Ep. 321 - How to Practically Glorify God in Your Life

Well , when someone is repenting , what they're implying is that there is room for forgiveness , that there is potential for change , that there is now the wherewithal to be able to forsake what you're doing . Well , how is that made possible ? Through what Jesus did , the fact that Christ died upon the cross and shed his blood for our sins . In him .

Now we have redemption through his blood , the forgiveness of sins , we can now repent . So what are we doing when we repent ? We're lifting Christ up , like Moses did with the serpent in the wilderness , so that he could draw all men unto himself .

So when you repent , you're lifting Christ up , like Moses did with the serpent in the wilderness , so that he could draw all men unto himself . So when you repent , you're glorifying God , because you're saying God , what you did was valid , what Christ did on the cross was a work that carries with it significance and it's real .

And now I'm going to give to you what you've called me to give , and that is my brokenness and my repentance . And now I'm walking in a way that's causing what you did to function in a practical way . You died and gave your life upon that cross and rose again so that I can have forgiveness of sins . As I repent , lord , I lift up what you did .

I herald in essence , when I'm repenting , right , oscar , I am really in essence when I'm repenting , right Oscar . I am really , in other words , displaying the gospel Amen . Let us all stare intently at Ray . Now and here we go . Happy birthday .

air . Yes .

Any sin in my life is ultimately because I lack the faith to trust God's promises . Wow , that's insightful , isn't it ? But faith comes by hearing , and hearing by the word of God .

Learning to better saturate my mind with the truth of God's word has helped me immensely in my seeking after personal holiness , and listening to y'all on my car rides to work has helped me keep my mind on what is true through those 40 minutes every day about to get longer .

Ray , I love your passion for knowing and understanding who God is in order to understand our state as sinners in need of the grace of a holy God . I have to remind myself of that and preach the truth of the gospel to myself every day .

Mark , you've got some of the most insightful one-liners I've ever heard from one person , although a lot of times it's something someone once said . It's an encouragement to seek wisdom from others God has placed in our lives . I love the one about getting the truth into ourselves every day , because we are going to be lied to all day long .

But don't worry , easy , I still like my cream in it sometimes Good and Easy . Amidst all the crazy voices wheezing and strange singing , I'm encouraged by your love for the Lord and your desire to encourage others how to fight against sin and pursue righteousness . I'm also encouraged by realizing I'm not the only one who's a little crazy sometimes .

Thank you , guys , for what you do . Keep doing it and keep your eyes ever on Jesus , the author and perfecter of our faith . God bless y'all . Emily Janowiak .

I wish there was a video recording because Doug could not miss , but he was like shocked at himself . No , no , no , he didn't school me , did he post-prod .

Mark , you remember the Westminster Confession , what it says on that Chief end of man is to glorify .

The moment you were conceived , the DNA in you programmed you to grow an eyelash at a certain direction and stop at a certain length , with a certain function , because it's got a sensitivity to it . So if anything gets near your eye , you automatically blink because your eyelash is doing its duty .

And that eyelash that you don't even think about flashes before your eyes probably 10,000 times a day , millions of times each year . You don't even think about the one that made it and it brings glory to God , wow .

about it . Your eyelashes are really constantly in the periphery , seen by your eyes , in a sense , all the time .

I thought it was just something that was ornamental until I studied it , and it's got a purpose . That eyelash has got a purpose .

But as you start getting into the nuance of what these things mean , it's important to recognize the beauty and the complexity of it . And so we've already talked about one aspect of glorifying God , which is to thank Him in all that . We do say experience . I love CS Lewis's quote to follow the sunbeam back up to the sun . That's a form of glorifying God .

Another form of glorifying God that you'll often hear is to act like Him , to reflect His characteristics , and that's true too . One theologian talked about the glory of God . Often what you'll hear in these definitions is the idea of imaging or the word reflecting , and that's key reflecting .

And so the way one theologian has talked about it is to glorify God , is to recognize that we are created in His image and that when , like mirrors , think of us as like a mirror , and when our mirrors are properly aligned , the glory of God is reflected from him to us and then off of us into the world around us .

