The Glory Of God
by Kevin Allen
July 2, 2023 · Centerpointe Apostolic Church (Murfreesboro, TN)
Kind: sermon
Scripture: 1 Corinthians 10:31, Psalms 19:1, Psalms 29:1-2, Exodus 24, Exodus 20:19, Luke 2:9, Genesis 11, Genesis 11:4, Romans 3:23, Exodus 40:34-35, 1 Samuel 4, 1 Samuel 4:20-21, John 1:1-5, John 1:14, Acts 2, Acts 2:1-3, Exodus 33, Exodus 33:18-23, 2 Corinthians 3:17-18

Source: https://acts238.life/repository/sermons/kevin-allen--the-glory-of-god
Published by Acts 2:38 Life from the sermon transcript on that page.
Free to copy and share with attribution.

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First Corinthians chapter 10, verse number 31. Ice into the word, it says: "Therefore whether you eat or drink or whatever you do, all to the glory of God." Say, to the glory of God. All we do — Paul writing there, writing to the church, saying, for the eat or drink, whatever you do, do it all to the glory of God.

And for just a few minutes, because I feel an urgency in my spirit that God still desires to do something at the end of this service, want us to pray that he'll have his way in this place. Will he help me right now? Will you just help me, Jesus? God, you've been here such a special way already. So thankful, God, that your presence is in this room. Lord, I pray that you would anoint our minds and our hearts to receive your word, which is already anointed, that we can apply it in our lives, God, that we can make the change needed to draw ever, ever closer to you. In Jesus' name we pray, and amen. God bless you. You may be seated. Appreciate seeing everyone out here today.

Moving into the word — when I read this passage of scripture, and I've read it many times in my life, this is one of those verses that when I read it, it's easy to just skim through it and skip over it, especially if you're in the process of reading a chapter or you're trying to read the Bible in a year. And sometimes verses like this, and their true meaning and impact, have a way of getting lost and trying to just accomplish the task of reading. But I feel the way this verse is written and what is lying there, at least to me and my spirit, begs me to ask the question: how does one seriously go about eating to the glory of God? Now, some of you may say, "Well, Pastor Kevin, every time I eat, I eat the glory of God." Well, I mean, maybe. But let's be serious for a moment. Paul's telling us here that whether you eat or drink — and how do you drink to the glory of God? Is this just the religious cliche? Is this just some false humility? Is this an expression? Because when I read through the scriptures, it's hard to not pick up what the writers are trying to tell us, especially when it comes to the truth about God, and that he is glorious. He is a glorious God.

They, they're, these proclamations are all throughout scripture, like Psalms 19 and 1. It says, "To the heavens declare the glory of God, and the firmaments show his handiwork." I feel like in our day and age that we live in, that this can be something that's easily misunderstood. The psalmist is not exactly just saying creation proves the existence of God. In the ancient days, in the biblical days, everybody assumed there was a god. Their interpretation of that was quite different. Many even had a view of many gods that were there, and it was interesting, the stories and how they would embellish such things. But I feel like the psalmist is saying here, the heavens, creation, tell us something about God, something that is unbelievably wonderful about him, that he is glorious. The glory of creation — it's beauty, it's wonder, it's, it's mystery, it's majesty, it's power, it's aliveness — it's all reflecting a God who is himself glorious. Now, glory is the particular — it is the excellence of a thing that makes it praiseworthy. The glory of a flower is its beauty. The glory of a strong man is his strength. The glory of a waterfall, or of a sunset, or an ocean, or a mountain — these things are there, we can see it.

Chassis and I, just a few weeks ago, were, were up in the Canadian Rockies, and there were many times over that seven day trip that I stopped and I stood and the awe and the wonder of God's creation. And in those moments I felt so close to him as I was trying to process the beauty of nature itself that was screaming out, there is a Creator and he is glorious. Our God is a glorious God. I feel like the psalmist is saying, if you like creation, you're going to love the Creator. If you see these things, the beauty that's around us, you're going to love the one who created those things. The heavens are telling the glory, the majesty, the wonder, the splendor, and the awesomeness of God. And when we recognize this, when we really stop and think and meditate on these things and learn how to celebrate it, in doing so we are giving God glory. You and I, we are made for this. We are created for this purpose, for you and I to reflect back God's goodness, his majesty, and his glory.

