This message actually comes from a topical series that we did about eight years ago. So it's a refresher message. About eight years ago we did this. And the name of the series, because there was more than one message in that series, was, the name of that series was, How God Receives Glory in the Church. How He Receives Glory. The glory of God, glory for His name's sake, is a blessing to us because the idea of glory is that He be seen and known for all the good that He is. His excellence, His worth, His qualities of character, His wisdom, His strength, His compassion, His reliability, His purposefulness, His love, that it be believed and hoped in. That's how God receives glory. He is glorious. He is objectively glorious. But the way in which He receives glory is that people see it, believe it, hope in it that way, and rejoice in it. What we're examining today is how His glory gets seen among us in church life, and how it gets seen to others, because of His redeeming work manifest in us. So that's what we're exploring. How His glory gets seen among us and to others, because of his redeeming work manifest. in us. That, by the way, is how the wording of Ephesians 3, 20 and 21 goes. And I should have put that in the bulletin for the title of sermon passages for today. But I also have handed out papers, I hope everybody got one, just so you can see all three passages. Basically we're dealing with three passages today. You can either just look them up in your Bibles, but I tried to print them out so all of them are right there in front of you. But listen to the wording. The wording of Ephesians 3, 20 and 21. And now to him who is 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 through all generations forever and ever. Amen. That passage speaks of how the glory comes. It does. It will have to do with the redemption He's accomplishing in us. The power of His work within us. That's how He's going to receive the glory, and He will receive it in the church. There are two principal ways, I believe, in which God receives glory in the church. First of all, He's glorified in each of us each of us, when we see Him for who He is, 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 relation to all things, His purposes. When you see and believe His righteousness, His mercy, His faithfulness, He's glorified in you when you hope in Him. and love Him. He's glorified in you when you regard Him with fitting wonder and gravity and awe, believing that He's good, prizing Him above all things. So He's glorified in each of us. But secondly, He's glorified in you, His people, when you have a heart for others that they too would see His glory. Right? He's glorified in each of us when we see His glory. He's glorified in you when you have a heart for others that they also would see it, believe it, hope in it, rejoice in it that way. Everything about our dealings across the whole of every facet of who we are represents Him to others. Everything about who we are represents Him to others. It represents what we know of Him, what we think of Him, what we believe about Him. So may it be, may it be that our attitudes, our actions, what we care about most, what we invest ourselves in the most, let it be that they faithfully bear witness to one another. to bear witness to who He is. He in whose image we were created and in whose image we're being redeemed and restored. Let's focus on two things today, drawing that to more focus. Number one, how loving one another in a God-ordained community, the local church, brings him glory. And second, the place that the gospel itself as a message takes in that whole discussion. Again, how God is glorified in immediate community of local church, but also how the gospel is functioning in that. And these other two scriptures on the page that we'll read, I want you to watch for that as we read them. We'll read both back-to-back, Colossians 1-3, 1 John 4-7, and those verses. We'll read those back-to-back, but watch, even before I read, for the prominence of the role of the gospel itself and the prominence of love. in the church, active love in the church. So Colossians 3, one to eight, or part of eight. 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 you have for all the saints because of the hope laid up for you in heaven. Now 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. And now 1 John 4, 7 through 12. 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 only son into the world so that we might live through him. In 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 ought to love one another. No one's ever seen God. If we love one another, God abides in us and his love is perfected in us. I think that last phrase, his love is perfected in us, means that his love comes to its objective. He has purpose in reaching out to us in love, that it bear fruit in us in that way. So again, we've got these two subjects, gospel faith to the glory of God and love in the church as it relates to the glory of God. So let's explore the subject matter of that and of love. And first of all, I want to make a kind of a general observation, a general observation. Love touches everything about what it means to bring God glory. It touches everything of what it means to bring God glory. Everything we are and everything we do as human beings is relational with Him and with others. And we draw that conclusion from the way the scripture speaks about it. Our Lord Jesus' own