People experience the glory of God through us glorifying God and yet in another way , also like mirrors . When we experience the world around us eating great food , raising children , wild flowers what we're doing is we are experiencing his creation and we are thankfully , we are in thanks taking that reflection and reflecting his creation back to him .

And so to glorify God is to be like a mirror , reflecting His holiness and goodness .

And then , just real quick , to add to that , if you think about the fall , we are like mirrors that have broken and now we are shattered pieces of glass that reflect the lowercase g glory of whatever earthly thing passes us by and through the gospel , god puts us back together to reflect his glory .

The most loving thing that God can do is to command and invite a worship from His creation , because what man needs and longs for more than anything is to know their Creator , and so the most loving thing God can do is to reveal Himself to His creation and invite them , command them into a relationship with them .

It would almost be cruel for God to not point people to their greatest need , and their greatest need is God himself . So that invitation is more of a declaration than an invitation saying come and behold a God who knows all about you and isn't going anywhere .

You need his glory , which is why the question that you asked earlier to glorify God and enjoy him forever .

We go to the Grand Canyon because we know that there is something greater than ourselves . And I remember I was at Lake Shasta on a houseboat with some friends and my family at one time and I was looking at these trees .

And I said , yeah , I see trees clapping their hands at the God who made them . There's the difference , there's this chasm between us and the rest of the world , because everything we see reflects back to God and it puts us in a place of worship . Live every moment as a worshipful moment .

When we broke away from that other country many years ago , it was a declaration , it wasn't a suggestion Declaration . We're independent , take it or leave it , we're out of here and the heavens declare the glory of God . There's no argument .

When we look at the beautiful sunrise , sunset , the stars , the sun , all those things , especially those big fat , puffy white clouds , they blow me away . So many times I've stopped my bike and taken pictures of clouds .

Well , there's hundreds of thousands of tons of water sitting in those clouds , like they were lighter than a feather , and they drop when God wants them to drop , so they water the earth . That is seriously one of the biggest mysteries it really is and it's just part of the declaration of God's glory . So everybody knows God exists .

Every atheist knows God exists . The moment he looks at the heavens , they declare his glory .

It's anthropomorphic in terms of us trying to understand the character and the creation of God . But he said this is what he sent me . He flung the stars into the sky like sparks from a bonfire , each one ignited by the sheer force of his will . He breathes and galaxies spiral into motion . He whispers and mountains rise from the deep .

When he steps , the earth quakes , not because it must , but because it cannot help but respond to his presence . He sneezes and volcanoes erupt . He blinks and hurricanes churn across oceans , winds howling in submission to their maker . The lightning you see ripping through the sky . That's just his finger tracing a line across the clouds .

He scatters sand across endless deserts as if it were nothing more than dust from his workbench , scraping it away . The snow on mountaintops . He piled it there , flake by flake , to crown his creation . He tells the sun burn here and it obeys blazing with the power of a billion atomic bombs every second .

The wind knows its limits because he set them , the eagle soars because he gave it wings , and the leviathan frolics in the depths because he decided it should . Every tree stretches toward him as if it's in worship . Every atom spins in obedience to his voice .

The entire universe exists not because he willed it into being , but because he sustains it moment by moment . If he withdrew his hand for even a second , everything , everything would collapse into nothingness . This is not just a God who creates , this is a God who reigns .

The cosmos is his throne room and we are but specks of a dust on a speck of dust orbiting a ball of fire he lit and spins it on his finger like a basketball , and yet we limit God to this Blasphemous oh man .

It's like you know , I've said it before but it's like a fish trying to live naturally outside of water , a man trying to live underwater naturally . You weren't designed for that and the end result is going to be like radical , tragic demise .

And when we try to take from God what only belongs to Him , what rightly belongs to Him , we're doing something radically unnatural and the end result's going to be disastrous .

And Oscar , there is a way to do that where we draw glory to the Lord and there's a way to do that where we draw glory to the Lord , and there's a way to draw glory to ourselves while pretending to draw glory to the Lord . We have to be careful of that .

