THE GLORY AND THE GOODNESS OF GOD
(March 2008 – The Filling Station Youth Conference – Pastor Chris Jordan)
INTRO TO SPEAKER AND TOPIC:
Salvation, coming to God – desire for something REAL!
OPENING TEXT:
“Moses took his tent and pitched it outside the camp, far from the camp, and called it the tabernacle of meeting. And it came to pass that everyone who sought the Lord went out to the tabernacle of meeting which was outside the camp. So it was, whenever Moses went out to the tabernacle, that all the people rose, and each man stood at his tent door and watched Moses until he had gone into the tabernacle.” (Exodus 33:7-8).
• If we want to experience God’s glory, we need to have a ‘tent of meeting.’
• Where do you meet with God? This can be your bedroom, or your iPod.
• The call to the secret place – the magnet inside of us longing to connect with God.
“So the Lord spoke to Moses face to face, as a man speaks to his friend.” (Ex. 33:11).
• Would you like to have a relationship with God like that? You can!
• “So now we can rejoice in our wonderful new relationship with God – all because of what our Lord Jesus Christ has done for us in making us friends of God.” (Romans 5:11).
“And he said, "Please, show me Your glory." Then He said, "I will make all My goodness pass before you, and I will proclaim the name of the Lord before you. I will be gracious to whom I will be gracious, and I will have compassion on whom I will have compassion." But He said, "You cannot see My face; for no man shall see Me, and live." And the Lord said, "Here is a place by Me, and you shall stand on the rock. So it shall be, while My glory passes by, that I will put you in the cleft of the rock, and will cover you with My hand while I pass by. Then I will take away My hand, and you shall see My back; but My face shall not be seen.” (Ex. 33:18-23).
QUOTE: Charles Spurgeon, A View of God’s Glory.
“Now, what attribute is God about to show to Moses? His petition is, “Show me thy glory.” Will God show him his justice? His holiness? His wrath? His power? No. Hear the still small voice – “I will make all my goodness pass before you.” Ah! The goodness of God is God’s glory. God’s greatest glory is that he is good… “I will make all my goodness pass before you.” There is a panorama such as time would not be long enough for you to see.”
THE BIG IDEA: God is good, and His glory is His presence. Therefore, the glory of God is the goodness of the Lord manifested towards His children. This glory was most clearly demonstrated in the life of Jesus, who is the same yesterday, today and forever. Our response to the goodness of God is to let our lights shine before men so that they can see our good works and glorify our Heavenly Father.
“Now the Lord descended in the cloud and stood with him there, and proclaimed the name of the Lord. And the Lord passed before him and proclaimed, "The Lord, the Lord God, merciful and gracious, longsuffering, and abounding in goodness and truth.” (Ex. 34:5-6).
• What did you come to this conference, “Glory” for? God wants you to know Him more!
“A Psalm of David when he was in the wilderness of Judah. O God, You are my God; Early will I seek You; My soul thirsts for You; My flesh longs for You In a dry and thirsty land Where there is no water. So I have looked for You in the sanctuary, To see Your power and Your glory. Because Your lovingkindness is better than life, My lips shall praise You.” (Psalm 63:1-3).
• Note that the glory of God is not the power of God. We want the power, but the glory is not about the power. It’s about the goodness and presence of God.
• James and John wanted the power: “Do you want us to call down fire from Heaven?” Jesus told them they didn’t know what spirit they were of (fruit of spirit = goodness).
• The disciples rejoiced that they had power: “Even the demons are subject to us.” Jesus said don’t rejoice over that, rejoice over God’s goodness!
THE GOODNESS OF GOD DEMONSTRATED IN THE LIFE OF JESUS:
“how God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Spirit and with power, who went about doing good and healing all who were oppressed by the devil, for God was with Him.” (Acts 10:38).
• What was Jesus anointed to do? Be “the man of faith and power?” No – to do GOOD!
“The Spirit of the Lord is upon Me, Because He has anointed Me To preach the good news to the poor; He has sent Me to heal the brokenhearted, To proclaim liberty to the captives And recovery of sight to the blind, To set at liberty those who are oppressed.” (Luke 4:18).
• The purpose of the power is to do good to people!
“For it is the God who commanded light to shine out of darkness, who has shone in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.” (2 Cor. 4:6).
• The glory of God – His goodness – is seen in the life of Jesus – healing, helping, etc.
