross is so that we may worship. 00:44:29.600 |
Again, I hope that will kind of set the tone for us. 00:44:34.280 |
You know, I know whenever we jump into the imperatives, you know, there's always a segment 00:44:38.640 |
of the church where it's like, "Oh, I feel burdened." 00:44:40.520 |
You know, let's just talk about the cross, not recognizing the point of the cross is 00:44:46.080 |
to cause us to worship in spirit and in truth. 00:44:48.480 |
So as we invite our worship team to come back up, again, I want to ask you guys to take 00:44:53.280 |
some time to really come before the Lord in prayer. 00:45:07.440 |
Like a surgeon who needs to get to the problem, be specific. 00:45:17.520 |
What are things that you're not dealing with? 00:45:21.960 |
In light of His mercy, how can I become, how can I be a better worshiper? 00:45:30.080 |
Let's take some time to pray as our worship team leaves.