from a series that I had about eight years ago. And it's how God receives glory in the church. How God receives glory in the church. So there are three passages. I tried to put them in the bulletins. You can have all three in front of you if you need them. So you can kind of compare and underline one, draw an arrow if you like. glory in the church. I want you to think with me a minute. Have you ever tried to put words yourself for understanding what is God's glory? You know, could you put words to that? Microphone in your face here, I've got one. But you know, could you, what is God's glory? receive glory. But is it? And how does he receive it? And both of those are wonderfully important in his relationship with us. God's glory is really, really good news to us. God's glory is good news to us. And do you know that? Do you know that God's glory is really, really good news He is glorious objectively, which would mean that in every possible category of consideration, he is most worthy, most significant. The actual Old Testament word used all the time for glory is a word about how heavy something is, how significant, how important. He is glorious because he is the most weighty in all the universe that way. Consider, though, just his worth, his significance when it comes to his character. His glory as it's manifest in his being good, trustworthy, wise, compassionate, merciful, bountiful, purposeful. He is glorious because he's excellent in all of those categories of consideration that way. and he is majestic. I mean, by his word, all things came to be. That's part of his, the word glory goes with that. But also his glory bears upon relationship with us. I often say it this way, it may seem silly, but God did not create because he was lonely. He created because he is bounty. He created to share. He created for the sake of relationship so that you could know how good he is. And so that's how it goes into relationship. You know, majestic in every respect. And that second idea is how he receives glory. He receives glory when all of his qualities are seen, understood, perceived, tasted, rejoiced in, hoped in. That's how he receives glory. is when what he is is known in relationship and when the bounty is received in that way. So what we're examining today is how his glory gets seen by us, by each of us. How does his glory get seen by each of us? How does it get seen among us? And how does it get seen to others around us? And again, principally, it's because of his redeeming work manifest in us. That's how it gets seen. His redeeming work is manifest in us, and that's how it gets seen. And that's exactly how our first passage on the page, Ephesians 3.20 speaks. Let me read verses 20 and 21. And now to him who's able to do far more abundantly than all we ask or think, according to the power at work within us, to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations forever and ever. All of that majesty of ability and power is at work in us, so that His redemption is manifest in us, so to Him be glory in the Church. Glory in Christ Jesus, not only because He's Creator, but glory because the creation was for relationship, and Christ redeems relationship. Right? So in Christ Jesus, in the gospel itself, he receives glory when that kindness is manifest in our lives. His power at work within us. That's how he receives glory as it goes. And so I think of two principal ways in which God receives glory in the church. He is glorified in each of us. when each of us sees Him for who He is. In other words, He is glorified in you, you personally. He's glorified in you when you taste and believe His worth. He's glorified in you when you begin to see His place in relationship to all things. When you see His righteousness, His mercy, His faithfulness. He's glorified in you when you come to hope in Him. When you hope in Christ, he receives glory, you know, that way. And when you love him, when you regard him with a fitting wonder and gravity and awe, and when you believe that he's good and prize him above all things, he receives glory, receives glory from you as he works in you individually. But secondly, God receives glory in you when you have a heart for others, that they would also see his glory. When your heart is turned so that someone else can receive the benefits you've received from his kindness and forgiveness, he is glorified. Everything, everything about our dealings, everything about who we are, every facet of who we are, represents him to others. Right? It shows what we know of him. It shows what we think of him. It shows what we believe in him. So may it be that our attitudes, our actions, what we care about most, what we invest ourselves in most, bears witness to one another, and to others, bears witness to one another, that he's worth trusting. worth rejoicing in, worth hoping in. So everything about who we are, that he would do that. He in whose image we were created and into whose image we're being restored, you know, so that the whole issue is knowing him. Our lives are so that people may know him, so that we may know him personally, but also so that our hearts be turned to the one next to us and to the one outside of that, that they may know him too. That's what it's about. Let's reflect on a couple of focus things here. How loving one another in the God-ordained community of a local church brings him glory. And then the place of the gospel message itself as has the motivation for that, or the way in which that can manifest itself. So we'll read these other two scriptures back to back. When I do that, would you watch? Watch for the place of love in the mix, and watch for the place of the gospel in the mix, okay? As I read two scriptures back to back, beginning with Colossians 1.3. We always thank God the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ when we pray for you, since we heard of your faith in Christ Jesus and of the love that you have for all of the saints because of the hope laid up for you in heaven. And of this you've heard before in the word of truth, the gospel, which has come to you as indeed in the whole world, it's bearing fruit and increasing as it also does among you since the day you