For the Glory of God and the Good of Others

For the Glory of God and the Good of Others

Pastor Allen Snapp  6/21/15

We are working our way through the Apostle Paul's first letter to the Corinthian church, and this morning we're going to wrap up chapter 10. 

1 Cor. 10:31-11:1

These closing verses in chapter 10 is a summation of what life is meant to be for the Christian: Whether you eat or drink, or whatever you do, do all to the glory of God. It is a powerful and inspiring vision of how life is to be lived and what it is to be lived for, but if we were honest, in real time it can also be a hard connection to make. How do I live every moment of life, including the mundane act of eating and drinking, to the glory of God? What does that even mean? What can I do to bring glory to God?

Students of journalism are taught that there are six questions a journalist is supposed to ask to make sure they have the complete story: Who? What? When? Where? Why? How? To help us make the connection between the life story that each of us is writing and the glory of God let's ask three of the six questions this morning.

• What? 
• Why? 
• How? 

What is the glory of God? Why is it right that we live for the glory of God? How do we live for the glory of God?

1.  What is the glory of God?

In the movie Raiders of the Lost Ark, as Indiana Jones and Colonel Musgrove are looking at an artist's rendering of the Ark of the Covenant, the Colonel points to beams shooting out of the ark and asks, "what's that supposed to be coming out of there?" Indiana answers, "Lightning. Fire. Power of God or something." He doesn't really have the words to describe the glory of God emanating from the ark of the covenant. The glory of God isn't an easy thing to define or describe. 

The Greek word for glory is doxa and it means praise, honor, and splendor. It carries the idea of brightness, light and radiance in it. Paul writes that the sun has one degree of glory, the moon has another glory, and the stars have yet another type of glory, and star differs from star in glory. When we look up in the sky, some stars shine brighter and clearer than others. And we know, of course, that there are vast differences in the size, mass, and heat from star to star. 

The glory of God is really all those things. If we were standing before God, His glory would be the tangible greatness, brilliance, honor, and power that emanated from His being. His glory is also seen in His eternal kingdom and perfect rulership, and is woven into all of His creation. His glory would be magnified in the splendor and praise of the angels and the redeemed lifting up His name in praise and honor. God's glory is made even more glorious when we realize that it is eternal - unlike any glory we see on earth, it is a brilliance that never fades or diminishes or lessens. God has always been infinitely glorious, and He will always be infinitely glorious. One day the sun will burn itself out, consuming the last of its last hydrogen fuel, but a million, billion years from now God's glory will shine as brightly as it did a million, billion years ago. Yeah, God's glory is a big concept for us to grapple with. 

But there is another beam of God's glory that is very important for us to know. The Creator and Ruler of the universe is perfectly loving and compassionate towards His creation and that love and compassion is a bright shaft of His glory. God is high and lofty, but He is also near to the brokenhearted and the humble. God has the power and authority to be the ultimate despot and cruelly abuse and control His creation to serve His ends. God could be a Fuehrer that would make Hitler look like Mother Theresa, but instead God is a Father. The ultimate Father, a Father who always wants and acts for what is good and best for His creation. The greatest demonstration of that commitment to our good is the cross. As the hour approached for Jesus to be crucified, his soul became troubled and everything in him wanted to ask God the Father to save him from that dark hour, but he knew the whole purpose of his coming was to be crucified, so he prayed instead, "Father, glorify your name." The cross is the blazing center of God's glory because it demonstrates God's fierce holiness and hatred of sin and at the same time God's fierce love and compassion for lost mankind. Some people today are quick to claim moral superiority to God by saying, "if God were loving, why does He allow such suffering?" Or, "if God were loving, why doesn't everyone go to heaven." That is really cheap talk. It's like the guy sitting on the riverbank eating a sandwich watching as people drown criticizing the guy who is in the river desperately trying to save as many lives as he can because he didn't save everyone. On Judgment Day, the only person who will be able to accuse God of being unloving is the one who has paid a higher price and given a greater sacrifice on behalf of others and out of love for others- which will be no one. There will be no accusations of God being unloving on Judgment Day. One of the brilliant beams of God's glory is His love and the cross is the brightest shaft of that glorious beam. 

So Paul's second admonition, to live for the good of others rather than our own advantage, in order that they may be saved, is an expression of living for the glory of God, and an imitation of Jesus' own example. When we lead others to the Savior who died for their souls, we lead them to the highest good and that highest good is the cross. Whenever a man, woman, or child comes to know the love of God in Christ, and believes in Jesus' work on the cross it brings God the highest glory. Our greatest good and God's greatest glory intersect at the cross. 

