From The Beginning To The End God Is There!

November 24, 2013 [White or Gold] Christ the King/Reign of Christ (United Methodist Student Day) Jeremiah 23:1-6 Luke 1:68-79 (UMH 208)

Colossians 1:11-20 St Luke “From the Beginning to the End He’s there”

First. I think everything belongs to God for we where made by God for God to offer him praise. So I believe the church has the right and the purpose to reclaim Thanksgiving.

The glorifying of God, 1 Pet. 4:11.

Everything in the world is about to be wrapped up, so take nothing for granted. Stay wide-awake in prayer.

Most of all, love each other as if your life depended on it. Love makes up for practically anything. Be quick to give a meal to the hungry, a bed to the homeless—cheerfully.

Be generous with the different things God gave you, passing them around so all get in on it: if words, let it be God’s words; if help, let it be God’s hearty help. That way, God’s bright presence will be evident in everything through Jesus, and he’ll get all the credit as the One mighty in everything—encores to the end of time. Oh, yes! (1 Peter 4:7-11 MSG)

l Cor. 10:31. "Whether therefore ye eat or drink, or whatsoever ye do, do all to the glory of God."

The great truth asserted is that the end of every persons living should be to glorify God.

Glorifying God has respect to all the persons in the Trinity; it respects God the Father who gave us life; God the Son, who lost his life for us; and God the Holy Ghost, who produces a new life in us; we must bring glory to the whole Trinity. What ever we do even when we have family or civic holidays. To be honest Thanksgiving is just one more day of Celebration not for being off work but to Glorify The Lord.

When we speak of God's glory, the question is can someone else have Gods Glory.

Answer. God is never giving up his Glory:

The glory that God has in himself, his intrinsic glory. Glory is essential to the Godhead, as light is to the sun: he is called the "God of glory." Acts 7:2. Glory is the sparkling of the Deity; it is so co-natural to the Godhead, that God cannot be God without it.

The creature's honor is not essential to his being. A king is a man without his regal ornaments, when his crown and royal robes are taken away; but God's glory is such an essential part of his being, that he cannot be God without it. God's very life lies in his glory.

This glory can receive no addition, because it is infinite; it is that which God is most tender of, and which he will not part with. Isa. 48:11, "My glory I will not give to another." God will give temporal blessings to his children, such as wisdom, riches, honor; he will give them spiritual blessings, he will give them grace, he will give them his love, he will give them heaven; but his essential glory he will not give to another.

King Pharaoh parted with a ring off his finger to Joseph, and a gold chain, but he would not part with his throne. Gen. 41:40. "Only in the throne will I be greater than thou."

So God will do much for his people; he will give them the inheritance; he will put some of Christ's glory, as mediator upon them; but his essential glory he will not part with; "in the throne he will be greater."

Q. What is it to glorify God?

Glorifying God consists in four things. 1. Appreciation, 2. Adoration, 3. Affection, 4. Subjection.

1.This is the yearly rent we pay to the crown of heaven. Appreciation. To glorify God is to set God highest in our thoughts, and, to have a venerable esteem of him.

There is in God all that may draw forth both wonder and delight; there is a constellation of all beauties; he is prima causa [the first cause],

We glorify God when we are God-admirers; admire his attributes, To glorify God is to have God-admiring thoughts; to esteem him most excellent, and search for diamonds in this rock only.

2. Glorifying God consists in adoration, or worship. Psalm 29:2. "Give unto the Lord the glory due unto his name; worship the Lord in the beauty of holiness." There is a twofold worship:

a. A civil reverence which we give to persons of honour. Gen. 23:7, "Abraham stood up and bowed himself to the children of Heth." Piety is no enemy to courtesy.

b. A divine worship which we give to God as his royal prerogative. This divine worship God is very jealous of; it is the apple of his eye, the pearl of his crown; which he guards, as he did the tree of life, with cherubims and a flaming sword, that no man may come near it to violate it.