Oh yeah , I glorify God when I read my Bibles . But to your point EZ , to glorify God is to see his glory integrated in every aspect of your life , so that when you go to work , you don't chiefly go to work to pay bills . You don't chiefly go to work to advance your kingdom . You don't chiefly go to work to get the praise of other people .

You don't chiefly go to work to gather a following . You chiefly go to work for the glory of God . When you interact with your family , with your wife , with your children , you don't chiefly go to work to make sure you're comfortable . You don't chiefly go to work to make sure you're comfortable . You don't chiefly go to work to make sure they respect you .

You chiefly serve them to the glory of God . When you understand the call to glorify God and enjoy him forever , you see every aspect of your life start to fold in , even the eating of a good fruit , the making of a great table or the relationship building within a family . Everything is done for his glory .

And then , when we're really humble and honest , we realize how often our hearts are prone to wander , because often we talk about sin as the lying and the blasphemy , and absolutely that's it giving birth to almost death . But sin starts when we start removing glory from God , or I should say , because you can't actually affect the glory of God .

What I should say is when you stop recognizing the glory of God in those little areas of your life .

And when you do that , everything ends up falling apart because it becomes self-focused , and again it becomes self-worship and also self-glorifying , in that you want to receive all the praise and all the rewards of it rather than giving them all to the Lord . So , yeah , so instead of going to work and seeing work as a source

of supply for my need , I look to the Lord as the source of supply for all things , which glorifies Him . Right , I mean , when we function in that way , in a practical sense , I'm looking to God as the provider for all things . That magnifies Him , it elevates Him , it highlights Him as a faithful providing Father who loves His children .

So , instead of looking to work as a source of supply for my needs , I look to work as a medium through which I have the opportunity to glorify God by loving Him with all my heart , mind , soul and strength and being all that he's called me to be as an employee and as a servant , and I love people , thereby glorifying God , by walking in love , by meeting

the greatest need , through sacrificial service , that's great . And so then what happens when the variables kick in right ? Because it may be a great day at work , it may be a horrible day . My pay may get cut , my hours may get docked , my boss may be mean to me , my coworkers may slander me and gossip about me .

It's true , it happens here , but if my focus is on loving God and people glorifying the Lord , then I'm not moved by that , because I'm not there to get glory for myself . I'm not there to get my needs met . I'm there to give . Same thing with marriage , same thing with ministry , same thing with the relationships .

People are looking to things that are not meant to be a source of supply for their needs and so , therefore , they're not glorifying the Lord . But when he's our source and we're just looking to all these things as mediums to glorify Him by obedience and by love , oh man , everything comes together .

So we have to remember that , and we also have to remember again why we exist . You cited it , mark , earlier 1 Corinthians , 10 , 31, . Whether you eat or drink or whatever you do , do all of the glory of God . That's why , years ago , right , confett ?

Do you ever give God thanks for your food ? And they say , no , wow , do you think that's right ? Yeah , everything you've got comes from God .

Every delicious thing you put on your tongue comes from God , because you've got a tongue and you've got taste buds and you've got salivary glands you can swallow and you can eat and you can enjoy looking at good food and then tasting good food . And it is a sin to be unthankful and ungrateful , as the scriptures say in the book of .

Oh boy , that's beautiful and , ray , I love what you said recently just about how you were almost worshiping the Lord because of your toast and honey and whatever you put on it .

It's like Mark , I remember in the what Is it movie , when you were talking to that doctor about abortion and just the way you said it to him . You said you're a doctor .

Second , corinthians 12 , nine my grace is sufficient for you , for my power is made perfect in weakness . And I think , uh , first off , in our weakness , in our failures , in the times where we don't glorify God , he is made strong through his grace .

Uh , I think , in our weakness , when we recognize that we don't have to go out about the world pridefully , pridefully , that we don't have to go out about the world pridefully or arrogantly , we have the humility to repent and to ask for , to say I'm sorry . Why ?

Why are so many people afraid of repentance , afraid to apologize , afraid to sit down and get on one knee and look at their kids and say I'm sorry , I shouldn't have gotten , that was my fault , that wasn't your fault . Why ? It's because they think that they need to be strong in their strength .

But actually the greatest strength you can experience is God's strength in the midst of your weakness .

