God’s Glory Illustrated — for Kids
00:00:00.000 | (upbeat music)
00:00:02.580 | - Well, we end the week with a great question
00:00:07.320 | from Aaron Fletcher, a dad in Manassas, Virginia.
00:00:10.720 | Hello, Pastor John, my wife and I recently started
00:00:12.640 | going through a catechism with our four-year-old son.
00:00:15.060 | We've had a hard time explaining to him
00:00:16.440 | what it means to glorify God.
00:00:18.800 | The best definition I can come up with
00:00:20.920 | is to glorify God is to worship him
00:00:23.840 | like we know how important he is.
00:00:26.700 | But that seems inadequate.
00:00:28.800 | Do you have any advice on how to communicate
00:00:30.540 | such a huge concept to young children in a clear way?
00:00:34.540 | - Yes, I do. (laughs)
00:00:36.740 | And I had a really good time with this question
00:00:38.740 | because I think you don't know what you mean
00:00:43.600 | unless you can help a four-year-old.
00:00:45.260 | - Yes, right.
00:00:46.780 | - And so, first thing to say is children,
00:00:50.700 | oh, how different they are.
00:00:53.340 | Every parent needs to figure out what works best
00:00:57.180 | to get across important truths to their children.
00:01:00.420 | So let me simply give the basic principle
00:01:04.760 | and then try to provide maybe three illustrations
00:01:08.600 | that I think will work with a four-year-old.
00:01:11.720 | So it's been a long time, but I think so.
00:01:14.380 | I had four boys and a girl.
00:01:16.260 | The basic principle is that glorify
00:01:20.900 | does not mean make glorious, but see as glorious,
00:01:25.940 | savor as glorious, celebrate as glorious.
00:01:29.460 | And of course, I don't mean you have to use those words.
00:01:31.580 | I'm not giving you yet what you give your four-year-old.
00:01:34.020 | I'm just telling you what the principle is.
00:01:37.380 | I use see, savor, and celebrate
00:01:40.480 | just 'cause I like the way they sound. (laughs)
00:01:43.180 | You can substitute for see.
00:01:46.060 | You have to recognize his glory.
00:01:48.100 | You can substitute for savor.
00:01:50.180 | You have to enjoy or admire or value his glory.
00:01:53.860 | And you can substitute for celebrate.
00:01:55.660 | You have to praise or cheer or make known his glory.
00:02:00.660 | And the point is that the word glorify
00:02:05.940 | is not like the word beautify.
00:02:09.020 | Now, I'm still teaching the parents. (laughs)
00:02:12.340 | Not like the word beautify.
00:02:14.220 | When we beautify a room, we make it more beautiful.
00:02:19.220 | When you glorify God, you do not make him more glorious.
00:02:24.300 | So glorify has to be distinguished
00:02:27.620 | from any idea of making God glorious.
00:02:31.620 | You gotta help your four-year-old
00:02:33.660 | not think in terms of making God glorious.
00:02:38.660 | Now, when we glorify God, we see him as glorious.
00:02:43.140 | We love what we see.
00:02:44.980 | We help others see him and love him that way.
00:02:49.620 | And that may be spoken.
00:02:51.100 | It may be lived out.
00:02:53.460 | It may be with acclamations or maybe with demonstrations.
00:02:57.220 | And I get that from all over the New Testament,
00:03:00.060 | but you can just use 1 Peter 1:3,
00:03:02.140 | where it says, "Blessed be God."
00:03:03.620 | So he's using words to acclaim the great mercy of God.
00:03:07.700 | And then when he gets to chapter two, verse 12,
00:03:09.900 | he tells them to conduct themselves in a certain way
00:03:13.060 | so that people will see God as glorious.
00:03:16.260 | So it may be words.
00:03:17.460 | It may be behavior.
00:03:19.340 | Now, how do we help a four-year-old
00:03:22.740 | get a handle on this process?
00:03:24.900 | Try this.