words, Matthew 22, 40, all the law and the prophets hang on these two commands. Love the Lord your God with all your heart and love your neighbor as yourself. That's a pretty broad way to speak about how love touches everything. It's relational between us and him, us and others that way. With regard to human interaction, the Apostle Paul said in Romans 13, the commandments, you shall not commit adultery, you shall not murder, you shall not steal, you shall not covet, and whatever other command there may be are summed up in this one command, love your neighbor as yourself. And then just one more, Jesus' own words again, John 15, 12. My command is this. love each other as I have loved you. That's a pretty broad way to speak. And my command is like a summary of everything. You want to know my command? For you, love each other as I have loved you. And indeed, love touches the whole scope of everything in our lives. Not even, not only the things that we consider spiritual, so to speak. Vocation was mentioned today in prayer. You know, that kind of thing. But I mean, whether we are digging a ditch, or practicing a clarinet, or piano, or whatever it happens to be. Whether we're working in an assembly line. Whether we are estimating a roofing project. Whether we're changing a diaper or writing code for a computer program or trucking, you know the list could go on, right? I made it pretty long already on purpose that way. Think of this, love is involved in every one of those. Every one of those is relational with others. We don't dig ditches for no reason in random places, you know. We dig them to lay pipe for people so they can have water or gas or runoff so it doesn't ruin the house or whatever it is. We invest ourself in music and in the arts to draw people's attention to the good gift of God in those wonderful things. If we're studying dance or if we're studying whatever, we do that for God's name's sake so that people may know him as good. If you work an assembly line, You're putting together things for people. It's all relational. A reasonably priced roof repair with excellent workmanship serves people in relationship. Diapers don't change themselves, and little ones need you for that. Perhaps computer code may seem impersonal, but you're creating tools. One person needs a shovel, another needs an application. You know, it's relational in that. And when we pray, Lord, give us our daily bread, it will be the Lord that provides it every time. But he often sends truckers to get the food to where you need it. Everything is relational. Everything we do is relational. And God is glorified as we serve in all of those capacities. You know, if we think across the full biblical list of instruction about living obediently, Every one of those will have to do with relationship. What is living obediently? It will be relational. Think of a list, for instance, I'm just borrowing again from Colossians, but this time chapter three, what kinds of actions are fitting for a person chosen of God and dearly loved by God? Well, it would be compassionate hearts. This is 3.12. Compassionate hearts, kindness, humility, meekness and patience, bearing with one another, forgiving one another as the Lord has forgiven you. And in verse 14 of that same chapter, Colossians 3, it speaks of love as binding everything together in perfect harmony. That's the breadth of the concept of how love is the thing. It binds everything together in perfect harmony. So think across the whole scope of our lives, whether the issue is integrity about something, or purity, or fairness, or humility, diligence, industry, generosity, temperance, truthfulness, trustworthiness, courage, you know the list could go on. Every one of those things will have to do with love. And every one of those things, in every one of those things, we will represent God to those lives that we touch. We will represent God in all of those ways. His love reaches its objective when His goodness is not only shown to you, but is shown through you to others. When you think of your call to love others, everybody in the room knows we're called to love. That's plain enough in the scriptures. But when you think of your call, have you thought about it in terms of God's purpose that His love for you be manifest in such a way that others can know Him? When you're called upon to love, that's for the reason that others may perceive His goodness and His love. And so these are the broad general considerations. Let's go to the local church idea. I've been there a little bit, but let's go to that. There is plan and there is purpose, a depth of purpose in God setting the lives of us, his redeemed, in community, a community of faith and love in a local church. Local church is his idea. For the sake of everything I've been talking about, about this whole other thing, that we together would know Him and relate to one another in love. And of course, our love, our call to love is universal. It touches the whole scope of our lives. But I mean, there are folks in Nebraska I hardly ever see. You know, the location in life is not accidental. Connection in life is not accidental. And our lives in fellowship in the local church is where this calling to love has such an important focus for our activity and our attitudes. We're meant, we're collected so that we can work this out together here that way. Think about how Ephesians 4 puts it. Ephesians 4 at verse 15 speaks of growing