But the believer can turn his gaze toward the Lord and say no , lord , you're doing something through this and Excuse me . And my we should make a shirt .

I mean , mark , that thing you just read about being that speck of dust on it , we can't even fathom how minuscule we are . You are doing whatever it is . You're involved with me , lord . Even if it were so that God was going to torment me , right , he's not . But let's say wow , you're even acknowledging me . That's mind-blowing .

It means that God sees you just the way you are and he loves you too much to keep you in that state . And repentance is merely a reflection and a response to what God has already done and is doing inside of our lives , right ? So ,

yeah , repentance is a great thing . Right , that Greek word , metanoia , to change your mind , or , as Bonson said , to think God's thoughts after Him , that God has called us to respond and we are just merely responding to what he has called us to do . So repentance , ray .

We get accused of being a works-based organization because we call people to repentance , but Jesus did the same thing . Peter , james , john Jude , they all did the same thing . There is a message repent and believe the gospel , repent and believe the gospel .

All the while , we know that God grants repentance that leads to the truth , but without repentance you will not see a heaven . I think it's Luke 13 , verse 3 and verse 5 , it says unless you repent , you will perish . You will . So there's no half-hearted decisions made for Christ .

Decisions is easy right , we've talked about it , ray but it's that repentance that is difficulty . It's a calling to absolutely leave the old man behind and people say , well , I don't know how to do that , I don't know where to begin . Listen , repentance is simply turning to God . That's really what it is .

Repentance is a turning to God and as you turn to God , you're leaving behind everything else we within our society , we focus in on . Well , I got to stop this , I got to stop that . No , turn to God and live as you turn to God . You are leaving behind anything and everything . It just doesn't matter what it is .

But you can only do that by turning towards God . You can kind of self-will . This is what AA does , right , you try to hold on to your higher power right , that's the Automobile Association , whatever that is the Automobile .

I love you as you go your way . Be doers of the word , not hearers only , so deceiving yourselves . So repentance is such a sweet word . It means that God sees us as a finished work of art and in order to get there word .

It means that God sees us as a finished work of art and in order to get there , there's some work that needs to get done in the process .

Right , it covers every person , every place , and it's something that is completely indicative of something you must do . And it's important , mark , to highlight too . Yeah , repentance is a change of mind that can never be divorced from the resulting fruit , which is a change of action .

You shall not steal , shall not commit adultery , shall not lie that makes a good society . But there must be the preaching of consequence . God's going to have a day of judgment .

Well , when someone is repenting , what they're implying is that there is room for forgiveness , that there is potential for change , that there is now the wherewithal to be able to forsake what you're doing . Well , how is that made possible ? Through what Jesus did , the fact that Christ died upon the cross and shed his blood for our sins . In him .

Now we have redemption through his blood , the forgiveness of sins , we can now repent . So what are we doing when we repent ? We're lifting Christ up , like Moses did with the serpent in the wilderness , so that he could draw all men unto himself . So when you repent , you're glorifying God because you're saying God , what you did was valid .

What Christ did on the cross was a work that carries with it significance and it's real . And now I'm going to give to you what you've called me to give , and that is my brokenness and my repentance . And now I'm walking in a way that's causing what you did to function in a practical way .

You died and gave your life upon that cross and rose again , so that I can have forgiveness of sins . As I repent , lord , I lift up what you did . I herald in essence , when I'm repenting right Oscar , I am really , in other words , displaying the gospel .

So many people don't even want to use the word repentance because it's like , ooh , you know , it means something bad , and I think a lot of times what we hear when someone says repentance is turn or burn . But repentance what you guys are getting at . And you mentioned Thomas Watson .

I've been rereading a lot of his stuff the Lord's Supper and his little book on repentance . It's like 120 pages long , it is so powerful , and in there he also talks about repentance as this like homecoming God is inviting you home . He's saying come and be my son , come and be my daughter .

You've been doing life your way , you've been creating chaos and rebelling against me . I do not desire to hand you over to your sin . Come home , turn and come back . Like the prodigal son , he runs to meet you out there . And so repentance is this beautiful command , this beautiful promise , this gift

that God gives to His children that they get to go home .

