Finding Joy in God: Glorifying Him Daily
Devotional
Sermon Summary
Bible Study Guide
Sermon Clips
"Christian hedonism teaches that every person, all of us, should seek with all of our might to maximize the intensity and the duration of our enjoyment of God above all things because God is most glorified in us when we are most satisfied in Him. If you are most satisfied in family or job or fame or success or money or food or music or health or staying alive, if you are more satisfied in any of those than you are in God, then you diminish the glory of God and you magnify the glory of what you're most satisfied by." [00:01:04]
"The Bible makes clear that we should live in order to display the supreme worth and beauty and glory of God. That's our primary reason for existence. Now there are two main challenges that Satan uses to diminish the glorification of God in our lives by causing us to value something else more than we value God. One of those is pain and the other is pleasure. Those are Satan's two strategies for ruining the way we glorify God." [00:02:14]
"Pain can cause us to value something else more than God by making us angry at God that we have this pain and making us want to be done with it more than we want to embrace God, which means that pain is a golden opportunity for us to glorify God by showing how much more we value Him than we value comfort or being free from this pain." [00:02:55]
"Pleasure can also cause us to cherish something else more than God not by making us angry at God, but by making us forget God because we're so satisfied in the pleasures that His gifts give us. We can see that in Ezekiel 16:14, where God says to Israel, 'And your renown went forth among the nations because of your beauty, for it was perfect through the splendor that I had bestowed upon you,' declares the Lord." [00:03:23]
"Philippians 4:11-13, Paul says, 'I have learned in whatever situation I am to be content. I know how to be brought low and I know how to abound. In any and every circumstance, I have learned the secret of facing plenty and hunger, abundance and need. I can do all things through Him who strengthens me.' So Paul makes clear that there is a spiritual secret, something deep and wonderful to be learned in the Christian life that enables a person not only to be brought low but to abound." [00:05:02]
"Paul is making it clear that abounding and having plenty and having abundance is as much of a challenge to the glory of God in our lives as is suffering. So Paul had to learn something peculiar and special and deep to help him know how to abound. And that's Trent's very question, and I think Paul's answer of what the secret is for abounding is in chapter 3, verse 7 and 8." [00:05:48]
"The secret is not in discounting or diminishing the goodness of God's gifts, but in knowing Christ so well and loving Him so deeply and finding Him so satisfying that good things can be received from His hand as Christ's exalting gifts, and good things can be torn from our hands as Christ exalting discipline." [00:06:31]
"First Timothy 4:4 and 5, where Paul says, 'Some forbid marriage and require abstinence from foods that God created to be received with thanksgiving. So foods and sex in marriage created to be received with thanksgiving by those who believe and know the truth. For everything created by God is good, nothing is to be rejected if it is received with thanksgiving, for it is made holy by the word of God and prayer.'" [00:08:04]
"I will affirm joyfully from the word of God that the color yellow is a gift of God, the sweet taste is a gift of God, the nourishment and the way my body uses it is a gift of God, the sun and the rain that grew the oranges is the gift of God, the trucking and the grocery chain that brought it to me is the gift of God, and the list could go on and on." [00:09:17]
"I will lift my heart and voice in prayer, thanking God, and I will do this often so that others can know where all this came from and how wise and strong and good God is. Number three, I will remind myself that I do not deserve this juice. I deserve to be in hell today, and so I will give thanks that my sins are forgiven and that this pleasure is in fact bought for me." [00:09:44]
"This particular pleasure, this taste, this coolness on my tongue, this nourishment reveals something of God to my senses and my soul that could not be known any other way. That's why the world was created because all of it is like a prism giving us some new sight of the glory of God." [00:10:34]
"I will share this juice in love with others at the table. I won't hoard it all, and I will use the strength that it gives me to live for the glory of God. We're introduced to the glory of God." [00:11:03]
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"The Bible makes clear that we should live in order to display the supreme worth and beauty and glory of God. That's our primary reason for existence. Now there are two main challenges that Satan uses to diminish the glorification of God in our lives by causing us to value something else more than we value God. One of those is pain and the other is pleasure. Those are Satan's two strategies for ruining the way we glorify God." [00:02:14]
"Pain can cause us to value something else more than God by making us angry at God that we have this pain and making us want to be done with it more than we want to embrace God, which means that pain is a golden opportunity for us to glorify God by showing how much more we value Him than we value comfort or being free from this pain." [00:02:55]
"Pleasure can also cause us to cherish something else more than God not by making us angry at God, but by making us forget God because we're so satisfied in the pleasures that His gifts give us. We can see that in Ezekiel 16:14, where God says to Israel, 'And your renown went forth among the nations because of your beauty, for it was perfect through the splendor that I had bestowed upon you,' declares the Lord." [00:03:23]
"Philippians 4:11-13, Paul says, 'I have learned in whatever situation I am to be content. I know how to be brought low and I know how to abound. In any and every circumstance, I have learned the secret of facing plenty and hunger, abundance and need. I can do all things through Him who strengthens me.' So Paul makes clear that there is a spiritual secret, something deep and wonderful to be learned in the Christian life that enables a person not only to be brought low but to abound." [00:05:02]
"Paul is making it clear that abounding and having plenty and having abundance is as much of a challenge to the glory of God in our lives as is suffering. So Paul had to learn something peculiar and special and deep to help him know how to abound. And that's Trent's very question, and I think Paul's answer of what the secret is for abounding is in chapter 3, verse 7 and 8." [00:05:48]
"The secret is not in discounting or diminishing the goodness of God's gifts, but in knowing Christ so well and loving Him so deeply and finding Him so satisfying that good things can be received from His hand as Christ's exalting gifts, and good things can be torn from our hands as Christ exalting discipline." [00:06:31]
"First Timothy 4:4 and 5, where Paul says, 'Some forbid marriage and require abstinence from foods that God created to be received with thanksgiving. So foods and sex in marriage created to be received with thanksgiving by those who believe and know the truth. For everything created by God is good, nothing is to be rejected if it is received with thanksgiving, for it is made holy by the word of God and prayer.'" [00:08:04]
"I will affirm joyfully from the word of God that the color yellow is a gift of God, the sweet taste is a gift of God, the nourishment and the way my body uses it is a gift of God, the sun and the rain that grew the oranges is the gift of God, the trucking and the grocery chain that brought it to me is the gift of God, and the list could go on and on." [00:09:17]
"I will lift my heart and voice in prayer, thanking God, and I will do this often so that others can know where all this came from and how wise and strong and good God is. Number three, I will remind myself that I do not deserve this juice. I deserve to be in hell today, and so I will give thanks that my sins are forgiven and that this pleasure is in fact bought for me." [00:09:44]
"This particular pleasure, this taste, this coolness on my tongue, this nourishment reveals something of God to my senses and my soul that could not be known any other way. That's why the world was created because all of it is like a prism giving us some new sight of the glory of God." [00:10:34]
"I will share this juice in love with others at the table. I won't hoard it all, and I will use the strength that it gives me to live for the glory of God. We're introduced to the glory of God." [00:11:03]
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