Sermon Central
-
Applied Glory Series
Contributed by Donny Granberry on Nov 15, 2008 (message contributor)
Summary: This message is from my "Applied" series. Things of God are of no avail to the believer until they are applied. The Key to discovering God’s Glory.
Applied Glory
By: Pastor Donny Granberry
I am preaching about applying spiritual things to our lives right now on Sunday Mornings.
We have studied, “The Applied Blood,” “Applied Pentecost,” and today I would like to focus of the “Applied Glory” of the Lord.
Apply – means to put to use, especially for some practical purpose, to bring into action, or to lay or spread on. Apply.
Therefore for us to apply the glory of the Lord to our spiritual life, we must bring it into action.
If I were to have an individual here right now who was totally inactive, no action whatsoever, that person would be dead.
Then what is done with the dead, they are buried, and here will be some type of monument standing over them.
The Monument is also without action, it stands as a reflection of what used to be.
Far too many church’s today are dead, they are monuments standing for what used to be.
The glory of the Lord is not fulfilled in monuments, but in living, breathing, working vessels of the Lord.
Church, we are thankful for what was, we enjoy what is now, but we must hunger for what is to come.
O God, you are my God; I earnestly search for you. My soul thirsts for you; my whole body longs for you in this parched and weary land where there is no water. 2 I have seen you in your sanctuary and gazed upon your power and glory. 3 Your unfailing love is better to me than life itself; how I praise you! 4 I will honor you as long as I live, lifting up my hands to you in prayer. 5 You satisfy me more than the richest of foods. I will praise you with songs of joy. 6 I lie awake thinking of you, meditating on you through the night. 7 I think how much you have helped me; I sing for joy in the shadow of your protecting wings.
When you get a glimpse, or a taste of His glory, you will begin a journey into an insatiable desire for His glory and presence.
This past Sunday we received just a taste of His glory, and my soul is thirsting for more.
I have been in services where the glory of the Lord came upon the place a couple of times and I say, do it again Lord.
When you experience His glory, nothing else will satisfy.
Church, there are things that welcome His glory, and things that repel His glory.
There is one thing that will stop His glory, and that is sin.
1. SIN = NO GLORY
1 Samuel 2:12, 17, & 29 NIV
12 Eli’s sons were wicked men; they had no regard for the LORD.
17 This sin of the young men was very great in the LORD’s sight, for they were treating the LORD’s offering with contempt.
29 Why do you scorn my sacrifice and offering that I prescribed for my dwelling? Why do you honor your sons more than me?
Hophni and Phinehas, the son’s of Eli were serving as priests in the temple and were doing whatever they wanted, right there in the temple.
Eli sinned also in the fact that he would not stop them and remove the sin from the temple.
God quit speaking to Eli and started speaking to Samuel.
God told him that Hophni and Phinehas would both die the same day and that He would raise up a faithful priest.
1 Samuel 4:1-4 NIV
Now the Israelites went out to fight against the Philistines. The Israelites camped at Ebenezer, and the Philistines at Aphek. 2 The Philistines deployed their forces to meet Israel, and as the battle spread, Israel was defeated by the Philistines, who killed about four thousand of them on the battlefield. 3 When the soldiers returned to camp, the elders of Israel asked, "Why did the LORD bring defeat upon us today before the Philistines? Let us bring the ark of the LORD’s covenant from Shiloh, so that it may go with us and save us from the hand of our enemies."
4 So the people sent men to Shiloh, and they brought back the ark of the covenant of the LORD Almighty, who is enthroned between the cherubim. And Eli’s two sons, Hophni and Phinehas, were there with the ark of the covenant of God.
The Philistines became afraid when they heard that the Ark of the Covenant was in Israel’s camp because they remembered what God had done to the Egyptians.
After being encouraged, they fought the Israelites, killing over 30,000 of them, including Hophni and Phinehas, and took the ark with them.
When Eli got word that the ark had been captured, he fell over and broke his neck.
