Applied Glory
By: Pastor Donny Granberry
I am preaching about applying spiritual things to our lives right now on Sunday Mornings.
We have studied, “The Applied Blood,” “Applied Pentecost,” and today I would like to focus of the “Applied Glory” of the Lord.
Apply – means to put to use, especially for some practical purpose, to bring into action, or to lay or spread on. Apply.
Therefore for us to apply the glory of the Lord to our spiritual life, we must bring it into action.
If I were to have an individual here right now who was totally inactive, no action whatsoever, that person would be dead.
Then what is done with the dead, they are buried, and here will be some type of monument standing over them.
The Monument is also without action, it stands as a reflection of what used to be.
Far too many church’s today are dead, they are monuments standing for what used to be.
The glory of the Lord is not fulfilled in monuments, but in living, breathing, working vessels of the Lord.
Church, we are thankful for what was, we enjoy what is now, but we must hunger for what is to come.
Psalms 63:1-7
O God, you are my God; I earnestly search for you. My soul thirsts for you; my whole body longs for you in this parched and weary land where there is no water. 2 I have seen you in your sanctuary and gazed upon your power and glory. 3 Your unfailing love is better to me than life itself; how I praise you! 4 I will honor you as long as I live, lifting up my hands to you in prayer. 5 You satisfy me more than the richest of foods. I will praise you with songs of joy. 6 I lie awake thinking of you, meditating on you through the night. 7 I think how much you have helped me; I sing for joy in the shadow of your protecting wings.
When you get a glimpse, or a taste of His glory, you will begin a journey into an insatiable desire for His glory and presence.
This past Sunday we received just a taste of His glory, and my soul is thirsting for more.
I have been in services where the glory of the Lord came upon the place a couple of times and I say, do it again Lord.
When you experience His glory, nothing else will satisfy.
Church, there are things that welcome His glory, and things that repel His glory.
There is one thing that will stop His glory, and that is sin.
1. SIN = NO GLORY
1 Samuel 2:12, 17, & 29 NIV
12 Eli’s sons were wicked men; they had no regard for the LORD.
17 This sin of the young men was very great in the LORD’s sight, for they were treating the LORD’s offering with contempt.
29 Why do you scorn my sacrifice and offering that I prescribed for my dwelling? Why do you honor your sons more than me?
Hophni and Phinehas, the son’s of Eli were serving as priests in the temple and were doing whatever they wanted, right there in the temple.
Eli sinned also in the fact that he would not stop them and remove the sin from the temple.
God quit speaking to Eli and started speaking to Samuel.
God told him that Hophni and Phinehas would both die the same day and that He would raise up a faithful priest.
1 Samuel 4:1-4 NIV
Now the Israelites went out to fight against the Philistines. The Israelites camped at Ebenezer, and the Philistines at Aphek. 2 The Philistines deployed their forces to meet Israel, and as the battle spread, Israel was defeated by the Philistines, who killed about four thousand of them on the battlefield. 3 When the soldiers returned to camp, the elders of Israel asked, "Why did the LORD bring defeat upon us today before the Philistines? Let us bring the ark of the LORD’s covenant from Shiloh, so that it may go with us and save us from the hand of our enemies."
4 So the people sent men to Shiloh, and they brought back the ark of the covenant of the LORD Almighty, who is enthroned between the cherubim. And Eli’s two sons, Hophni and Phinehas, were there with the ark of the covenant of God.
The Philistines became afraid when they heard that the Ark of the Covenant was in Israel’s camp because they remembered what God had done to the Egyptians.
After being encouraged, they fought the Israelites, killing over 30,000 of them, including Hophni and Phinehas, and took the ark with them.
When Eli got word that the ark had been captured, he fell over and broke his neck.
When the wife of his son, Phinehas, who was full term in her pregnancy, got word that Eli, Hophni, and Phinehas was dead she went into labor and had a son.
She died shortly after giving birth, but named the son Ichabod, meaning the glory of the Lord has departed.
She had suffered a horrible day;
• Her father-in-law suffered a tragic death, but that wasn’t the worst.
• Her brother-in-law, Hophni, had been killed on the battlefield, but that was not the worst.
• Her husband had died in battle, yet still that was not the worst event of the day.
• The worst event of the day, “The Glory of the Lord had departed from Israel.”
Church, it is a sad day when the glory of the Lord is no longer with His people. Without His glory;
• The church is a ship without a rudder.
• The church is a structure to be seen but no story to be told.
• The church is a building with no one to believe in.
• The church is no more than a mere monument of “sounding brass and tinkling cymbal.”
A church is not a church if God’s glory is not there!
• People may pray, but there will be no power without His glory.
• Instruments may play, but there will be no soothing-ness to their tones.
• Choirs may sing, but the music will not lift the soul.
• Tithes and offerings may be given, but the windows of heaven will not open.
• Preachers may preach the word, but souls will not be saved, sinners will not be changed, captives will not be set free, the blind will not see, the deaf will not hear, the lame will not walk, and the sick will not be healed without His glory.
2. The Returning Glory
2 Chronicles 7:14-16 NIV
4 If my people, which are called by my name, shall humble themselves, and pray, and seek my face, and turn from their wicked ways; then will I hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin, and will heal their land. 15 Now mine eyes shall be open, and mine ears attent unto the prayer that is made in this place. 16 For now have I chosen and sanctified this house, that my name may be there for ever: and mine eyes and mine heart shall be there perpetually.
• The Philistines took the ark to Ashdod, to Dagon’s temple. Dagon fell and broke, and the people were afflicted with tumors.
• From Ashdod to Gath. The people were again afflicted.
• From Gath to Ekron, but the people there told them, don’t leave it here.
• They put it on a cart with gifts and two oxen pulling the ark, and the oxen headed for Israel.
• The Cart went to Beth Shemesh and the people were blessed until they looked into the ark, and 70 of them fell dead.
• The ark was taken to the house of Abinadab, and remained there for 20 years until David became king over Israel and chose to bring the ark back to Jerusalem.
They took a new cart, and put the ark on it and headed for Israel singing, dancing, and with instruments worshiping the Lord.
They came to the threshing floor at Racon and the oxen stumbled.
Uzzah put his hand on the cart and was struck dead.
David left the ark at the house of Obed-Edom, and while there for three months, the Lord blessed Obed-Edom’s household.
• David and the priest’s went to get the ark; they put the poles in the rings and carried it properly.
• Every six steps, they sacrificed a bull and a fatted calf.
• David danced before the Lord and led all of Israel as they shouted and played trumpets.
o (Take six steps, play the trumpets, dance and worship for he is good, and his mercy endureth forever,
o six steps, Worship Him for He is our glory and the lifter of our heads,
o six steps, he lifted me out of a horrible pit, the miry clay, and He put my feet on a rock,
o six steps, for He has been my deliverer,
o Six steps for He is so great that the heavens, and the heaven of heavens cannot contain him.
o six steps, for the Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want,
o six steps, for thou preparest a table before me in the presence of mine enemies,
o Six steps, for "Holy, holy, holy is the LORD Almighty; the whole earth is full of his glory."
o Six steps, for in heaven we are going to continually give Him praise, and I’m just warming up for heaven.
• Saul’s daughter, Michal, watched from a window as David danced and she despised him with all her heart.
• Because of that, she died barren.
Many churches today are spiritually barren because they have despised the glory of the Lord.
It’s time for the barren one to sing.