heard it and understood the grace of God in truth. Just as you learned it from Epaphras, our beloved fellow servant, he's a faithful minister of Christ on your behalf and has made known to us your love in the spirit. Did you see the prominence of gospel in there and the prominence of love? The hope laid out for you in all of that. 1 John 4, 7. Beloved, let us love one another, for love is from God, and whoever loves has been born of God and knows God. Anyone who does not love does not know God, because God is love. In this, the love of God was made manifest among us, that God sent his own son into the world, that we might live through him. And this is love, not that we've loved God, but that he loved us and sent his son to be the propitiation for our sins. Beloved, if God so loved us, We also ought to love one another. No one's ever seen God. If we love one another, God abides in us and his love is made perfect in us or perfected in us. What's that last phrase, by the way, his love is perfected in us? There's nothing lacking in his love, nothing deficient in his love. I think what the scripture is getting across there is that his love comes to its objective, his chosen objective. When he saves and that love bears fruit in a life, it comes to its objective. And I think that's what's going on when it says his love is perfected in us as it goes there. So again, let's examine love in the church, in the fellowship of a church as it relates to the glory of God and the gospel as it pertains to all of that. Think with me for a minute. Isn't it true that if you're trying to define what brings glory to God, if you're trying to really put some definition to that, wouldn't it be true that love touches everything that it means to bring glory to God. Everything we are, everything we do as human beings is relational with Him and with others. with him and with others. And that's why I think we have those strong words in the scripture, like Matthew 22.40, all the law and the prophets hang on these two commands. Love your Lord and love your neighbor that way. I also think of the law summary in Romans 13, the commandments, the Do not commit adultery, don't murder, don't steal, you shall not covet. Whatever other command there may be are summed up in this one command. Love your neighbor as yourself. Love touches everything because we are fundamentally relational creatures. God's created us in that way. I think of Jesus' words in John 15, 12. My command is this, love one another as I've loved you. Isn't that a sweeping way to talk? Like this is the main thing. You want to know what my command is? My command. It just touches, you know, the whole picture of it. So it's the main thing. And I think when I think of relationship and of interaction and of representing God, it touches all kinds of aspects of life, not just the ones we would think of as spiritual or devotional with one another and that kind of thing. I think when, whether we're digging a ditch, or practicing your clarinet, or working an assembly line, or estimating a roofing project, or changing a diaper, or writing code for a computer program, or trucking. And you know my list could go on for an hour and a half that way. Every one of those will have to do with another's well-being somehow. You know, every one of those have to do with another's well-being. And so it's expressed in love. Love touches every one of those. We don't dig ditches for no reason in random places. We dig ditches so people can have a pipeline to their house. or whatever the ditch needs to be. My son-in-law, by the way, is an earth mover. He's an earth worker. And just last week, he finished a project that was this road back, but there's access to 10 homes back there, but it's not taken care of by the county. So those homes have to get that road going and everything like that. And it had puddles that were permanent, it seems, almost like ponds. And they were 12 yards long, puddles and puddle and puddle. And the garbage truck comes through and goes through there and packs down the dirt in it. It just seals it up. And it holds the water and all that kind of thing. He got the job. And last week, just put that puppy together. And he made that thing level and just the way it's got to drain properly. And every home is blessed. Earth works, blesses people. But I think it's valuable to think of work in that way, to think of work in that way. God put me on this earth relationally, and my work is relational that way. If you work an assembly line, you're preparing things for people. A reasonably priced roof repair, this was in the sermon before this, okay, just telling you. A reasonably priced roof repair with excellent workmanship is relational. I mentioned diapers, you know, or whatever, but the thing is, Think of the 24-7 kind of relationship that it is when you've got an infant. Just think of that and how valuable that is in God's kingdom. Incredible value. Perhaps computer code seems impersonal. I've got a guy in my church that came right up to me and said, that's impersonal. I thought, you know what? You're still preparing tools. One guy needs a shovel, but another guy needs an app. and you're preparing tools. When we say, Lord, give us this day our daily bread, we don't bow our heads in the morning over our breakfast empty table and just open our eyes wondering what's going to happen there. The Lord chooses a way. The provision will be from the Lord. Lord, give us our daily bread. He often uses truckers. to get you the food that you need. And I just think life is relational from beginning to end. We always represent God in all of those things, and God is glorified. Think of some of the biblical lists, you know, of what kinds of activities are suitable for those chosen by God and redeemed for his purposes. I'll borrow one from Colossians chapter 3. It would be with compassionate hearts and kindness and humility and meekness and patience and bearing with each other and forgiving each other as the Lord has forgiven you. That same passage, a couple of verses later says, love binds everything together in perfect harmony. So we've got to think in terms of relationship all the time. How does God receive glory? Think