up, and here's the precise wording, growing up in every way into Him who is the head, into Christ. So that's how Ephesians speaks. Growing up, that's what we are about as a church. Ephesians 4 is all about the church, right? So that we would grow up into Him who is the head, that is Christ. What does that mean to grow up into Him. Colossians 3.10 helps us, as it says, putting off, I'm sorry, putting on the new self, which is being renewed in knowledge after the image of its Creator. This whole redemption thing, to be renewed in knowledge in the image of the Creator, is what this concept of growing up into Him. But again, Ephesians 4, that's happening in the church, and I think the local church. I mean principally, in a focused way. In the Gospel, we're being restored to Christ-likeness, and it is He, our Lord Jesus, who restores us to it. He restores us to it. But Ephesians 4 says one of the ways in which He does that. ways in which he increases our Christ-likeness. It is Christ who makes the body grow, but here's how the passage speaks. We are to grow up in every way into him who is the head, into Christ, from whom the whole body, now listen carefully, 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. He builds it up, but he does so through all the connectedness that we have there. And again, I think we know this just by way of experience. In a local church, our life of community, our functions and actions of love are not just occasional, incidental, brief, shallow things. We got long-term, face-to-face interaction. And we are a body in Christ here. So it's gonna have to do with that. And it's gonna have to do with that, listen to another long list, I'm a list maker today, right? It will have to do with times of joy and times of sorrow together. And when there seems to be bounty and supply and when there's evident need, when the person next to you may come from a very different set of life circumstances but needs your friendship, when someone is new and feels like an outsider, When there's a breakthrough of spiritual understanding or when there's a lingering confusion or struggle on some topic. When there is opportunity to celebrate when hopes are realized or when there appears to be a brick wall against hope, something hoped for. When our young people grapple with getting their feet on the ground in worldview, surrounded in a swirl of conflicting ideas and competing rewards. Love needs to be there. When sickness threatens, when there's time to mourn, even unfathomable loss, when you who may have been strong at many points find yourself floundering, bewildering, lists could go on. All the ways in which we are put together so that we may know, trust, hope in, and have peace in God. And we function that way in love toward one another so that He may be known. How does all of that relate to the gospel itself? The way in which we have been loved by God in the forgiveness and all. It means that we can love at cost. We can love one another at cost. And that's a beautiful way to love one another. Love carries burdens with each other. Love will require energies expended, sometimes more energy than you feel you have available. Love often puts an immediate desire on hold to pour itself out for the sake of another. Love looks first to the well-being of the other, Its eyes are alert to need. Love must press through natural kinds of barriers and get close enough to care, to be trusted. It perseveres through that for the sake of the other. Love inquires, love listens, love forgives. Let me simply close with some words from Paul's letter to the Philippians here. And there he writes, I thank my God, Philippians 1.3. I thank my God in all my remembrance of you, always, in every prayer of mine for all of you, making my prayer with joy because of your partnership in the gospel from the first day until now." In that same chapter, it's, I mean, that partnership, that's the bond, that's the partnership, but it's also the root of his affection for them. The gospel to him is the root of his affection for them. The way he speaks about it in verse 7 of Philippians 1 is this, 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. See how the gospel comes in? That's why he cares for them so much. That's why his heart is warmed and even passionate toward them. And then here's what he prays for them. This is still Philippians 1. Here's what he prays for them. And this is kind of a closing thought for us. Philippians 1.9, it is my prayer for you that your love may abound more and more with knowledge and all discernment so that you may approve what is 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. What's all this goal? What's the goal of the whole thing, the whole subject matter today? The goal is that God would be known for all the good that He is, and that we could help one another know that. Let's pray. Lord, You are good. We have sung about it over and over again today, all kinds of things. about your goodness, that the light of life is found in you, and that we rejoice and we delight in all that you provide for us, that your justice is like mountains, all these things that we've sung about today. I pray for each soul gathered, for my own soul, that we would know you for who you are, that we would take courage in you, Rejoice, worship, hope in you so that your name could be known in our own hearts, but not only our own, for others as well. We pray in Jesus' name. Amen. Thank you.