Psalms 29:1 says, "Give unto the Lord, oh ye mighty ones, give unto the Lord glory and strength. Give unto the Lord the glory do his name. Worship the Lord in the beauty of holiness." Every person is like something. We all have a name, we all have a personality, we all have our own character. God's character, his, his, his person is glorious. And when we, when we recognize that, we have to get give him the glory that is due his name. That's one of the reasons why we spend time worshiping before we get to his written word, before he gets to the preached word, because there's something about worship that causes me to forget myself. There's something about worship, when I truly engage in it, that it's not about me, it's not about my problems, it's not about my frustrations, it's not about my circumstances. But when I get lost in worship, my mind all of a sudden is drawn to just how wonderful and how great and how awesome and how mighty my God is. When I begin to dwell on those things, all of a sudden I'm, I find myself surrounded by his presence, and the cares of this life for just a moment seem to, to drop off to the side. I'm not thinking about those things because my mind is captivated with a mighty, glorious, wonderful God that knows my name. He knows where I'm at, he knows my problems, and for a while I see him as though I'm being hugged by the Creator.

There's something about when I recognize and give God the glory that's due his name. Now, I feel like this brings us up to a really important point. The people sometimes wonder, why does God need this? It seems like he's kind of needy, doesn't it? Let's just think about it from a human standpoint for just a minute. Why does he need all of this praise? Does God have an ego problem? Does he have a self-worth issue? Why is it that, that God is, is he kind of weak in this area? And see, to think of that
 is to think only from a human perspective. You see, when we experience something wonderful and glorious, we want to share that experience. We can't keep it to ourself. Let's think about it for just a minute. When something good happens to you in your life, more often than not — I dare say the overwhelming majority of the time — you don't keep that to yourself. You're going to tell somebody, especially in the connected world we're in fact, for most of you, you can't even enjoy a taco without telling somebody about it. Not that tacos can't be glorious in their own right, but some of you, everything you do, you have to share with somebody else. That's part of how you and our design is part of how we are made up. I know in my own life, when something good happens to me, the very first thing I want to do is I want to share that with my wife. I want to send her a text and say, "Hey, guess what just happened?" I want to, I want to express the experience that I just have had with someone that I love.

See, when you and I begin to engage and understand just how glorious and wonderful God is, we can't keep that to ourself, because we're not meant to keep that to ourself. There's something about it, engaging in the fact that I have a wonderful, amazing Savior who, who has done a finished work for me. And when I reflect back on just how good he has been in my life, I have to share that news with someone. He is a glorious God. When you, when you do that, you begin to express the feelings of happiness and joy that are inside of you.

Now, if you see something glorious and you begin to share it, sometimes we have been known to embellish these things. Anybody ever notice that? Everybody ever notice that sometimes by the time the story passes their day or two, the fish got bigger, the thing happened, you know, and, and preacher talk we call that being a little evangelastic, kind of, you know, just maybe a little embellishment so that everybody can experience the story better. It's kind of like the, you know, when, when you have this news, you want to, you want to share it, you want to be engaged in it. You know, what do you do when you experience something glorious? Let me, let me ask you, to all the single guys in the room, all you single fellas — what happens when you, when you, when you see some, some, some beautiful single young lady? What, what, who do you want to tell that to? Maybe that's why we have so many single men. Maybe this is relationship one-on-one. Let me, let me give you a little hint: if you see, and you're a single man, you see a single, single lady and she is beautiful, why don't you tell her that she is beautiful? And if she receives that, then maybe it can move into something glorious. Let's — generation, I'm struggling how this works. You're looking — come on, I got to have church growth one way or another.

Very interesting thing: in the Old Testament, really important word for glory, it's the word kabad. Say Chabad with me. And if you said it right, there's probably a little bit of spittle that came out of your mouth and it's on your neighbor's neck right now. Kabad — we're all, we're all here. See, the word Chabad is something that belonged to God. Kabbad originally carried the idea of the weight or substance. It was — it was a very burdensome. It was the idea that the, the, the, the, the glory of God gives weight, it gives meaning, it gives heft and significance to life and to her creation and, and to the world we live in. It, it matters. It all matters, because life matters. Your life matters. Your life has weight and glory. And this is an amazing thing to wrap your head around. In the Bible, when we talk about glory, especially the glory of God, this Chabad is particularly associated with the very presence of God. The heavens declare it, but when God's presence is manifest, when it's felt, when it's known, that is glory, ladies and gentlemen.

Israel, when they were freed from, from their Egyptian captivity and they go off into the wilderness and they make it there to Mount Sinai, and, and they were there, God's glorious presence was there with them, and it was an overwhelming thing for them to experience. And it was there that God begins to give them instructions on how it was that he wanted their life to be lived, that he had proven that he could be a deliverer, that he could take them out of their circumstance, that he could deliver them from their captivity, that he could take care of their enslavement that they were in. As he gets them out there, he says, "I've proven to you that I'm a God who can keep my word, and I want you to be my people. I want you to belong just to me. And in order for this to take place, I'm going to give you some commandments." And, and over the course of people, they had had an understanding that there was a God, but there had never been a God who desired to have this kind of a relationship with people. And it was something new to them, and they were trying to get their mind around what it was that God wanted to do.

