Sermon Central
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To God Be The Glory
Contributed by Anthony Zibolski on Nov 4, 2014 (message contributor)
Summary: Are we allowing God to work through us and making sure that what we do is the best we have to offer and that God is getting the glory?
To God be the Glory
Introduction-
Last several weeks we have looked at parables and passages of Scripture that has had us looking at our lives.
We talked about emotional needs, attitudes, and last week we looked at change.
No one likes changes because it involves change and usually takes us out of our comfort zone.
Remember the maze from last week and the 4 mice that represented us running in this rat race we call life.
We will continue to do the same things repeatedly until we determine what we are doing is not working.
That will work for every aspect of our lives if we will apply the principal.
This morning I want to look at God getting honor and glory by what happens in and through our lives.
Christians are great at throwing out language that most unbelievers don’t understand and most Christians talk about but never do.
1. Surrendering to God- What does that mean and how do you do it? “I gave it to the Lord”
2. To God be the glory- Are we deflecting praise to God? Meaning that we could not do something without God’s help?
3. We say praise the Lord! - When we say that are you thanking God for doing something good?
We live in a day and age when there are a lot of people praising God and claiming to be surrendering their lives to Him but we don’t see the fruit of that in their lives.
We lived in a day where most people think that this world revolves around them or their families.
“The my world” My wants, My needs, My happiness, My pleasures!
Max Lucado- “it’s not about me”
Talks about 450 years ago, everyone believed that the universe, sun, planets, revolved around earth. In 1573 Capernicus told them that the earth was not the center of the universe. 50 years later Gallileo said that the planets revolved around the sun. People were so opposed to this idea that they threw him in jail and threw him out of the church.
The very thought that we are not the center of the universe.
If we are not the center of the universe, and if God is the one that ought to be getting the honor and glory, then God has some work to do in us because that does not come naturally. If His priority is not our comfort, our happiness, all of my pleasures taken care of, then we need a shift of attitude from ourselves to being all about God.
Listen to what Paul records for us in 1 Corinthians 10:23-10:33
As believers we have freedoms found in Jesus Christ.
As followers of Christ we can stand on promises God gives us and enjoy benefits of being a child of God.
Nowhere in God’s word does He tell us we are the center of the universe, and no where does it say that our freedoms should cause others to stumble.
“Everything is permissible- but not everything is beneficial. Everything is not constructive.”
I would not stumble if at another church they had real wine for communion, but some would. Nazarenes use juice instead of wine. Some are so dogmatic that they feel eternity rests on every decision. It is permissible and not beneficial.
I would not fill my table with turkey, filling, and all the trimmings and invite my neighbor who is on a restricted diet to come over for dinner. It is permissible but not beneficial.
Apostle Paul had to address some problems with permissible and practical. The people of that day dealt with idol worship and the eating of food sacrificed to idols.
He tells them that food sacrificed to idols should not be eaten in the temple of foreign gods. You are partaking at the table of demons, but if that same meat was sold in the market that it would be acceptable to eat because you are not worshiping other gods and you have asked God’s blessing upon it.
Paul tells us that it is an attitude of the heart. If you are not convicted by the Lord and you are not doing it for the wrong reason, you can freely enjoy that meat-even if it the butcher had wrong motive.
If you are convicted, then for you it would be sin because you would be doing it under conviction that you should not.
Illustration-
In over 20 years of Becky cooking for me, she has never cooked me a piece of liver. I was raised on liver. It was a cheap meal as a kid and eaten once a week. It is permissible! Me coming home with liver and expecting Becky to make it for me knowing that it would probably make her sick and demanding that she make it would not be beneficial , nor constructive, and would not be smart on my part. I took part of that meal as a kid with thanksgiving, but to have it today in my house because of Becky’s upbringing would cause her to stumble and probably would not have me in her blessings.