2.  Why is it right for us to live for God's glory?

I know that the concept of the glory of God can seem pretty disconnected and distant from everyday life as we know it and it's natural for us to wonder how we can live for the glory of God. But (if we're really honest) we can also wonder why. Why is it right for us to live our lives, from the biggest decisions to the smallest moments for the glory of God? Why should we? Why would we want to?

The answer goes right to the core of our identity as human beings. The Bible tells us that we were created by God for His glory. We were created to know God, to walk with Him in intimate relationship, and to reflect His glory the way the moon reflects the sun's glory. So the answer to why should we live for God's glory is, it's what we were made to do and there is nothing else big enough to live for. As reflectors of God's glory, we were created not only to be amazed at God's glory, but to share in God's glory - to walk in nobility, dignity, love, compassion, and courage…the glory of God reflected in man.

The truth is we are all going to live for something. When we try to live for things like making a lot of money, advancing our career, accumulating a lot of things, or living the American dream with a house, white picket fence, and two and a half kids - whatever - it's never really enough - it's not meant to be. Those things aren't wrong…they're just not big enough to be what we live for.

When sin entered the world, it didn't really add anything new to God's creation, it just distorted and marred what God had created perfect. So as God's image-bearers who are now fallen, there is a great temptation to live for our own glory, rather than God's. To turn the mirror on ourselves so that instead of reflecting His glory, we reflect (and seek to amplify) our own glory. But all glory, when disconnected from God, is what the Bible calls "vainglory" or empty glory. Glory empty of any real glory. Glory-less glory.

I hear this in the honest thoughts of Tom Brady when he was interviewed years ago by 60 Minutes and in an honest moment he said, "why do I have three Super Bowl rings and still think there's something greater out there for me? I mean, maybe a lot of people would say, 'hey man, this is what it is. I reached my goal, my dream, my life is ...me, I think, God, there's gotta be more than this!" It's not that what Brady accomplished was wrong or unimpressive, but he knew deep inside it wasn't enough, wasn't big enough to satisfy, to make him say, "it's enough, I've arrived."

That's because there is more than this! Even if we make it our goal to make a good and noble difference on a global scale, it won't be big enough. Jesus said, what does it profit a man to gain the whole world and lose his soul? That tells us that our souls are incredibly precious, but it also tells us that the whole world isn't big enough to fill our souls. If we spend our lives on charitable work and feeding the poor and helping the downtrodden, but never help people come to know the eternal glory of God, the eternal brilliance of His kingdom, and the blazing glory of the Savior dying on the cross to save their souls eternally (each soul more precious than the entire world), then we have withheld what they need most, and fall far short of what God created us to be and do. We were created to reflect God's glory and nothing else is big enough for us to give our lives to. 

3.  How do we live for the glory of God?

Paul gives us some practical handles in these few verses. First of all, he encourages us to do everything we do to the glory of God: So, whether you eat or drink (two pretty mundane actions), or whatever you do, do all to the glory of God. 

In context he is navigating the complex issue of eating food that has been sacrificed to idols, but the principle reaches beyond just that issue. Whatever you do, do it to the glory of God. Ordinary life can bring glory to God. When we live our lives in a spirit of thankfulness to God for everything - and anything we can't do with thanksfullness to God we don't do - we not only glorify God through our thankfulness, we also glorify God by including Him in every aspect of life.  

Little dominoes

In his book, Unfinished, World Vision President Richard Stearns makes an analogy that I think can be helpful to us this morning. He was watching the TV show America's Got Talent and a guy who called himself the Kinetic King came on, and this guy would set up the most amazing chain-reaction structures with collapsing towers and stick bombs and ping pong balls flying all based on the old falling-domino paradigm. And as Kearns watched the Kinetic King operate, he said an important spiritual truth came to him (and yeah, I guess that means it is possible to learn spiritual truths from America's Got Talent). He writes: a sweeping and profound series of events can begin with the falling of a single domino.

This can work both ways: a lot of hurt and damage and sorrow can begin with the falling of a single domino, and a lot of redemption, healing, love, and joy can begin with the falling of a single domino.