So God is, is present there in Exodus 24 on the mountain, and to the Israelites the glory of the Lord looked like a consuming fire that was there. And it was a little bit intimidating to them because his presence was so, so mighty and so, so overwhelming and so awesome. And they were into, into something that was honestly was too deep for them to even try to put words together, and they were a little bit afraid. In fact, we find them there in Exodus talking to Moses, saying, "Look, we don't want to talk to God, we won't, we want to talk to you. You go talk to God, because what we are seeing here is an overwhelming experience." Because God's presence and glory was so mighty and powerful, it was a, it was a consuming fire. It felt very dangerous to them, but it was something that was necessary in their life. People are drawn to the presence of God. Sometimes they don't have an idea what they're drawn to, but they're, they're drawn to the presence of God. They're drawn to the, to the, to the Chabad that is there. And God is beautiful, and he is, he's splendid, and it's, and it's, and it's like something that's so powerful they can't get away from. And we see in Exodus 2019, they said to Moses, "You speak with us and we'll hear, but let not God speak with
 us, lest we die." They're, they're trying their best to get their mind around this relationship that God's desiring for them, and their, in their position, and what it is they're supposed to do. How do they process it all? And, and this isn't the only place we, we see this — and not just in the Old Testament, but even in the New Testament. We see this in Luke chapter two. You remember the shepherds in the Christmas story, verse number nine: "And behold, the angel of the Lord stood before them in the glory of the Lord shone around about them, and they were" — what? Yeah. Because there's something about that glory, when we're there — they were, they were drawn to it, but at the same time we're trying to process it. What's going on? Am I, am I able to, to comprehend? Am I able to experience all that God's trying to do for me?

You see, here's the, here's, here's a reality. This is a truth. This is what the word of God shows us: is that we have been cut off from the glory, the, the mistake that was made by Adam and Eve in the garden, when, when they did were disobedient to God's command, it caused us to be cut off from this glory. And ever since mankind has been cut off from the glory, we have craved it. We're starved for it. And the problem with this is, oftentimes we try to find fulfillment in the wrong places. We try to find the glory of God in other things. We try to find it in accomplishments. We try to find it in, in materialistic things. We try to find it in relationships. We try to find it in all these other places, because we know something's missing. There's an element in my life that's not right. There's a void inside of me, and that place belongs only to God. And only when we allow the glory of God to come in us can we fully feel satisfied with what's been missing in our life. And it's a very dangerous thing when I look for the glory in the wrong place, when I try to feel the spot of my life that belongs only to God with other things. They're made fun — temporary moments of joy and pleasure, but it doesn't sustain, it doesn't last, it doesn't fulfill in the, the way that God only can fulfill you in your life.

That's why we struggle oftentimes with desires to obtain credit for things we haven't accomplished, because we're looking to feel the glory spot that's in our life. We're trying to desire things that don't belong rightly for us. That was, that was the story of the Tower of Babel. The comment that the people made was, we're going to use our intellect, we're going to use our ability, we're going to use our technology. In Genesis chapter 11, pay attention to the words: "And they said, come, let us build ourselves a city and a tower whose top is in the heavens. Let us make a name for ourselves." See, this is after the flood. This is after God had rained down some punishment. This is after the disobedience was being taken care of, that man decided, we, we're smart enough on our own. We have enough intellect, we have enough ability, we have enough technology. Let us build a place, in case it ever floods again, will be high enough in the air that we can make a name for ourselves. And that's still the fight going on in our world today, is man tries to find glory that belongs only to God for himself, tries to make a name for himself, when it's God alone who deserves all the praise and all the worship and all the glory. It belongs to him. And when we get the relationship out of order, our life is messed up. Now, man, are we living in a messed up world, this human condition. We're making a name for ourselves, and we're in the glory accumulating business.

Oftentimes we look silly. We find ourselves looking like the, the non-commissioned officer who was recently appointed to his new position. There was a knock on the door. In order to make himself look better, he grabbed his phone up and said, "Come in." And as the young private walked in the room, he said, "Yes, sir, General, I'll be sure to take care of that as soon as I can. You can count on me. Don't you worry about it." He hung the phone up and looked at the young man, said, "Probably, how can I help you?" There was a private stand on the door, the confused look on his face said, "I'm here to connect your phone." So you got to be careful about trying to make yourself look better then you really are. Oftentimes we end up looking silly. Why would we try to take credit for something that we didn't do?

