Glory

There are moments when you don’t get it quite right ‘til it’s too late. I’m the kind of guy that prefers to get it right –right on time! “Better late than never,” is not a catch phrase that I especially enjoy. I prefer to get it way before it is necessary to be gotten.

But sometimes that just doesn’t happen. And God is glorified in those late arrivals.

Today is one of those times. Today, I awoke to an overcast morning, and an overcast attitude. Somehow, as I was drifting off to sleep last night I had a sudden epiphany of how I could have done a far superior job of trying to illustrate the church’s need to be a demonstration of God’s glory. And it was staring me right in the face the whole time. But I missed it! I missed the moment to preach that helpful teaching illustration by about 12 hours. The good news is that I can still blog about it!

If you need background, listen to the sermon on Galatians 1:18-24. Then come back to this post. God’s glory is what is paramount to Him. Glory may be understood to be praise, joy, and respect given to a person or object because of the way the person or object has, in an exemplary manner, distinguished itself from the ordinary. Something that is exemplary, or is worthy of praise, is glorious. To glorify something is to give praise or acknowledgment to that object because of an internal recognition of its distinguished goodness.

God deserves to be glorified. He demands to be glorified in the church! (Ephesians 3:21) Now, one way of illustrating this concept is by picturing a crusty old combat Marine or soldier who walks around with a chest full of medals. His medals show exceptional valor and courage on the battle field. I don’t know of anyone who has seen a soldier with a stack of medals on his chest who doesn’t -on some level- feel a deep respect and appreciation for that person.  The Medals are not in themselves exceptionally glorious. Really, they are nothing more than a piece of ribbon with some hunk of metal attached to them.  The glory of the medals is the man who wears them. He was the one who actually fought and accomplished heroic feats of valor –not the medals!  The man is distinguished and is clearly marked out from ordinary soldiers by the simple fact that he has a stack of medals on his chest. But the soldier didn’t obtain those medals at a local gift shop. He fought for them. He earned them.

I spent much of my time during the sermon bouncing around off this idea of looking into a dark well verses staring at the bright shining sun. I tried to illustrate God’s Glory this way, but the problem with the analogy/illustration is that it doesn’t quite do justice to the truth that we as a church have a responsibility to glorify God. I knew walking into the sermon that I had a less-than-adequate illustration. But my mind had failed me in terms of coming up with a decent illustration for the occasion. I do spend quite a bit of time praying and asking God to show me how to illustrate and explain Biblical truth, but sometimes those perfect illustrations don’t come. Sometimes I just don’t get it. And God is glorified in my failures.

Here’s my new illustration: the medal on the soldier’s chest marks the soldier out as being distinguished and glorified. It has nothing to do with the medal, literally, but the medal merely serves as an indicator of the valor and courage of the soldier. A better way of illustrating God’s glory and incorporating the crowning achievement of His glory, i.e. the cross, into the sermon would be to compare each of us to a medal that God wears on His chest. Let God be the conquering hero who valiantly saves us from our sins, and then let each of us become an adornment to Him as a marker that signals who He is! Each of us should shine brightly as medals upon God’s chest as a means of reflecting His glory, indicating past achievement, but also helping to signal future glory by shining brilliantly for him in the moment. Quite literally, the church in this day should serve as a medal that adorns God’s chest and speaks of His glory. We are a part of his glory in that we each tell a story about how God fought to save us from our sins. Ah, with a little work -it could have been a perfect illustration.

But to take it a step further: Not only do we now, as Christians, exist as medals adorning God’s chest and indicate His conquering triumph on the field of battle, but our ability to shine as a medal is determined by Him. Ah… now it get’s interesting. We should think of ourselves as markers or medals that reflect His glory, but we should remember that our ability to do the work of reflection is helped, assisted, and empowered by Him.

Yesterday, I illustrated with an analogy to a deep dark well and bright shining sunlight. It wasn’t a total flop, but it wasn’t crystal clear either. But why do I spend my Monday afternoon blogging about this? Because I wanted to take a moment to offer some more reflections on God’s glory, particularly with His ability to help us shine more brilliantly. I’m a preacher, so I’m going to look at it from a preacher’s perspective. With preaching, preachers still need to rely on the power of the Holy Spirit to explain a text, to illustrate that text, and to apply that text to their local congregation. Too much of preaching is devoid of reliance upon God. The preacher has used his personality and personal charisma to shape the message in such a way that God is removed from the equation. If the preacher preaches a good sermon, we all say- “SEE! He’s such a great preacher!” If the sermon flops, we all say- “Well… you can’t preach a grand slam home run every time.” But this puts all of the glory of a sermon on the preacher, and leaves God with no credit. As I reflect on the need for the preacher to rely on the Holy Spirit to help illuminate and clarify a text, I wonder if congregations realize their need to rely upon the Holy Spirit to illuminate and guide their hearing, and most importantly to illuminate a text to them despite the preacher’s poor or outstanding preaching of that text.

Both audience and speaker need to realize that the words and ideas that are being transmitted back and forth are entirely to the glory of God, empowered and enabled by Him. He relishes the truth about Himself being communicated to people that He loves and died for. He shines light into the heart of the preacher, and He carries the words of the preacher into the heart of the congregation. He enables and facilitates the enlightening of souls on Sunday morning. He helps the preacher who relies on Him to prepare the sermon… and it is His prerogative at times to wait until the Monday after to clarify some things. Why does He do this?

As far as I can tell… one simple reason: to continue to remind us that it’s all about Him. We communicate well only in His power, and we listen and hear well –only in His power. So we should constantly think of ourselves in our every day pursuit of life as medals upon God’s chest that exist to glorify Him, and we should ask Him every spare moment that we get that He would take a little time to polish us up a bit so that we can shine more brightly for Him, i.e. create those moments to shine, and give us the words to say that will reflect His glory. And we should thank Him for His goodness to us, even in those moments when He decides not to give us a good sermon illustration until it’s too late, knowing that He wants to constantly challenge us and remind us to rely upon Him for our ability to shine.

Thanks God, for the reminder. Thanks for not letting me forget You. Your faithfulness to me despite my many shortcomings is awesome. I appreciate it. God, I pray that You always be glorified in Bridge Church. In Jesus Christ’ name, Amen.