Welcome to the Further Gospel podcast. My name is Kosti Hinn and I have the pleasure of being your host. Further Gospel is all about providing sound doctrine for everyday people. And I'm excited to jump into our topic for this episode. But first, before we dig in, I got two big announcements for you. First, Further Gospel is hosting its first ever conference. A lot of firsts in this episode. We're going to cover dating and courtship. It's geared towards the next generation. So go to furthegospel.org for all the information and click on conferences and it'll be right there. It's called DTR, Defining the Relationship, God's Way. September 24th and 25th. So just in a couple months in beautiful Southern California. Our host site for the conference will be Mission Bible Church, where Pastor Tony Wood and Jesse Randolph as well, some pastors from Mission Bible, and our executive director of for the gospel, Pastor Brett Skinner, who's the executive pastor there, are all going to be helping us kick off this conference. And so we'll be there. They're all an incredible part of the For the Gospel team. So can't wait to meet you there. Bring your college, young adult, small group, bring some friends. If you're in the California area, you go to like the Masters University or Biola or somewhere like that or another church, come on over, enjoy. We'll fellowship. We'll have some food trucks and some incredible sessions on dating and courtship and get you ready for the future. Number two, I'm leading a church plant with an incredible team this February 2022. We're planting the Shepherd's House Bible Church. Not sure if you saw on social media, but we're going to launch in Chandler, Arizona. And so an update for us here at FTG. I'm going to continue to lead for the gospel and we'll put out equipping resources here and do media still here. But my weekly preaching and shepherding ministry will be focused on the Shepherd's House Bible Church. And I can't wait, Lord willing, to grow old with our church family there as the pastor of preaching and teaching. And so really what I'm asking you as our for the gospel audience is would you pray for us? I would be so grateful for that. To find out more about our church plant, you can go to Shepherd's plural, shepherdsaz.org. So www.shepherdsaz.org for all the info there. And if you're one of those wonderful people who I know many of you are, that is from Redeemer and you listen to our resources here for the gospel. We love you. You are our family forever, just like our family from Mission Bible who sent us out to Arizona. So we're grateful, and really the family of God is just growing. And I get the chance now to serve a congregation in that role. So thanks for praying. And if you're coming to the conference, we'll see you there in September. On today's episode, I want to talk to you about the glory of God. This is such an important doctrinal truth for Christians, and our world, and let's go further, even the church, is filled with people focused on the glory of man. But we need and want to be, if we're God's people, people who focus on the glory of God. Furthermore, we'll all struggle at times with focusing on ourselves and anchoring our minds to the glory of God is one of the best ways to get over ourselves and get focused on God. And so I want to talk to you about that particular topic. You know, the fullness of the Christian life and all that the Christian life is can never be truly experienced without that moment where your jaw drops and you become awestruck by who God is. It's that moment where God's glory becomes everything to you as a believer. If you haven't had that moment, or if you're even searching or praying for that moment, there's a great experience in store for you. It's the most humbling moment of your existence. And what you'll find in those moments where you realize it's all about the glory of God is that so little of life is actually about you. Your purpose is really not even about you or for you. Everything that is significant and worth living for is centered around the glory of God. Many Christians have some idea of God, but the concept of his glory eludes them, and they live day after day, caught somewhere between a love for God and then a sort of self-centered belief that their life belongs to them. And so people will ask, you know, what exactly is God's glory? What does it mean to live for God's glory? What is God's glory all about? What does it mean that my life's purpose is for his glory? Well, the truth is, God's glory is so vast that no single chapter, no single book, no grandest canyon could ever contain all that who he is. But honestly, there in the impossible vastness of who God is, we find a definition, if you will, of God's glory. It's every aspect of him. It's the attributes of God, it is his vastness, it is his greatness, it is his infiniteness, if you will. He's everlasting to everlasting. Where the best of humanity ends, God has barely even begun, if even he's begun at all. Nothing we do ever compares to anything that he does. Nothing of who we are can ever compare to who he is. And while we as humans are prone