Part of what it means to give glory to God is to die to self-glorification. We hunger for glory, and that's why we will work longer and harder than we should. That's why we try to look better than we really look, when we try to sound smarter than we, when we, when we're not really that smart, because we hunger for glory. Now, that hunger for glory is a good thing, and it's part of why you were made. But sin has twisted it and has ruined it and has made it something that's toxic in our world continues to pour on, encouraging you to stay in the toxic side of things. That's why, for me, Romans 3:23 is such a powerful verse, because it says, "For all have sinned and come short of the glory of God." All have sinned and come short of what? The glory of God. It's just true. We're a little glory mongers. We, we can never have enough, but we can't get glory, because glory is a byproduct of knowing the glorious God. I'm going to say that again: glory is the byproduct of knowing a glorious God. It's kind of like the moon doesn't provide its own glow; it simply reflects the light of the sun upon it. We are glory reflectors. We are not glory manufacturers. I'm going to say that again: we are to be glory reflectors, not glory manufacturers. And when we get things out of ore is when we're trying to manufacture glory, and we were never suited to do that. We are simply to reflect the glory of our King, the glory of our Savior, the glory of our God. That's what we're supposed to do, is live in such a way as this glory reflects off of me. As I say quite often around here, people should look at you in the world and say, "What a good God there must be," because God has created you. That glory is not for you, but it's simply saying you are reflecting the love, you are reflecting the attributes
 you are, for reflecting the personalities of our amazing, majestic God. Somebody ask you: what are you reflecting in your life? If I didn't know you at all, but I simply observed you in your daily activities, what are you reflecting out to the world around you? Are you reflecting our glorious God? Are you reflecting our, or our amazing, majestic King? Or are you reflecting self? What are you reflecting? It's important for you to answer this question: what is it that people see when they see you?

Moses in his day knew God like nobody else. We're told in the Bible that the Lord will speak to him as one spoke to a friend. The glory was so strong when Moses face that he literally became radiant with the presence of God, so much so that the people couldn't even look at him because he was reflecting so much of the presence of God in his life. Let me ask you again: what are you reflecting? What are you projecting with the life you live?

Moses got to experience the glory of God, and God wanted the Israelites to see this also, to have some kind of sense and understanding of the expression. So he has them construct a little tabernacle, a really humble little dwelling place where God's presence was going to be. We see this in Exodus 40 though, verse number 34: "Then the cloud covered the tabernacle of meeting, and the glory of the Lord filled the tabernacle. And Moses was not able to enter the tabernacle of meeting because the cloud rested above it, and the glory of the Lord filled the tabernacle." Moses couldn't even go into it because God's glory was so bright, it was so strong. His presence was there. The glory came down to earth in the field of tabernacle, and it was so intense Moses couldn't come in. But this was showing something. This was showing us that the, the presence of God could be portable. It could go somewhere. It wasn't just stuck in heaven. It was able to come to earth, and in the middle of the ordinary, fallen humanity, something transcendently good happened. Some place gets lit up with the presence of God. The Shekinah glory of God is there.

And I want you to know, that's what we've been experiencing in this sanctuary for the past hour, is the Chicano presence of the Almighty. That as we begin to worship him, he's not a God who has to stay in heaven, but he is drawn to the worship of you and I. And when we begin to get lost in his, in the atmosphere of praise, all of a sudden his presence fills this place. And I want you to know, the thing that Moses got to experience is the very thing that we were experiencing just a few minutes ago in this service. We don't have to go to a priest, but as the song said, the veil was torn, and I have the ability to go into the presence of God any time I want to, to under, understand how wonderful and good and glorious this opportunity is — we have an amazing God, we have a glorious God, and his desires that you and I reflect his presence everywhere we go.

There's one of the saddest stories in the Bible. It's in First Samuel 4. Israel, their greatest fear was losing this glory. They were in the middle of a, of a heated fight, in the, in the middle of, of, of battling with the Philistines, and things were not going well. And they were, they were, well, they were drifting in their relationship with God. And as they go out into the battle, and in the first fight they ended up getting, getting beat up on, things don't go well, and they kind of, they kind of took tail and run. They come back to their camps and they decide themselves, you know what it is? We didn't have the presence of God with us. Now, you would, you would think that we would have been aware with that before they went into the first fight, but let's give them a little break, because I'll speak for myself: there's been some times when I wasn't keenly aware that the presence of God wasn't with me. And I don't know about anybody else, but anybody may be willing to admit that there's been a time or two when, when you were a little fleshy. Yeah. A little carnal. Yeah. Look at all y'all being good. You know the altar is going to happen in a minute. I better see a bunch of y'all down here repenting, because you're being carnal right now. Yeah, there's been moments in our life when I have not been as close to God as I should have been. Anybody else identify with that?

So we see them in this moment. They're not as close to God as they should have been, and they, they get into a, a fight and things don't go well, because when you leave God out of the equation, you automatically going to lose. So then they come back and they decide, well, we'll, we, we can, we can handle this situation. Let's go take the Ark of the Covenant. For those of you don't know, it was a, it was a box that was instructed by God for them to build, where his presence will dwell above these angel cherubs that was on top of it. And they knew that that was something that was very unique and special to them. So they decided to get the Ark of the Covenant and take it into battle. And when they bring the Ark of the Covenant in, the scripture says that all of a sudden the Israelite camp lights up, all, they're excited. There was this noise abroad that even the Philistines are like, "Oh, what's going on here?" They said, "Well, the presence of their God has shown up." And the Philistines are afraid because the presence of God's over there. But because they didn't ever took the time to inquire of God about whether or not they should fight, there was the box that went, but guess what didn't go with them? The presence of God. They just took the box. The box was representative of it, but it was not the presence. Can I say that again? The box was representative of it, but it was not the presence. Okay, there's a lot of things that you can have in your life that can be representative of God, but they're not necessarily God. And there's a whole lot of people carrying around religious boxes, but there's no presence of God there. That's another message for another day.

