Our Future Glory Series

Glory (8) “Our Future Glory”

1. Recap

a. Glory of God is defined as the Visible Majesty of the Divine Presence.

b. Why are we discussing His glory?

i. We take for granted all the places in the bible we read the word “glory of God.”

ii. His glory….that is, His Majesty made visible, if not to our human eyes, at least to the eyes of our heart results in two things:

1. Worship

2. Transformation

iii. We need transforming encounters with God’s presence. Anything less than this makes us just like everyone else in this world. God’s presence is what makes us different. That is the only thing.

1. Not our own goodness.

2. Not our own holiness.

3. Not our own good deeds.

4. God’s presence, is what makes us unique, different, holy.

c. Last 7 weeks we have covered an incredible amount of ground in trying to come to grips with God’s glory.

i. The most wonderful thing is the number of reports I hear from many of you about your encounter with the Visible Majesty of the Divine Presence.

ii. What has happened to you when you let God be God in your life?

iii. We looked at the effects of God’s glory, how He manifested it in the Old Testament, then through Jesus. We learned how the absence of His presence is really the absence of His control in our lives. And we also learned about His plan to reflect His glory in you and I.

2. Understanding Our Inheritance:

a. Ephesians 1:18 “I pray that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened, so that you will know what is the hope of His calling, what are the riches of the glory of His inheritance in the saints,”

b. Today, we will grapple with the incredible inheritance that you and I have in Christ. Most of us understand what an inheritance is. It is what we are left behind as heirs from someone who has given what they have to you after they have died. Their rights and property become yours.

i. My family was the heir to my father’s estate, and we got ½ of the home I grew up in. I treasure that inheritance! It means a great deal to me, because it meant a great deal to my grandfather who built it and my father who left it to me.

ii. Likewise, you and I have received an inheritance in Christ that many of us have really no idea of what it contains.

1. Some of us understand that it means “eternal life.” Whatever that means.

2. Others of us understand that it means we are forgiven.

3. But we don’t really grasp the meaning of what Jesus has left us in his will. And most of us have never read the will to see what it was that we have coming to us. We would be not only amazed but excited to find out!

a. Item 1: Eternal Life:

i. Believe it or not, you are going to live forever.

ii. When you were born, you began your entry into eternity.

iii. Christians and Non-Christians alike.

iv. The question is where will you spend it.

v. With God or Without Him.

vi. Your choice here on earth determine your future. Reject God now and you reject Him for eternity. You only get to choose while you are alive.

b. Item 2: The authority of Christ is ours:

i. If you want to understand this piece of your inheritance, I urge you to come on Wednesday nights to our bible study on Ephesians.

c. Item 2: A New Body:

i. This is what we will look at today. The glory God is going to give each of us who choose to live with Him for eternity!

ii. Everyone will live forever, and everyone will get a new body. The righteous, those who have received the sacrifice of Jesus will inherit the joy of God’s presence, while those who reject Christ will suffer in their new body for eternity…gnashing their teeth in a place where the fire is never quenched and the worm never dies.

c. 1 Cor. 15:42-56- 42 So also is the resurrection of the dead. The body is sown in corruption, it is raised in incorruption. 43 It is sown in dishonor, it is raised in glory. It is sown in weakness, it is raised in power. 44 It is sown a natural body, it is raised a spiritual body. There is a natural body, and there is a spiritual body. 45 And so it is written, "The first man Adam became a living being." The last Adam became a life-giving spirit. 46 However, the spiritual is not first, but the natural, and afterward the spiritual. 47 The first man was of the earth, made of dust; the second Man is the Lord from heaven. 48 As was the man of dust, so also are those who are made of dust; and as is the heavenly Man, so also are those who are heavenly. 49 And as we have borne the image of the man of dust, we shall also bear the image of the heavenly Man. 50 Now this I say, brethren, that flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God; nor does corruption inherit incorruption. 51 Behold, I tell you a mystery: We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed -- 52 in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet. For the trumpet will sound, and the dead will be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed. 53 For this corruptible must put on incorruption, and this mortal must put on immortality. 54 So when this corruptible has put on incorruption, and this mortal has put on immortality, then shall be brought to pass the saying that is written: "Death is swallowed up in victory." 55 "O Death, where is your sting? O Hades, where is your victory?" 56 The sting of death is sin, and the strength of sin is the law. 57 But thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.