00:03:26.420 | Most four-year-olds can get the idea
00:03:31.020 | that some things are small
00:03:34.260 | and some things are really, really big.
00:03:37.300 | They can get the idea
00:03:38.740 | that some things are really, really, really valuable
00:03:43.140 | and other things aren't worth so very much.
00:03:46.260 | And they can get the idea
00:03:48.020 | that some things are really, really beautiful
00:03:50.820 | or really pretty or really nice to look at,
00:03:53.100 | and other things are really ugly
00:03:55.820 | and make you want to run away.
00:03:58.100 | I think we can assume that a four-year-old
00:04:01.700 | can grasp the categories of size, value, and beauty.
00:04:06.700 | Okay, that's my assumption
00:04:08.820 | as I move forward now with my illustrations.
00:04:11.580 | So that's what I'm gonna try
00:04:14.100 | to help him understand the meaning of glorifying God
00:04:18.500 | for his size, really, really big,
00:04:21.860 | and his value, really, really precious, valuable,
00:04:25.940 | want to have him,
00:04:27.500 | and his beauty, more beautiful,
00:04:30.820 | more great to look at than anything.
00:04:33.780 | So in each of these cases,
00:04:36.060 | we need to come up with illustrations
00:04:39.540 | that distinguish between making something big,
00:04:43.140 | making something valuable,
00:04:44.620 | making something beautiful on the one hand,
00:04:47.220 | and helping people see that something is already big,
00:04:51.340 | already valuable, already beautiful,
00:04:53.740 | even though they might not at first think so.
00:04:56.460 | So here are my three practical illustrations.
00:04:59.860 | So for example, you are driving down the highway,
00:05:03.220 | you and your four-year-old,
00:05:04.820 | and you might see a tower in the distance
00:05:08.660 | and ask your child how big it is.
00:05:11.660 | Tell him to hold up his fingers,
00:05:13.980 | his pointing finger at the top of the tower
00:05:17.060 | and his thumb at the bottom of the tower
00:05:19.860 | and tell you how big it is.
00:05:21.980 | And he'll say, "It's not very big."
00:05:24.980 | Then you drive another five miles,
00:05:26.820 | you stop the car, you get out,
00:05:28.380 | you walk over to the tower,
00:05:29.700 | and it is 100 times taller than your child is.
00:05:34.700 | And then you illustrate
00:05:37.060 | what you've been teaching him all the while.
00:05:40.460 | How do we glorify the bigness of this tower?
00:05:45.100 | Well, first, we have to get close enough
00:05:47.700 | to see how big it really is.
00:05:50.580 | And then we have to be amazed at how tall it is,
00:05:54.460 | very tall, wouldn't want to climb up there.
00:05:56.500 | And then we need to show people how tall,
00:06:00.780 | show people, show people how tall it really is.
00:06:04.740 | And how might we do that?
00:06:06.860 | Well, maybe let's take a picture of me standing beside it
00:06:10.740 | and then we'll show the picture, et cetera.
00:06:13.420 | That's illustration number one.
00:06:15.420 | Number two, compare your child's daddy,
00:06:19.220 | you may be the daddy or the mommy,
00:06:22.180 | compare your child's daddy,
00:06:23.860 | who is five feet nine inches tall,
00:06:26.140 | with another child's daddy,
00:06:28.580 | who is six feet six inches tall.
00:06:31.660 | And then you say to your child,
00:06:33.460 | "Do you want to trade your daddy,
00:06:35.980 | who's only five feet nine inches tall for a bigger daddy,
00:06:39.860 | Roger over there, your friend's daddy?"
00:06:43.580 | And your child is going to say,
00:06:45.140 | "No, I want my daddy, I don't want his daddy."
00:06:50.140 | And then you explain to the child
00:06:52.280 | that the reason you want your daddy
00:06:55.300 | is because he's so really, really, really valuable to you.