They show up, and then all of a sudden they get defeated again. Not only they get defeated, but the box gets taken. The ark is taken from them. And then in the middle of this big fight, we, we catch something on in First Samuel chapter four. There's been a defeat, everything's going
 on in verse number 20. It says: "About the time of her death, the woman who stood by her said, do not fear, you've borne a son." Now, what you see here is that the prophet Eli finds out that the ark's been taken and his sons have died in the battle. And he — the Bible is on a house to say it, the Bible is extremely blunt in a lot of ways, and it says this: that he's big and he's fat and he's old, and he falls back in his chair, and he's so big and fat he breaks his neck. I don't know how to sugarcoat that, man. I don't know how to say that any nicer. That's what the word of God says.

And then his daughter-in-law, who, who is in active labor, here's the news of what's going on. Her husband's dead, the ark's gone, her father-in-law is dead, the prophet's gone. And she — and here we — this is where we pick up in the story, because she, she bears a son, which is, if — for those of you who studied scripture, in biblical times you know the having a son, having an air, was a big deal, something that should have been celebrated and excited. But listen to her words: "Do not fear, you have borne a son, but she did not answer, nor did she regard it." Verse 21: "Then she named the son Ichabod, saying, the glory has departed from Israel, because the ark of God has been captured, and because her father-in-law and her husband." And she said, "The glory has the part from Israel, and the ark has been captured." Her final words is to name her son Ichabod.

Now, I said kabad while ago, right? You know, we pick up on the Chabad. Chabad is what — what do I tell you? Cabana is the glory of God. But Ichabod — to put the eye in front of it, it's, it's like the equivalent in the English language is to put an A in front of something, so something can be moral or something can be amoral. Do you know the difference between the two, right? By putting the A in it, it counteracts the good and makes it something that is bad. It's the same case here. If you take kabad and put the eye in front of it, you go from the glory of God to Ichabod, as the glory has departed. It's like in this moment she's having this revelation, and she's seeing things here, and she's trying to get her head around it, and, and she's saying that Abraham was a, was just simply a dreamer, and then that the covenant is a fairy tale, because, because God's not with us anymore. His glory has departed. It was, it was just a dream. The death is final, and life is cruel, and better my son learn the truth. And before he goes out and has any kind of hopes or aspirations of anything better, I want you to go ahead and tell him, his name is Ichabod. It's not the glory, it's that the glory has depotted — departed.

But it isn't where it was stopped, because God plan is always going to happen. Something better was coming. There had been a plan from the very beginning, from the very break of the relationship, from the very moment that we were cut off from the glory. God already had a redemption plan in place. Even though Adam and Eve did not follow through and they were not obedient, and because of that sin entered the world and we were cut off from the glory of God, God already was putting a plan in place for us to have a restoration back, a redemption plan coming back.

One John 1, verse 1 — and this is, this is a very familiar passage, just apostolics: "In the beginning was the word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. And he was in the beginning with God. All things were made through him, and without him nothing was made that was made. In him was life, and the life was the light of men. And the light shine in the darkness, and the darkness comprehended at night." In verse 14: "And the word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we beheld his glory." There was a plan. There has always been a plan. God has always had a plan. And it wasn't a plan B, all right? The enemy didn't thwart him. The enemy didn't throw him off. The serpent in the garden was not taken away from what God's plan, their had always been a plan. There was always a plan for a lamb to be slain from the foundation. There, there was always a plan that was there, and that God had in place, because God's glory is going to be manifest. God's glory is going to be reflected. The question is, are you and I going to be the ones that reflect his glory back? Because his glory is going to be manifest.

You know, in, in that tabernacle days, when he met with Moses and gave him the instructions, and he put off the plan, and he was, he was piecing everything together with, with amazing detail, intricate stuff about how things will be placed together, he started with the ark, okay? He didn't start with, with the fence. He didn't start with the gate. But go back and study it: God always works from the end back to the beginning. Somebody should be excited about what I just said. I'm gonna go over here, because these, these guys are dead. God always starts at the end and works his way back to the beginning. He started from where his glory was going to be. He started from where his presence was going to be. And it was from the holiest of holies he worked his way outward to the court, to where, where, to where you and I were going to start our process, because he's always at the end coming back to the beginning.