to believing how necessary we are, God is in fact no better off with us or worse off without us. Isn't that humbling? He doesn't even need us. He is the crown jewel of his own glorious crown. He is glory defined. A life of purpose for humanity is only ever found when purpose becomes him. God is exists for himself. We exist for his glory. First Corinthians 10 31 says it this way whether you eat, whether you drink, do all for the glory of God. And so I want to ask you, reflect on your life for a moment. Has the immeasurable value of God's glory settled in on your soul? Are you aware of how finite you are? Are you aware of the limitations that you have? How honestly useless and unimpressive is your power and my power, your authority and my authority, your giftedness, my giftedness, all of it completely vain compared to the beauty and perfection of God. Are you and I acutely aware that every morning we're allowed to wake up is pure mercy from the one who gives our hearts permission to pump the oxygen-rich blood to the rest of our body, to allow our lungs to breathe just one more time. When we meditate on the glory of God, that's the type of picture that should be in our minds. But the truth is every Christian loses sight of the glory of God from time to time, and we need a moment of renewal. We need an episode like this to stir our affections for him once more. The reminder that he is to be the object of our affections, the center of our world. Nothing you do today, as you're listening to this right now, will matter as much as every moment that you bring glory to God in honor and praise of who he is. Joel Beake says this, but how do we glorify God? Then he quotes Calvin. He that exceeds these bounds does not go about to honor God, but rather dishonor him. Meaning, if you seek to glorify God any other way, but by walking in obedience to his word and focusing on him, you've gone outside the bounds of even what it means to glorify God. You don't honor him, rather you dishonor him. Obedience to God's word means taking refuge in Christ for forgiveness of sins, for knowing him through the scriptures, for serving him with a loving heart, for doing good works and gratitude for his goodness, for exercising self-denial, even to the point of loving our own enemies. This response involves total surrender to God Himself, to His Word, to His will. And that's talked about much in Romans 11 33, all the way to Romans 12, verse 2, that we are to be living sacrifices unto him, that we're to be not transformed by this world, but through the renewing of our mind. And so we need to be renewed. Our commitment to live for and even understand the glory of God needs to be renewed. And so let me give you three things that will renew your commitment to living for and striving to understand the glory of God. The first thing is that you and I be awestruck by his character. You gotta look at the character of God if you're trying to understand his glory. His revealed attributes are the conduit that stir our affections. Think about this. Who is God? What is consistent about his character? What does he do? That ought to supercharge your faith. It ought to humble you and bring you and I to our knees in worship. Who he is shed so much light on who we are not. Jonathan Edwards modeled the joy we find in seeking who God is when he wrote, The greatest moments of my life have not been those that have concerned my own salvation, but those when I have been carried into communion with God and beheld his beauty and desired his glory. I rejoice and yearn to be emptied and annihilated of self, in order that I might be filled with the glory of God and Christ alone. What a beautiful statement. I want to be emptied. I want to be annihilated of self and filled with the glory of God. God's attributes are endless, and yet he's chosen to reveal to us what we need to know in order to thrive in relationship with him, and to be awestruck by his character is to know his attributes, which include his eternality. Genesis 1.1 states that he's eternal, shows us that he's eternal. His sovereignty, Psalms 115, verse 3 says, our God is in the heavens, he does whatever he pleases. Romans 11 33 highlights his infinite wisdom. Psalm 34, 8 highlights his goodness. We see his mercy in Ephesians 2, 4 and 5. But God, rich in mercy, he saved us. We see his grace on display in Ephesians 2, 8 and 9. We see his justice on display in Romans 2, verse 5, his love in 1 John 4, 8. In fact, we love only because God first loved us. When you meditate on his attributes in that way, you become filled with awe of who he is. And of course, his holiness, as Isaiah 6, verse 3 unpacks, even to the point where Isaiah is so awestruck by God's holiness that he says, I'm a man of unclean lips. He feels and sees his unworthiness in light of who God is. And so under the umbrella of every one of those characteristics, the endless nature of God's nature is proven. And what's more, God is perfect in his expression of those attributes. So whatever he does, he does it perfectly, no matter how we feel. Now think about his eternality, his sovereignty, his infinite wisdom, his