Finding Joy in God's Glory: A Christian Perspective

let me do a little review for you from where we've been so far and see if I can help clarify some things for last night and then we'll go to a new a new section the focus uh in the previous session was God's passion for his glory and our theme is God's glory and our gladness are they really won can they really be one do they have to be in competition does God's Pursuit Of His glory and my pursuit of my happiness have to be at odds which is what I grew up feeling missionaries would come to the church I remember and they would say okay all you you young people stop doing your will and do God's will and I always always feel like isn't there a third alternative like maybe my will could correspond to God's will so that I would do his will and it would be my will and therefore I wouldn't be condemned to endless frustration in following Jesus that's the way I felt and I just want to liberate you from feeling like that's the choice you got to make pursue God's glory or pursue your happiness if those of the two you're damned you're just condemned to a life of endless frustration and at least if you try to be a Christian you are you do not have to choose that's the whole theme God's glory my gladness can they really be one [00:00:13]

until you feel and think that God is the Supreme value in the universe that God is the Supreme Beauty in the universe that God is the ground and support of everything in the universe that God is the goal of everything in the universe that God is the central reality in the universe until you feel that you will distort all reality even the gospel into a man centered falsehood even the cross I hear Christians turn the cross into a man centered echo of their own Excellence oh how valuable I must have been that he died for me instead of realizing that the cross is an indictment of my sin and a celebration of undeserved Grace it's not about my excellence it's about my becoming one who can see glory and Delight in it because he bought me [00:19:36]

I start in the hardest place because until I can get your head to do a capern revolution to get yourself out of the center of the solar system and get the glor of God as the son of the solar system of your life you're going to distort everything you see and I know that not many young people in the world have this Liberty to put God at the center I want you to be different and so I begin at that hard place so how did I do it let me just give you about a five minute summary of last night I start by saying God has a passion for his glory and I find that that's the antidote to the disease of man centeredness better than anything else [00:33:07]

God is radically eager to make everything about God why do people by the millions go to see the Lord of the Rings my wife and I made a threeyear anniversary date in December out of going to see every one of these why what is it about those huge Boulders squashing all those whatever they were called I can't remember what is it about the magnificence of this Army and riding this White Horse right into it just at the right time and everything like a see dividing before tell me his name gandal that's right what what draws us to that this is not evil that we are drawn to things like that written on our hearts is you're not made for mirrors you're made for God it's Christ it's all about images of Jesus of course we don't know what Jesus looked like and we have to invent stories and Parables and great cinematographical whatever that word is phenomena so that we would just taste a little bit of what it will be like when verse 24 of John 17 comes true [00:49:36]

you do not have to choose that's the whole theme God's glory my gladness can they really be one and I started with God's passion for his glory and the big question is why in the world did you start there that's a hard thing to get your head around why did you do it that way here's the reason until you feel and think that God is the Supreme value in the universe that God is the Supreme Beauty in the universe that God is the ground and support of everything in the universe that God is the goal of everything in the universe that God is the central reality in the universe until you feel that you will distort all reality even the gospel into a man centered falsehood even the cross I hear Christians turn the cross into a man centered echo of their own Excellence oh how valuable I must have been that he died for me instead of realizing that the cross is an indictment of my sin and a celebration of undeserved Grace it's not about my excellence it's about my becoming one who can see glory and Delight in it because he bought me [00:19:36]

I let my Wonder and my enjoyment in the theater become a means of honoring Jesus who makes the Lord of the Rings look absolutely ridiculous when you see him for who he really is creating and according to Hebrews 1:3 upholding the universe by the word of his power every day Jesus says Earth be Universe stay in existence today there will come a day we will change this roll it up like a garment and everything you ever were're moved by in the theater will become a Time tiny pointer to the reality therefore you were made for Jesus and the satisfaction of your soul will be found in him which is where we're going now this morning so we shift gears from God's god- centeredness to our passion for God [00:54:32]