in terms of relationship. We represent his kindness to us, to the other. And we do so right here in the church. So in all kinds of categories, if you're thinking of integrity, or purity, or fairness, or humility, or diligence, industry, generosity, temperance, truthfulness, trustworthiness, courage, all of that is relational in its outworking. And all of it is meant so that people could know God. you know, all the kindnesses that are shown, the faithfulness that's shown, the honesty, the trustworthiness and all that that is shown. We represent God to every life we touch. His love for us reaches its objective not only when His goodness is shown to you, but when His goodness is shown through you, through you to others that way. I think it's going to be no surprise to anybody in this room that we're called upon to love one another. That's not a new subject matter. But it's rather encouraging for me to think, and I hope for you to think, that in as much as you reach out in love to somebody, God gets glorified. He gets known better for all the kindness that he has done. And then when I think of local church, I mean, it's a very distinct plan of God to put us together in communities just like this. It really is. And it's a deep purpose in God for his glory to put people together in community, that the lives of his redeemed ones would have a community of faith and love. And of course, while we know that our call for love is universal, For every life we interact with, there are folks in Nebraska I hardly ever see. You know, it's just his calling is location-specific in important ways, location-specific. It's no accident that you know one another. It's no accident that you've been together for all these years and all of that. I always think with that one in terms of Ephesians chapter 4, which speaks of growing up, this is the wording from verse 15, growing up in every way into him who is the head of the church. Growing up into him, right? The question is, how does that happen? And Ephesians 4 takes it right up. How does it happen? It happens, I mean, obviously Christ is the one, and Ephesians 4 emphasizes that. Christ is the one that builds himself up into his own image. He does that, but he also, especially in verses 15 and 16, describes something about the how. How's he gonna do that? We are to grow up, verse 15, in every way into him who is the head, into Christ, from whom the whole body, joined and held together by every joint with which it is equipped, when each part is working properly, makes the body grow so that it builds itself up in love. You know, he's going to make it grow. It's him that makes it grow. How does he do it? By supplying connection between us. And when each part is doing its work, the body grows as it builds itself up in love. And I think of your own experience in local church. That's not occasional, incidental, brief, shallow interaction. You interact with each other in a deep, lifelong kind of interaction. My folks say hi, by the way. That's lifelong. I'm just saying. Dad turned 93 just yesterday, and they say hi that way. But think about this. Think about this. Relationship in a local church, you're going to interact in joy and in sorrow. You're going to interact when there seems to be bounty and supply and when there is evident need. You're going to interact when the person next to you comes from a different set of life circumstances or culture and needs your friendship, or when someone is new and feels like an outsider, or when there's a breakthrough in spiritual understanding, or when there's lingering confusion or struggle on some topic, when there's opportunity to celebrate, when hopes are realized, and also when there appears to be a brick wall against hope. When young people grapple with getting their feet on the ground in their worldview, you interact as a body, as a community, when there's a swirl of conflicting ideas, or when sickness threatens, or when there's time to mourn, when there's even unfathomable loss, as you've experienced here. When you who have been strong at many points find yourselves in need, That happens in the local church, the strong sometimes have need and all of that. I'm just making my long list to keep it long and everything. But the thing is the Lord ordained. that community like this be for His glory. He wants His redemption of you each to manifest itself among one another so that the kindness is shown, even the forgiveness shown, those kinds of things. Give Him, let people know Him. That's His glory that way. Let me just close with a verse from Philippians. Just listen to how the gospel comes into this whole thing. I thank my God, he says, chapter one, verse three. I thank my God and all my remembrance of you always in every prayer of mine for all of you. I pray with joy because of your partnership in the gospel from first day until now. Gospel is the bond. Gospel is what makes us connected, as it were. And that is actually the cause for his joy, by the way. He says that in verse seven. It's right for me to feel this way about you because I hold you in my heart for you are all partakers with me of grace. That's why he rejoices inside. We are mutual partakers of grace. And he just rejoices in that. That's why he prays for them as he does in verse nine, Philippians 1.9, it's my prayer. And this, may I just say that this is prayer for you as I stand here. It's my prayer that your love may abound more and more with knowledge and all discernment so that you may approve what's excellent and may be pure and blameless for the day of Christ. filled with the fruit of righteousness that comes through Jesus Christ to the glory and praise of God. Last phrase again, filled with the fruit of righteousness that comes through Jesus Christ to the glory and praise of God. What's the goal? That he be known. He be known for all the good that he is. Let's pray. Let's pray. Lord, it's such good news to think that knowing you more and more deeply is all courage. It's all good news. And we pray that we could be agents of that knowledge being built up among us. Your grace manifest among us in that way. I pray that it would really be courage for this group in Jesus' name, amen.