I just absolutely love Spurgeon because he nails it so often God is glorified when we seek and save that which is lost . This is what Spurgeon said a great object of glorifying God is to be mainly achieved by the winning of souls . How amazing , what an incredible giant theologian he was . And he condescended to the irksome task of evangelism .

He said do not close a single sermon without addressing the ungodly . That's Spurgeon . How wonderful .

You have made them a little lower than the angels and crowned them . He crowned them with glory and honor . That's what Psalm 8 says . He says he crowns his people with glory and honor . The glory , John 17 , the glory that you have given me . I give to them , is Jesus talking .

He's giving us a glory that they may be one even as we are one , I in them and you in me . That they may become perfectly one , so that the world may know that you sent me and love them even as you love me . Here's the reality of the glory of God is that he is so kind to allow us to participate in it through the cross .

That great glory that we get to reflect . He crowns us with it through the blood of His Son , Jesus . The glory of God is not like the sun in which we just look at . The glory of God is like the sun in which it penetrates our lives and we feel every aspect of it . Because he crowns us . With it , we get to participate in . The glory of God Isn't ?

And the reason we can't live in God's presence is because he's holy and like a judge who is angry at some wicked man who has murdered a young child , the judge's anger will be in direct proportion to his goodness . If he's good , he'll be angry . If he's very good , he'll be extremely angry . If he's not at all angry , he's not a good judge .

He should be removed from the bench . And the Bible says God is angry at the wicked every day and if we stood in his presence he would kill us justly because of his glory . So when Moses wanted to see God's glory , the interesting thing is that God says I'll hide you in the cleft of a rock and I'll let my goodness pass you by .

He didn't say glory , he said goodness . And it's because the goodness of God would have killed Moses instantly had he been in the presence . And it's just a wonderful picture of us sheltering in the rock of ages Rock of ages cleft for me . Let me hide myself in thee .

So when we stand in the presence of God on that day , we can stand pure of heart because of what Jesus did on the cross . He said blessed are the pure in heart , for they shall see God .

Like if I were to create or fashion or form a God I would never get into , like his glory and you can't see all my glory and my goodness . I mean , it's just like there are those moments again I've shared before where I'm awed by scripture , where I'm reminded of God , and that's another way we can glorify him too .

We've put out the Goosebump Bible , the Goosebump Bible RL Stine . You hit a button and bumps go up when you read a good verse .

So he points out that probably the most accurate depiction of what Moses saw was the shadow of the glory of God , not the glory of God directly the shadow of the glory of God , and that alone radiated his face and I always thought to myself , like if that's what it did to Moses , his face , what did it do to his heart ?

So , EZ , how do we disciple our children to see the glory of God ?

He was the guy that won the New Hebrides tribes to the Lord back in the 1800s and what moved him was his father and his father's pursuit of the Lord , and he talked about how , after their prayer time , he said they would be sitting around their father and after their father got done praying , he said they would see almost the glow on his face because of his

holy pursuit of God , his love for the Lord , and he talked about how he wanted in some way to be like his father and to be the answer to his father's prayer for the unreached tribes that his father was praying for . And then he became the answer to that prayer . He won all these people to the Lord in the New Hebrides tribes . Were they cannibals ?

Yeah , they were cannibalistic .

I was talking about His Word before , about how we can glorify God by being people who seek His face through His Word and then being a people who proclaim His Word and then being a people who obey His Word . All of that glorifies the Lord , because that's His Word and he elevates it above His own name , he says .

And so we need to recognize that when we're a people of the Word , we glorify the Lord .

I was touching on evangelism , too , before you guys were beating each other up , and I was talking about how we don't often think about evangelism as glorifying God because we're so caught up in our fear , we're so caught up in our inadequacy , we're so caught up in our nervousness that we don't stop to recognize that when we proclaim the gospel , we're saying that

again , god is true . We're saying , look at what he did . And so I think when we fall more in love with the Lord , when we recognize how much glory is important to the Lord , and then we understand that we have the ability to glorify the Lord . That's going to begin to move us toward doing the things that we're not necessarily comfortable with .