00:06:59.700 | And you prefer, you introduce that word to him,
00:07:02.840 | maybe, prefer him.
00:07:04.500 | You want him more than you want the other daddy.
00:07:09.100 | And that's the way it is with the value of God.
00:07:12.980 | When you know God and how really valuable he is,
00:07:17.260 | you want him more than you want anything else.
00:07:20.520 | And when you want your daddy over all other daddies,
00:07:24.260 | you glorify the value of your daddy.
00:07:27.780 | Doesn't matter whether the other daddy's taller.
00:07:30.220 | And when you want God over everything else,
00:07:33.340 | you glorify the value of God.
00:07:35.980 | Last illustration, number three, regard to beauty.
00:07:40.980 | There are stories that your child reads
00:07:44.540 | or videos that they watch
00:07:47.220 | in which there is a very, very ugly, evil character.
00:07:51.740 | And then there's a hero who is gallant
00:07:54.740 | and strong and handsome.
00:07:57.180 | And clearly your child is happy
00:08:00.300 | when the hero appears and wins the day
00:08:02.820 | and is glad when the ugly, dangerous villain is dispatched,
00:08:07.820 | put away, done for.
00:08:10.340 | And then you explain to your child
00:08:12.900 | what the beauty of character is.
00:08:16.980 | It's not just like the beauty of sunsets or flowers.
00:08:21.060 | It's the beauty of strength and wisdom
00:08:24.700 | and all of that in the service of being a good hero
00:08:28.780 | and a loving hero.
00:08:30.740 | And you ask your child, how do we glorify that character?
00:08:35.740 | How do we glorify the strength and the wisdom
00:08:38.900 | and the goodness and the love, the beauty of this hero?
00:08:43.620 | And then you can help him see that you glorify him
00:08:46.340 | by cheering when he appears in the story
00:08:50.260 | and by being glad when he wins
00:08:52.980 | and by telling other people how great he is
00:08:56.260 | and how beautiful he is
00:08:57.940 | compared to that ugly villain
00:09:00.980 | that sometimes dresses up in an attractive suit.
00:09:05.540 | We don't make the tower tall
00:09:08.740 | and we don't make the daddy valuable
00:09:11.460 | and we don't make the hero beautiful.
00:09:14.780 | We glorify the size and the value and the beauty
00:09:19.780 | by seeing it for what it is
00:09:22.940 | and by being glad that it is that way.
00:09:26.860 | And then by acting and speaking
00:09:30.220 | in a way that shows other people what we see
00:09:33.420 | and what we love.
00:09:34.420 | And I think a four-year-old can get this.
00:09:38.820 | And with every passing year,
00:09:42.180 | may God grant that his grasp goes deeper and deeper.
00:09:47.180 | I love this episode.
00:09:50.060 | The question, the heart behind it,
00:09:52.020 | the answer and the trio of illustrations, very helpful.
00:09:55.100 | Pastor John, thank you.
00:09:55.940 | And that'll do it for us for the week.
00:09:57.580 | For more details about this podcast,
00:09:59.340 | to catch up on past episodes
00:10:00.860 | or to subscribe to the audio feed,
00:10:02.340 | even to send us a question of your own,
00:10:03.940 | go to our online home at zeroinggod.org/askpastorjohn.
00:10:08.860 | Monday we return and hear from a pastor in the Philippines
00:10:11.300 | who wants to know if he's overdoing it
00:10:13.060 | when it comes to his emphasis on Christian hedonism.
00:10:15.900 | Can we overdo it and what would that look like?
00:10:18.780 | Thanks for listening to the Ask Pastor John podcast
00:10:20.700 | with longtime author, theologian and pastor, John Piper.
00:10:24.060 | I'm your host Tony Rengi.
00:10:24.980 | I will see you on Monday.
00:10:26.980 | Have a great weekend.
00:10:28.020 | (upbeat music)
00:10:30.620 | (upbeat music)
00:10:35.620 | you