How do I Glorify God on Tuesday? [48]

Host: TJ Freeman

Summary: In this episode of Back to Rurality, Pastor TJ Freeman addresses glorifying God in daily life, particularly within the context of small-town living. He shares his personal journey of understanding what it means to glorify God in all actions, even the most mundane, such as cooking or paying taxes. Using 1 Corinthians 10:31, TJ emphasizes how every action, when done with a grateful heart, can bring glory to God. He offers practical examples and encourages listeners to actively think about how their daily tasks can serve God's purpose, especially in rural areas where Christian community may be sparse. The episode aims to help Christians understand their unique role in spreading God's glory and provides steps for implementing this mindset in everyday activities.

Connect with Us:

• Website: backtorurality.com
• Social Media: Facebook
• Email: tj@brainerdinstitute.com

Transcript

For the longest time I struggled with not knowing what it really meant to glorify God. Like I knew it was in the Bible. I knew I was supposed to do it, and I kind of had an idea that like when I do good things, that's what I'm doing, and when I do bad things, I'm not doing it. But if you told me I'm supposed to glorify God in everything I do, I really didn't understand what that meant.

Did you ever struggle with that? Do you ever feel like in your life? I want to please the Lord, I want to be doing what God made me to do. I'm just not exactly sure. What that looks like. What does it really mean to glorify God on a Tuesday evening at seven 30? Well, I'm glad you asked because that's what we're gonna talk about on this episode of Back to Reality, and I'm also gonna give you a little bit of, oh, some thoughts that you can think about, 'cause that's what you do with thoughts, about why it really matters so much that you really do live for God's glory. So stay tuned.

 Well, thank you for joining us for another edition of Back to Rurality. This is the podcast that was written for Christians who live in small towns, especially if you don't have a easy access to a healthy church. So if you, like me, live in a place that most of the world thinks of as the middle of nowhere, then this podcast is there to help you grow closer to the Lord, to understand why he has you out there in the middle of nowhere, and to even help you think a little bit about what it might look like to get a healthy church going in your little rural community.

That sounds like the deep end. So let's back it on up a little bit. And, uh, I should probably introduce myself. My name is TJ Freeman. I'm a rural pastor. For the longest time I disliked living in the middle of nowhere because of what it sounds like. If it's the middle of nowhere, it doesn't seem that important.

It's a little embarrassing to even say that out loud, but I did think that bigger places carried more value because there's more people there. Well, I've come to learn over the years that that is simply not true. God has a purpose for the town that you live in, the town that I live in, and everywhere in between.

And guess who he wants to use to fulfill that purpose today. That's right. Little old you and little old me, and part of the way that God fulfills his purpose for your town is through you bringing Him glory. So it's important that you know really what that means. You can think about a couple things from the Bible.

The first one's from first Corinthians 10 31. Fast fact, little trivia for you. I have the reference to that verse. Slapped on a license plate on the front of my minivan. Now that. Is just the epitome of cool, right? A license plate on the front of a minivan. Well, lemme tell you though, it is one of those European license plates and we did put the R backwards, so I mean, that's pretty cool, right?

The point wasn't to try to be cool. The point is that we want to, everywhere we go, be a reminder to ourselves and those who might read that and ask us about it, of what one Corinthians 10 31 says. Do you know what it says? Something like this, whether you eat or drink or whatever you do, do it all for the glory of God.

Now, I've probably said enough right there to give you a lifetime of things to think about, whether you eat or drink or whatever you do. Do it all for the glory of God. How do you tie your shoes for the glory of God? How do you sit in silence in a waiting room, looking at your screen for the glory of God?

How do you take a walk in the afternoon for the glory of God? How do you put the lid on leftovers for the glory of God? I mean, there's a lot to think about there. Just think about the last 24 hours, everything you've done. You're meant to do that for God's glory. Now here's what's interesting. In Habak two verse 14.

We learn that the earth is going to be filled with the knowledge of, That's right, the glory of God. Like the waters cover the seas. The seas are super saturated with water. The earth is meant to be super saturated with God's glory. Part of that saturation happens when you apply First Corinthians 10 31.

There you are. A human made in God's image, A redeemed citizen of the Kingdom of Heaven. Bought by the blood of Christ on a Tuesday afternoon at seven 30. Put in Saran wrap over leftover mashed potatoes. And you're doing it somehow for the glory of God. We're gonna talk about that a little bit more, but I just wanna, I want to get the why into your mind.

God wants this earth saturated with his glory, and he intends to use every one of your activities to bring him glory. And you may be the only Christian for miles. And you might also think, man, ain't nobody looking. It's just me by myself in my kitchen. Let me remind you that there is always a host of angels and demons that could be looking on at any given time, and God means to teach the rulers and authorities in the heavenly places something about himself through the lives of his people.

So yeah, there alone on a Tuesday night, you may very well have an audience that you can't even see and the way that you go about your responsibilities brings God glory. So here's a way to think about the mashed potatoes. Maybe you lovingly prepared that dinner. Maybe it was just for yourself, and you're taking nourishment.