I'm going to go share the gospel . Do you want to ? No , how do you feel ? I'm terrified ? Would you rather do anything else ? Absolutely . Why are you going to do it ? Because I want to glorify God , amen . Why are you going to repent right now ? Do you feel like repenting and turning from your sin ? No , I love this sin . Why ?

Because I want to glorify God . It becomes all-consuming and then it begins to touch on everything . Why are you determined to be a good husband and a good wife and a faithful , obedient child ? Because I want to glorify God . You've got tears in your eye .

I do , I know , because when you fall in love with him , when you understand that you're going to be with him forever , when you recognize that you and your puniness and you and your fallenness and your brokenness and in your inadequacy , can still glorify God in your weakness

, it opens your eyes up and you start living in a way where , like , why am I doing that ? And you start why am I praying for people without anybody knowing ? I'm praying for them and I've been doing it for years , and these people are actually nasty to me and treat me in a hateful way . Why do I do it ? Thanks , oh no the secret's out .

I've shared it a number of times before , but I know we have new listeners all the time , or those that need to be reminded where I unveiled for them our family vision statement to gladly and passionately glorify god in every thought , affection , word , word and deed , while constantly enjoying him as our greatest pleasure and most precious treasure .

That's it , and part of that comes from the Westminster Confession chief and a man to glorify God and enjoy him forever . But I wanted to get detailed on that right . In every thought , affection , word and deed , and everything I think and everything feel , and everything that I do and everything that I say , I want my God to be glorified .

You want to talk about purpose . People are I don't know what my purpose in life is . I mean , talk about like a Pandora's box in a good way . Live for the glory of God , man , you're going to have purpose beyond limit .

But I think when we're really drinking the cup of the glory of God , like Psalm 51 , he goes from recognizing his sin , from repenting of his sin , and then he says restore to me the joy of your salvation . He talks about joy . Restore me , fill me up .

Because then reflecting or I should say acting out the glory of God and family and proclaiming the gospel becomes an overflow of joy . And we are created to overflow with joy . I've said it before it's like every single one of us are designed to do this .

When you watch a new movie , when you read a great book , when you visit a new restaurant , the first thing you want to do is invite other people to share in that goodness . It's natural in you . Did you see that game ? Did you watch that movie ? Have you listened to that new album that just came out ? It's so good . You gotta listen .

We are by nature evangelists to the things that bring us joy . And what more to bring us joy than the glory of God and then evangelize that ?

When I think of glorifying God , let's say in my preaching ministry that my sermon is going to be just blazing and everyone's going to be in awe of what I just said and I'm going to feel good and that's probably glorifying myself .

You know , maybe God wants to be glorified through me , fumbling and stumbling and not making all the sense that I had hoped to make , but he wants people to see me up there and as they see me , they see a sincerity and they see a delivery that is somehow pointing them toward truth while not giving any focus to me .

And then they walk away away and I walk away feeling horrible . And then God is now doing something in me as he's sanctifying me . To look to him and not myself , right , mark ? A thousand things at one time that we can't see . Yeah .

Right , am I going to submit to my husband ? And what happens ? I go over to Idaho . I think that God's going to start a work . I start a church and there's like two families that are a part of this . I'm here for two years and what I think God's going to do a work through me to the other people is , in reality , a work that God is doing to me .

So after those two years of me being there , I go back to my wife and I say it's time to move back to Southern California . But now I move back to Southern California . God always intended me to go to Idaho because he wanted to do work to me not necessarily through me .

And now I come back to Southern California and I'm usable and pliable for the work that God wants to do there , but all the while my wife submits in the midst of all of that , saying you have now prepared , inside of my husband , a work , and you made him a person who I really want to look up to and emulate .

And we like Idaho , we do like all you Idahoans , we love Idaho , yeah and Mark .

That made it look like a waste of time , though , because of the amount of time he was using to impact millions , millions of people through what he did , through Moses' life and even what we have as far as his accounts in the Word .

To maneuver and manipulate different cars to be in different places in order for you to be at that time and space , to do that work inside of you , which is also done inside of other people .