goodness, his mercy, his love, his justice, his grace, and his holiness, all that he is and all that he does is perfect. That ought to drop your jaw in awe of God. Number two, when you become aware of your own corruption, it increases your appreciation for the glory of God. There are few things that will elevate your view of God's glory better than a proper view of yourself. Biblically speaking, we are corrupted, we're sinful, we're broken people, we are depraved. God knows that he's the best thing and really the only thing that we'll ever have going for us. And so Romans 3 23 declares it this way: all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God. That's plain to see. We don't ever measure up. And so that's step one in becoming aware of your corruption. Quoting the psalmist, Paul writes in Romans 3:10, there's none righteous, not even one. In other words, we're utter failures at achieving anything but sin. We're complete disasters at being good enough for God. And so before you crawl into a dark corner of hopelessness and shame, you ought to embrace that reality. Welcome it into your mind and embrace that weight that comes upon your heart when you realize, wow, yeah, I am so sinful, and then tie it all back to God's grace. How amazing is he that he would save us. Glory to God, we would then say. Why? Because we're so awesome? No, because he is so gracious that he would ever save us. He's the awesome one. We're by nature, according to Ephesians 2, 3, children of wrath. So the bad news it's that you're a sinner. You and I are corrupt. Well, suddenly we can appreciate the good news. And God's glory becomes everything because our self-righteousness doesn't work. Our confidence in our good works or ourselves does nothing. We're not impressive to God. Now we can say, like Paul, wretched man that I am, who will set me free from the body of this death, thanks be to God through Christ Jesus our Lord in Romans 7, 24 and 25. With nowhere to turn for the solution to our corruption, where do we go? We have no choice but to fall on our knees before the throne of our merciful and glorious God. So you want to glorify God more, you want to have a greater understanding of his glory. Well, start by becoming aware of just how I don't know if this is a word, but unglorious you and I are. We're not impressive. He is. Third and finally, you become renewed in your appreciation of the glory of God when you adore Christ. All of this ties back to Jesus. The Bible makes it abundantly clear that the glory of God is found in Jesus Christ. He is the radiance of God's glory, Hebrews 1, verse 3. He is the revelation of glory, John 1 14. He is the one who will return in glory, Luke 21, 27. So a high view of the glory of God is founded in your adoration of Christ. To go even further, it is impossible to have a high view of the glory of God without a burning affection for Jesus. And so I ask you, do you look to Christ? Is he your everything? Is he the center of your world? Do you say like Paul, to live is Christ, to die is gain. You know why Paul said that? Because he knew the surpassing value of knowing Christ Jesus his Lord, as he says in Philippians 3, verse 8. There's the faithful bishop of Liverpool, J. C. Rile, who so beautifully pronounced what Paul did in saying Christ is all in Colossians 3 1. In his book Holiness, J. C. Ryle writes this Christ is the mainspring both of doctrinal and practical Christianity. A right knowledge of Christ is essential to a right knowledge of sanctification as well as justification. He who follows after holiness will make no progress unless he gives Christ his rightful place. Let us understand that Christ is all. If you want to experience the fullness of the Christian life, Christ is the key. You devote yourself to being hidden in the rock of ages, you worship humbly at his feet, there you will find and encounter the glory of God. There, in the lowliness of his shadow, will you find your highest view of the glory of God. My prayer is that this episode will help you foster a greater understanding and appreciation for the glory of God. My prayer is that you will be awestruck by his character, aware of your own corruption, and then fall on your knees in adoration of Jesus Christ. Thank you all so much for your support of For the Gospel. Don't forget to register for the DTR conference where we'll preach on dating and courtship and really point everything back to Christ and the glory of God in our relationships and for many of you, your future marriages. We're gonna have a great time at that conference in Southern California. So go to forthegospel.org and click on the conference link for registration info, hotel info, and more. And also, we've got some free videos that we're giving away when you pre-order my upcoming book, More Than a Healer. So go to Amazon.com or go to forthegospel.org and you can pre-order the book. And when you do, send us an email, we'll get you that registration code and send you some free teaching on healing. Next week, we'll be back with another episode as we continue to seek to glorify God. For now, keep on living for the gospel.