God is most glorified in you when you are most satisfied in him and therefore there's no final conflict between his Pursuit Of Glory and your pursuit of satisfaction because when you're satisfied in him he's glorified by that very satisfaction that's the best news in all the world to me because now I don't have to choose between my satisfaction and His glory if my being satisfied in his infinite Beauty Glory Gandalf like arrival at the right time and my satisfaction then I'm the happiest person in the world now I need a text to support that I don't want you to just believe this because well that's a interesting thought that God is most glorified in me when I'm most satisfied in him I wonder if that's in the Bible anywhere so let me try to show you one text where I think it's pretty clear when you think about it this is Paul he's in prison he says in verse 20 of Philippians 1 as it is my eager expectation and hope that I will not be at all ashamed but that with full courage now as always Christ will be honored or magnified whatever your version there says that's what we're after we want to magnify Christ in my body whether by life or by death so now he said oh my longing is that Christ would be made much of magnified glorified honored in my body whether I'm living or whether I'm dying and then he explains how that can be in verse 21 for to me to live is Christ and to die is gain [01:35:32]

how can I make Christ look really good there isn't that what Paul is saying I want Christ to be honored magnified glorified in my body he got his head chopped off in 66 ad by Nero it may have been in this imprisonment when it happens he knew it was coming and he wanted when the when the sword fell he wanted something to be going on there that made Jesus look great right how verse 21 gives the answer so just leave the life pair aside for a moment and look at the death pair so I'm going to read it just picking up the death pair verse 20 I want Christ to be honored in my body by death for to die is gain now think put on your thinking cap I want Christ to be honored by my death and it will happen because death to me is gain how's that work it works by bringing a premise into the argument from verse 23 I am hardpressed between the two my desire is to depart and be with with Christ for that is far better so Paul is saying all right I might live and if I live I want Christ to be Central in my life and I might die and if I die I want Jesus to look really good in the way I die that will happen by counting death gain and death will be gain because to die is to be with Christ Which is far better what will make make Jesus look good in your death is for you to be saying patting your mom on the arm and saying it's okay it's okay I'm going to be with Jesus and that's gain you lose everything on Earth all your friends Mom and Dad dreams about being married dreams about having kids dreams about accomplishing something in a profession or sports or whatever all the dreams are gone and you count it gain who gets the glory at that moment Jesus is he that valuable to you God is let's just paraphrase it now Christ is most glorified in your dying when you are most satisfied with him in your dying more satisfied than having more Health more satisfied than Staying Alive more satisfied than going on to school or getting married or having kids I am more satisfied in Christ so that when I die and lose all these things I say to my mom and my dad gain I tell you when I watch people die at Bethlehem and I have watched some people die I Marvel at how well our people die I Marvel and I give Jesus Glory I say Christ what a faith you have wrought what a rock solid confidence you have wrought what a beauty you have displayed of yourself so that they're willing to let goods and Kindred go this Mortal life also the body they may kill God's truth God's glory God's Beauty abide is still his kingdom is forever I'm going home so I think that verse teaches what I'm arguing for namely God is most glorified in you Christ is most honored in you in your body when you are most satisfied in him both in living by making him Christ Central and In Dying by saying it's gain you can't count him gain unless you're saving I'm satisfied with him I'm satisfied with him and he gets great Glory [01:49:40]

Christian Hedonism is a life devoted to pleasure not in stuff things people success but in God which means when it happens you are the freest of all people because you can let things go that other people are living for because you have now got your satisfaction in him so I call it Christian Hedonism and the radical controversial Central statement of Christian Hedonism is from this day on you your vocation in life should be to be happy in God maximally happy and eternally happy in God that's your life mission goal Duty [02:16:40]

I think you can take pleasure in God and be just with the negative connotation that Hedonism takes and to say you're a Christian henness it's almost kind of a misnomer but I think that you can be a Christian henness in that light that if you take pleasure in God God's going to bless you every time and that's true if you do seek if you do have the right motivation and you do have the right uh attitude that God will reward you and bless you and honestly when you do take pleasure in that all the day long I guess you can be called a Christian EA this that's I haven't really thought of that the title of the book I gave you last night tonight was the dangerous duty of delight [02:38:40]