You're enjoying the fact that God allowed for the starchiness of the potato and the creaminess of the butter and the richness of the milk to combine in a way that would be like a foretaste of heaven. I don't know if it's because I come from a family of potato farmers or if, because God has just been so kind to me, but I love mashed potatoes.

You know, they're probably gonna be one of the first things on the buffet line in the in heaven, in the new heavens and the new earth. Mashed potatoes, not the box kind. Get that garbage outta here, but the real ones, the fluffy ones. God gave us those to enjoy. He could have just left us with manna in a desert, and that would've been perfectly gracious and wonderful, but he didn't, he gave us a rich variety of foods.

So when you whip up some mashed potatoes like grandma intended for them to be. You're bringing God glory because you're enjoying his creation. You're going, hmm, every hmm is a praise to the one who made those potatoes. Whether you realize it or not, you're recognizing that there is something greater behind this that's made them delicious.

Also, the culinary gifts given to yourself or whoever made those things a gift from the Lord, God made that person that way. The richness of history, human history, people before you figured out how to cultivate potatoes. It's an exercise of God's dominion over the planet. Alright, so you eat the dinner, it's awesome.

Eat it by yourself, eat it with your family, whatever, leftovers. Now you're being a good steward. Potatoes are not that expensive. But typically, unless it's like a spoonful, which one could argue that you should just eat the spoonful instead of plopping it into the garbage. But anything more than a spoonful or two, you're not just gonna throw away after the meal.

You're gonna put microplastics around that thing so that you can reheat those mashed potatoes later. Or if you're really smart, you'll add some sour cream, some chives, and you'll whip up some, uh, I think they're called lat keys, but some potato pancakes. That's next level right there. Anyway, you're gonna save these, these leftovers as a part of your stewardship responsibilities.

And as you're putting the Saran wrap on there, you may not be thinking, all right, good, I'm being good steward. I've just enjoyed the fruits of the earth that the Lord provided. But you are doing those things, and because you're a Christian and you're exercising that dominion and you're really engaging in an act of worship, even by consuming that food and dependence on the Lord, you are bringing him glory.

Now, here's where you could mess it up. Let's say you're lonely. And you, you're putting the leftovers in for a party of one. That's a bummer. If you want to be married and you're not, if you wanna have kids and you don't, you know. If you're in a season of life where you're just alone. That can be really hard.

Now, you could start though, to dwell on the difficulty of that, and you could be griping about the fact that those potatoes would be gone if you had a partner to eat 'em with. Or you could be going, man, my miserable kids, all they'll eat is pizza and chicken nuggets, and I want them to eat the potatoes and they won't.

And rah, I gotta put it in the fridge. That would be the problem. Right? Now, you're opposing the glory of God because you've introduced grumbling. The Bible tells us that we should not have grumbling hearts. That we should do everything with the heart of Thanksgiving.

Even when we have problems that we bring before the Lord, we're meant to do that with a heart of Thanksgiving. So just take the potato principle that we've just talked about and apply it to all things in your life paying your. Stinking taxes. All right. Nobody likes that. Jesus had a comment about that though, didn't he? Render onto Caesar what is Caesar's. And who gets to decide what is Caesar?

Not you. Yeah, that's a Caesar job. And it's hard, but you can pay your taxes to the glory of God and trust him with everything that he provides and leaves you with. Tithing. Tithing can be really hard. You might think, I don't want to give money to the church, especially 10% of my monies. That's a lot of my monies.

Well, the Lord's called you to do that with gratefulness, and as you do something like that, he actually told us we should sacrifice, do with joy. I think 10 percent's just a really baseline starting level, and we should try to give more of ourselves than that. Same with serving in the church, using our time.

Same with using the gifts the Lord's given us. You know, you're really busy, but you happen to be the only one in the church that can play the piano. But some pop psychologist has convinced you through your Facebook feed that you need to just advocate for yourself and learn to say no. You gotta have boundaries. Man.

Think about it on another level, how do I glorify God? And set your priorities around that. With all your stuff, which belongs to him anyway, with all your time, which belongs to him anyway, with all your talents, which he gave you for his glory anyway. And just start orienting your lives, your life around the thing that glorifies God and do it with joy.

Get up in the middle of the night and serve your fussy baby with joy. Go to that friend who is, you know, he's hard to be around. He is a grumbly, whiny kind of guy, but he really needs you and go, just be an encouragement. Cut your neighbor's grass, whatever. I mean, these are just the kinds of things you need to think about.

You have one life, God's given it to you to bring him glory, and he's placed you in a place where there's not as many people as other places. Certainly not as many Christians. So Christian, you represent the Lord, get out there with his help. And, uh, we'll talk next time about this same topic, but a little more deeply as it pertains to the fruit of the spirit.

So if you're ready for that, dive into the next episode. But for now, we've covered a lot. We've talked about why you need to think about glorifying God and everything you do, and how you actually do it in the most mundane ways. So why don't you get back out there, back to life, back to rurality.