• Jesus is called the “Good” Shepherd. He is good, and wants to be good to YOU!
STORIES ABOUT JESUS:
“So the multitude marveled when they saw the mute speaking, the maimed made whole, the lame walking, and the blind seeing; and they glorified the God of Israel.” (Matt. 15:31).
• Wherever Jesus went doing good, people gave glory to God.
“17 Now it happened on a certain day, as He was teaching, that there were Pharisees and teachers of the law sitting by, who had come out of every town of Galilee, Judea, and Jerusalem. And the power of the Lord was present to heal them. 18 Then behold, men brought on a bed a man who was paralyzed, whom they sought to bring in and lay before Him. 19 And when they could not find how they might bring him in, because of the crowd, they went up on the housetop and let him down with his bed through the tiling into the midst before Jesus. 20 When He saw their faith, He said to him, "Man, your sins are forgiven you." 21 And the scribes and the Pharisees began to reason, saying, "Who is this who speaks blasphemies? Who can forgive sins but God alone?" 22 But when Jesus perceived their thoughts, He answered and said to them, "Why are you reasoning in your hearts? 23 Which is easier, to say, ’Your sins are forgiven you,’ or to say, ’Rise up and walk’? 24 But that you may know that the Son of Man has power on earth to forgive sins"--He said to the man who was paralyzed, "I say to you, arise, take up your bed, and go to your house." 25 Immediately he rose up before them, took up what he had been lying on, and departed to his own house, glorifying God. 26 And they were all amazed, and they glorified God and were filled with fear, saying, "We have seen strange things today!” (Luke 5:17-26).
• Jesus loves to do good to people – healing them, forgiving them, etc.
• Jesus wants to be good to you! Do you know how good He has been?
• Jesus died on the Cross for you – you are forgiven, loved, accepted
TESTIMONY:
Story of Zerlina (a woman in our church in Beausejour)
Over two years in constant daily pain in her legs, neck and elbows, couldn’t walk more than 3 stairs at a time without having to stop. Couldn’t ride a bike or run, painkillers wouldn’t help.
Here is the rest of her story in her own words:
“The weeks before Christmas were really painful. My legs ached so bad and my neck just wouldn’t stop hurting. The week before Christmas, I had had enough and I was really down and questioning why Jesus wasn’t healing me… So I wrote down my struggles and sent them to Pastor Chris, hoping for some encouragement. He told me that Sunday morning was going to be on miracles... He encouraged me to pray and believe that this would be my day of healing.
So I prayed, meditated on and read the verses he gave me during the week. I prayed that Jesus would heal me that following Sunday. I asked my (family) and also some friends to pray and agree with me that Jesus would meet me at church on Sunday and heal me of this disease...
So Sunday...I had problems standing in church, my legs shook, twitched and ached through the whole message. I just wanted Pastor Chris to get to the “if you want a healing touch from Jesus, come to the front so we can pray for you” part! It seemed as though he was never going to get there! But the time came and I was up at the front as fast as I could walk (not very fast!). I had several people pray for me, including Pastor Chris, and the pain in my legs subsided! Praise God! But the pain wasn’t all gone, there was still some there, so I stood up there, waiting for Jesus to show up, waiting for Him to completely heal me. (By the end of that day), all the pain was gone... I could touch my legs! I could walk up and down the stairs in without stopping! The constant pain was gone!! Jesus answered my prayers for healing, He let me touch the edge of his robe...what the doctors could not explain or cure, Jesus did! This pain that had been with me constantly for over 2 years was gone! And Jesus gets all the GLORY... He is GOOD!”
CLOSING APPLICATION:
“Now it was so, when Moses came down from Mount Sinai (and the two tablets of the Testimony were in Moses’ hand when he came down from the mountain), that Moses did not know that the skin of his face shone while he talked with Him. So when Aaron and all the children of Israel saw Moses, behold, the skin of his face shone, and they were afraid to come near him.” (Ex. 34:29-30).
• We need to spend time in His presence – receiving of His goodness – so we can carry that light to the world!
• When we experience His goodness, we will begin to see revival!
• Our response to the goodness of God is to let our lights shine before men so that they can see our good works and glorify our Heavenly Father. (Matt. 3:16).
CLOSING PRAYER:
• The Father’s blessing (for the guys and girls)
For more sermon outlines or audio sermons, visit:
www.beausejourchurch.ca
Pastor’s Blog: http://thelandofpromise.blogspot.com/
