To God Be The Glory - Philippians 4:20 Series

Imagine the world’s fastest race car. Every component on that car is the best you can buy. The wheels cost $5000 each. The problem is, the car can’t go anywhere because the left rear wheel decided it wanted to be in charge, so it’s in the driver’s seat. So the tire is accomplishing nothing, because it can’t drive. The car is disgraced, because it can’t even get off the starting line. And the driver is kicked out of the race. Nobody’s happy. So the wheel says, “I was a fool to think I could drive. I need a much more lowly and humble place.” So it goes under the car and tries to be the exhaust pipe. That doesn’t work out either. It tries to find a spot on the hood, then on a door, then in the transmission – nothing works out, until finally it finds its spot. It attaches to the axel, it is finally in the right position, and now the car wins the race and the car is happy, the driver is happy, the wheel is happy – everyone’s happy. It works that way because when the wheel is in that spot – right there on the axel, it is in the right relationship to all the other parts of the car. For example, it has the right kind of connection to the engine. Power comes from the engine, it turns the drive shaft, that turns the axels, and if the wheel is on the end of the axel, it’s in a spot where it receives all that power from the engine, which is the design. In the driver’s seat, it’s not in a position to be connected to that power.

Also, when the wheel is attached where it belongs, that puts it in the right relationship to the body, because it holds the car up off the ground. It’s in the right relationship to the brakes, so that when you hit the brake pedal, that action goes to where that wheel is supposed to be attached. You get that wheel in the spot where it is in the right relationship to all the other parts, and the car takes off and wins the race.

Millions of people go through life like that wheel before it finds the axel. They aren’t in the right position in relationship to everyone and everything else, and so their life goes nowhere. God designed them to be a high performance, state of the art wheel, and they’re in the trunk, glove box, under the hood, and they have all kinds of problems because they can’t find that sweet spot where they were designed to function.

In this passage, Paul is going to teach us the exact spot where he designed us to flourish. And that spot is defined by where you are in relationship to God, in relationship to people, and relationship to yourself. So Paul’s going to spell all three of those out for us – our ideal posture in relationship to God (v.20), to people (vv.21-22), and to yourself (v.23). We’ll only get to the first one tonight. What’s the ideal relationship to God that will connect you to the power from the engine?

Philippians 4:20 To our God and Father be glory for ever and ever. Amen.

The ideal spot for you – the ideal posture in relationship to God, is for you to give glory to him.

Glory

Now what does that mean? Start with this – what is glory? The Greek word for glory means radiance, brightness, or splendor and it refers to that which is spectacular or amazing about something.

Matthew 4:8 Again, the devil took him to a very high mountain and showed him all the kingdoms of the world and their glory.

So Satan showed Jesus two things: the kingdoms, and what was impressive about the kingdoms – their glory. The devil drew Jesus’ attention to all the most amazing, beautiful, impressive, spectacular things about those kingdoms. That’s what glory is. The glory of something is that which is spectacular or beautiful about that thing. God’s glory is that which is spectacular and wonderful about God.

To God

That’s what God’s glory is, but what does it mean when we say glory be to God?

Philippians 4:20 To our God and Father be glory for ever and ever. Amen.

We know that God has glory, that he is glorious, but what does it mean for you to give him glory? You see that about a dozen times in the NT – to God be glory. We sing it - “To God be the glory…” What does that mean? Doesn’t God already have as much glory as he could ever have? Yes, God has infinite, perfect glory already. But most people don’t know about it. We exist to glorify God, to show him as glorious, and the starting place for that is to simply acknowledge it – to ascribe or attribute glory to him. If you open the shades and your child asks, “Where is all this light coming from?” and you say, “It’s coming from the sun,” you just attributed or ascribed sunlight to the sun. You didn’t make the sun any brighter; you just gave the sun credit for how bright it already is. And that increases that child’s understanding about the sun’s brightness. That’s what it means to ascribe glory to God. You give him the credit for his glory.