And it was in that tabernacle, with all the details and all the stuff he was laying out about how things were going to be, and to show his sign that he approved to what was going on, when the sacrifice was placed on the altar, the fire fell from where? From heaven. Fell down that tabernacle. Why? Because he consumed the sacrifice, and he was shown by the — that this is where my glory is going to rain. The fire came down. It came down in that one instance, and he's saying, "This is where my presence will be, and this is where I'm going to dwell, and this is where I'm going to meet you." He sold them by fire falling from heaven.

And then we have the ups and downs of their relationship. We have them in their moments where they're close to God, and there are moments where they drift away, and there are moments where God redeems him and brings them back.

And the moments where they fall away to the idolatry, the moments where their king is doing good and then the prophet leads them this — and all we have is this up and down story, until we finally get to Solomon. And King David has done all he can, and King David wants to build a temple, but God said, "You've shed too much blood. You cannot build that for me, but it's your heir that I'll allow to build temple." And Solomon, he builds the temple to God through the specific details that were there. He gets the instruction, and after sacrificing a thousand Realms — I don't know about you, but you're pretty repentant after you've sacrificed that much — he cries out to heaven with a beautiful prayer. And all of a sudden, what happens again? From heaven, the fire falls, because the fire is saying, "This is where my presence is going to be. This is where I approve. This is where I'm going to meet with you. This is where I'm going to be. This is where I'm going to tabernacle with you." And the fire fell from heaven.

And then we see in Acts chapter 2: "And when the day of Pentecost is fully come, they were all in play in one place, in one accord. And suddenly there came a sound as the variety mighty Russian wind, and they're appeared unto them cloven tongues as of fire." What was going on? It was in that moment the redemption plan was coming to its end. It was showing you, it had been my plan all along. It wasn't about the tabernacle in the wilderness. That tabernacle was pointing to, there's something better coming one day. I'm not going to make you go to a place, but I'm going to take up residence inside of you. And the fire fell down, and he said, "It's on you. I'm gonna put my glory, it's on you. I'm going to put my presence." Oh, I wish I had some apostolics be a little bit more excited about the revelation and what goes on when you receive the gift of the Holy Ghost. It's the glory of God inside of you.

C.S. Lewis — I like this quote. He says: "We do not merely see beauty. We want something else, which we can hardly be put into words: to be united with the beauty we see, to pass into it, to receive it into ourselves, to bathe into it, become a part of it. At present we're on the outside of the world, on the wrong side of the door. All of sin and come short of the glory of God. We discern the freshness and purity of the morning. The heavens declare the glory of God, but they do not make us fresh and pure. We cannot mingle with the splendors we see. But all the leaves the New Testament are rustling with a rumor that it shall not always be. Someday, God willing, we shall get in." Well, I got news for C.S. Lewis: we did get in. We did get in. We did get in. He's coming back to take us to our final place, but we got in. We got in in Acts 2. We got in when the New Testament church started. We got in when he filled us with his Spirit. That's what everything was about. That's what all the stuff was pointing to. And it was, it was, it was ushering us forward, saying, "Hey, my glory is going to be manifest. I have a plan for you."

I want to tell you something about something here. Anybody here like to be praised? Thank you for your seven honest people. Anybody in here like receiving a compliment? Okay, okay, we do. It wasn't a trick question. I'm not going to make you sign up for Amway or something. When kids are little — women raising our daughters, and when they were the young, and they're, they're making these first milestones in their life, you know, there's, there's a lot of change that happens in our body in that first 18 months. Lots of things going on. And then we as parents, we, we try to reinforce the good things by giving them praise. So we do something good, we're just like, "Oh, yay, yay, look, yeah, you did it. Come on, that's so good. Do it again." I don't act like you ain't done it. I mean, I'll call every one of your grandparents out. Yeah, that's what we do. We, we reinforce it, because what happens — even if we see this, I'm trying to make this point — is that even in the, in our smallest form, when the praise comes, the kid's like — sometimes they don't even know what they did, right? You're like, "Yeah, you did," and they're like, "What did I do?" And then we try to do it, because we are hardwired for this. That's why sometimes it's such a difficult thing, because we struggle with how we're hardwired, because sin has perverted it. It is twisted into something that was never intended to be. Because when we try to consume it on ourself, we try to become the people who, who crave the glory ourself, then, then we, we mutate what the glory is meant to do. Because it's powerful when we learn how to reflect things right away. When God created every day, he — that you and I would walk around and, and that we would reflect his glory back to the world around us. And the idea of this is not the, the, the, that is this, there's some kind of clinical, detached evolution, but that God would say, when he looks down at us, that "I delight in you." To live for the day that he says, "Well done, thou good and faithful servant."