Last week a mentally sick young man sat for an hour in a prayer meeting at a black church, warmly welcomed by the pastor and church members, and then stood up and shot 9 of the church-goers, including the pastor to death. His hatred and racism caused him to push a really big domino creating heartache, death, and indescribable loss to so many. That domino could have - and most of the time would have - resulted in more dominos of hatred, suspicion, and violence being pushed over wreaking even more heartache and loss and death.

But the families of these church-goers - God bless them! - determined that they would not respond with hatred and violence and racism. They responded with forgiveness and offered prayers for God to show mercy to this young man. One mother who lost her son said this at the bond hearing to the young man who murdered her son:

We welcomed you Wednesday night in our Bible study with open arms. You have killed some of the most beautiful people that I have known. Every fiber in my body hurts and I'll never be the same. Twanza Sanders was my son, Twanza was my hero, but as we said in the Bible study, we enjoyed you, but may God have mercy on you."

Another family member said, I too thank [God] on behalf of my family for not allowing hate to win. For me I'm a work in progress and I acknowledge that I am very angry but one thing…[ her sister Depayne] taught me [is] that we are the family that love built. We have no room for hate so we have to forgive and I pray God on your soul.

And yet another, with raw emotion in her voice said, I will never talk to her ever again. I will never be able to hold her again but I forgive you. 

Responding to this, talk show host of The Five, Greg Gutfield said, "I will never be that good. We witnessed unmitigated, pure evil, and that to me is the best example of what is good that I've ever seen in my life. I'm not religious but I see this and I can't begin to understand like, does religion make great people, or do great people go to religion? I don't know, all I know is what I saw. I can't even understand, I can't even comprehend that. It's so beyond me and so amazing I'm gob-smacked."

These beautiful, grace-filled people even in the face of their own loss and pain and anger, pushed the domino in the other direction - towards forgiveness and mercy for the one who had taken so much from themand a community stands as a stark contrast to the racial tension and rioting and division we've seen so much of lately, and instead comes together in prayer and peace and unity, and God is glorified. Jesus is glorified.

Now admittedly, they were faced with bigger dominoes than most of us will ever face, but their ability as a community of faith to react in such a redemptive, Christ-honoring way didn't just happen overnight. It's pretty clear that they've been pushing smaller dominoes of faith and love and forgiveness in their congregation for a while which gave them the strength and grace to face such a tragic event in such a God-glorifying way.

How do we glorify God in everything we do? Make every domino we start in life - push it in the direction of God's glory and the good of others. Paul says Give no offense to Jews or Greeks or to the church of God, just as I try to please everyone in everything I do, not seeking my own advantage, but that of many, that they may be saved. (vs. 33)

Paul is no people-pleaser - Gal. 1:10 makes that clear - but what he's saying is he does everything he can to not make it harder for people to come to Christ because of his example. He does everything he can to make it easier for people to come to Christ, not harder.  He doesn't live to take advantage of people for his own selfish ends, he lives to promote their good, which is that they may be saved. Bringing them to the blazing center of God's glory, which is the cross.

• When a co-worker takes advantage of you: ask, which direction do I want to push the domino? React angrily and seek retribution? Or does God have a redemptive and gracious way for me to respond?

• When someone speaks an angry word, Prov. 15:1 says that a soft (kind and gracious) answer turns away wrath. It starts the dominoes in a different direction.

• Jesus said we are to love our enemies and pray for them - seriously pushing the domino in the other direction to the glory of God. 

• Dads, God has countless ways for you to model godliness, love, consideration, love for your wife and love for your God to your children every day. When you sin against your child (like, maybe get angry), push the domino in the direction of grace by asking his or her forgiveness. It really is the everyday, little things that count. 

• Small actions on behalf of the helpless and hurting. There are ways to help people that really don't help them, but with effort and initiative, there are ways to help people that really do help them.

• I was talking to someone about their parent's church - 5 days a week they open their church building as a home for one homeless family at a time. If that's all they did, I'd  probably question how helpful that was, but that's not all they do. Many of the homeless mom's don't know anything but fast food and heating up prepared food. So the older women come in and teach the moms how to cook, which helps these moms to feel a sense of ability to care for their families. Others in the church help them in different ways to be prepared for job interviews and job skills - all to help them get back on their feet again. In all the years they've done it, they've never had a problem with vandalism or had this taken advantage of.

The spiritual truth is this: sweeping and profound series of events can be set in motion by the falling of a single (small) domino. God has those small dominoes all around us. God's word to us today is "go and push them to the glory of God and for the good of others."