So we, we — when we seek this thing in the wrong place, when we desire for — then, then what we do is we, we hamstring ourself from, from what God's trying to do. Because in, in, in reflecting his glory, we, we are more powerful than we could ever imagine. We have the ability to do more things than we can ever imagine. The best way I know to, to put this, maybe, is an example. He says — what came to me in prayer this week, as I was working on this message, was, was to go back to, uh, something I used earlier, and that is, when you, when you think about the moon itself — the moon itself, without the sun shining on it, is just, just a big rock swinging around the earth. But when it allows its light to shine, not only is it labeled to illuminate, but, but the moon is powerful. The moon has the ability to change the tides. And see, if you and I are truly reflecting the glory the way we're supposed to be doing, we have the ability to change the tides in our life. We can change the currents in our life, that things don't have to go the way that are
 leading to. Soft course. But if I'll continue to reflect the, the glory that my King is shining on me, and don't consume it for myself, and don't just keep it inside, but I'll become a channel, I become a conduit that he can use, that his love can funnel through — and yes, some of it spills out in my life, some of the blessings stay over my life, but if I'm constantly being a steward, if I'm constantly pushing it back out, I have the ability to change the tides around me.

Not only that, but I'll tell you, from being married to, to a NICU nurse for 17 years, she'll tell you right now, you don't want to work on a full moon shift, because a full moon can cause some things to be born. It can birth some things in you. And I'm telling you, when we are fully reflecting everything we should be doing, stuff gets born around us. It's all the question of what it is I'm reflecting. If I'm reflecting the King, then kingdom things get born into my life. I'm reflecting the kingdom, kingdom things are happening in my life. But if I'm reflecting self, if I'm reflecting this world, the wrong things are being born into my life, the wrong things are happening around me. That's why I'm trying to encourage somebody today with the question: what are you reflecting? Are you reflecting the glory of God? Are you reflecting the glory of self? Are we reflecting the glory of the King? Are you reflecting the glory of this world around you? Because it makes a difference through what God can do in your life.

As I bring this to a close today: Moses glowed with the presence of God, but it was temporary. It wasn't a forever thing. He glowed with the presence of God because he had been in the presence of — he had been close to him. And because he had been close to him, when he left the presence of God, the presence of God did not immediately leave him. I'm speaking to somebody in this, these final five minutes I have you: there's something about being in the presence of God and allowing his glory to reflect off of me, that change is not just me, but it changes everything around me. Something about continually being there.

One day he's talking with God about Israel. He's talking about the sinful people. He's having — he's, he's a leader, and he's having a cry session, okay? I can never follow that. It's one of the moments where he's like, "You know, Lord, these people you gave me, you know, it'd be easier to just take them out now." This is the guy who likes to stand there and say, "Now, God, if you wipe him out, what are they going to say about you?" I mean, every man's got their breaking point. We see him later, Moses, like, "He's people, I didn't birth them." I love that. "I didn't, I didn't birth them. You gave them to me." You know, I'm using Kevin's version of the Bible. He's like, "God, they're crazy. I can't handle it." Well, it's one of these moments, he's having a conversation with God here, and I want you to punch your pay down — pay attention. Exodus 33. He says — he says this, verse number 18: "Please, show me your glory." I don't know about you, but it's in this moment, I'm like, "Moses, you've been there. Like, you were radiating his glory. Like, what kind of question is this, that you're saying, show me your glory?" But let's pay attention, okay?

"Then he said" — this is God — "I will make all my goodness pass before you, and I will proclaim the name of the Lord before you. I will be gracious to whom I will be gracious, and I will have compassion on whom I will have compassion. But he said, you cannot see my face, for no man shall see me and live. And the Lord said, here is a place by me, you shall stand on the rock. So it shall be, while my glory passes by, that I will put you in the cleft of the rock, and I will cover you with my hand, and I will pass by. Remember you." But my, my imagination goes wild in these moments. I'm trying to process how this takes place.

Now, most theologians believe this — and you've even heard me teach this before at this church — that this is, this is the part where, where Moses is able to write Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers. He's able to write the beginnings, because he says, "You can't — you can't see my future, right? No man can see my face and live. You can't, you can't see my face, because it's not there yet." Stay with me. "You can't see my face. You know, Paul talked about the glory of God revealed in the face of Jesus Christ. You can't, you can't see my face, because it's not there yet. Nobody can see it and live." That's his words. "But I'm gonna put you here. I'm gonna put my hand over you, and I'll walk by, and you can see my higher parts." Now, that wasn't God's showing him his backside, all right? When you, when you're everywhere at all times, how do you show a backside? I messed some of y'all up by saying that, right? That's like when, when, when Stevens look it up and see Jesus stand on the right hand of God. Like, where's God's right side? Furthermore, where's his left side? Because he's everywhere, all right? Obviously this is a, this is a type. It's a meaning. It's something else there. God's saying, "I will put you over here, and I'm gonna reveal to you what I have done. You can't see the future yet, because it has not yet fully become. It has not fully begotten yet." Okay, everybody okay? All right. Can't do this.

So it's in that, he's asking — what was the question? "Show me the glory." "You can't. I'm gonna put you over here. You can't see, because it's not happened yet." But then later, on the Mount Transfiguration, as they're there — see, this is how much God loved Moses. Now, I know, here's the deal: some of you are like, "Man, Moses got — man, he, he got, he got the short stick," because here's the deal: he did all this stuff, he put up with all that lip, all them people wandering all those times out in that desert. I mean, this is, this, the 40 years of sand alone. We go to the beach for a week and we have sand that never goes away. I can't imagine 40 years of that abrasion. And then he gets up there, and out of a moment of frustration — anybody ever been frustrated before? — at a moment of frustration — anybody ever been frustrated, and you hadn't been fully obedient to what God asked you to do? I got both hands up. I got both hands, and
 one foot. I put the other one up, I fall. Yeah. And he strikes the rock instead of speaking to it. What happens? "You're not going." I'm about you. Every time I read that — every time I read that, I'm like, "Man, that ain't fair." Am I the only one that reads that, says, "That ain't fair? That ain't fair"? I'm like, he was telling me he was mad. I've been mad. I've struck stuff before. Like, how — God, have a little — like, where's the mercy here? But God loved Moses so much, he said, "I know no man can see my face and live." But he preserved Moses so much so that when, when the devil is trying to get to Moses' body, he turns his archangel and he says, "You tell the devil, the Lord rebuke you, because I got a plan for him. He's not done yet." And on Mount Transfiguration, guess who's standing there with who? Who's on the mountain? Moses. Moses, Elijah, right? Because it's in that moment he says, "That what I couldn't show you then — for two reasons — but I couldn't show you then, because he wasn't begotten yet. And number two, I told you, you can't see it and live. I'll show you now." And the heavens open up and said, "This is my beloved Son, and whom I am well pleased."

God is a God who keeps his word. God is a God who loves to show his glory. He will keep it. I'm telling you, our point, in our plan of this, our purpose, is that always reflecting back as glory. Paul says this in Second Corinthians chapter three — I don't go along, but I hope you're okay with this. Nothing else you got, unless you walk out on me. "The Lord is a Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty. But we all — look at this — we all say, we all, with unveiled face, behold as in the mirror the glory of the Lord, are being transformed in the same image, from glory to glory, just as by the Spirit of the Lord." You see, see what, what's going on: as we live life — and you get ready, go ahead and start tickling those things — so what goes on is, as we go through life, and as he takes us from one place to the next, as we continue to allow his glory to shine and reflect off of me, I can move from glory to glory. There's going to be some — there's going to be some tough stuff, because here's the deal: there's weight that comes with each level of glory. And the only way I can move to the next level of glory is, he has to get a little bit of this flesh off of me. He's got to get a little less of me, so he can put a little more of him. And that, that comes through trials and tribulations. It comes through me surrendering my will and me being obedient to what he's wanting me to do. And it doesn't come easy. And oftentimes I'm only fighting myself. But if I will continue to look and see that I'm to be reflected in his glory — even when things aren't going the way I want them to go, I got to reflect his glory. Even when I'm not happy with my circumstances, I got to reflect his glory. When he can trust me with more, I go from glory to glory to glory. As, as I can have more, as there is less of me, I get more of him. As there is less of me, there's more of him.

So I'm encouraging somebody today: if you can learn how to tell yourself no, if you can learn how to reflect back the glory that's being manifest all around you, it will not only change you, but it will change the world around you. It will change your family. It will change your co-workers. It will change your job. It will change the circumstances. So if things are not going the way you want them to go, let me encourage you today to reflect the glory of God like never before in your life.

Will you stand with me? Oh, holy God, we are in this most special of moments today in the service. Your presence is so near and so strong, and I have delivered your word to this, your church. I pray, God, that we could learn to do a little evaluating, a little inventory of our life, that we would ask ourselves the question: what am I reflecting every day I live? And Lord, I pray that we would, in our honesty, decide whether or not we are truly reflecting your glory. And God, if there are some areas in our life where I'm not living up to the word I should be doing — if, if I'm not reflecting the King and the kingdom — God, that you would let a little conviction grab me, and she would help illuminate those areas in my life I need to change. Help me, God, draw in closer to you.

Church, it's prayer time. These altars are open. If you don't know him as Lord and Savior of your life, if you need salvation today, I encourage you to come. If you are thinking about your life and you realize there's some areas that are not, not where they need to be in reflecting his, his glory, then I'd ask you to come. I would ask you to come before a God who is full of mercy, a God who's full of grace, and allow him to make the changes inside of you that are necessary. Our mission in life always has been, and always will be, to reflect the glory of the God we serve. So it's prayer time. They're going to sing. I invite you to come. Let's find a place to seek God today.