You are created to reflect His weightiness and fullness through a deep knowledge of His Word, not just fleeting feelings. Commit to staying nourished in His presence and connected to the body of Christ so your life can bear lasting fruit.
What is up, Real Church? Welcome to another Real Church podcast. Thank you for tuning in today. I'm excited because we're starting a new series, a series titled the glory of living. I want you to think about this.
All of creation exists to **manifest the glory** of God. That means you exist to manifest his glory. I know this message is going to encourage you. Check it out. Thank you for coming.
Excited about today. We're entering into a new series today. Series titled The Glory of Living. It's from the Bible, probably inspired by a book titled The glory of living from doctor Myles Monroe. I would encourage you if you want to take a deeper dive into what we're preaching today, go through the scriptures and maybe go pick up that book too, and take a look at it.
Man, it's just inspiring. I'll say that, inspiring. So, the glory of living is the title of the series, and and I'm just I'm stoked about it. I would encourage you, sometimes I will put on I'll take off my preacher's cap and I'll put on my teacher's cap during this series, so I encourage you to take notes. We have an opportunity for you to take notes, it's really easy.
You can go to the Facebook. We have a Facebook live feed, if you have Facebook or YouTube. And in the description above, we have a link that will link you to the Bible app. It'll pull up automatically on your phone, you'll be able to follow along right there, take notes if you'd like. You can pull out your pen and your real church notebook if you'd like, and take notes that way.
And there's another way to get to it, can go to our website and click on live stream at the top. But, we have all the notes there so that you it's easy for you to follow along or you can go back through. And I just think it's really important. I believe that this series is a "turning point" for our church. I believe that you are going to understand *God's glory* like never before and what that means for you.
And, if you understand that as a critical mass, the church understands that, well then, that means our church will exemplify his glory like never before. Yes. And, I believe that's what God wants to do. Okay? So oh, and if you go to that Facebook page, don't forget to click share too.
It's like inviting people to church. It gets it out there. I appreciate you guys that are watching online right now. And, I'm pulling up my notes. So, let's begin the message with a prayer.
And I want you just to pray that God would give you ears to hear and pray for me that I would be able to speak what he wants to say to you clearly. So, it wouldn't just come from me, but it would it would be deeper than that because if it's God speaking to you, it has the power to impact and change your life for eternity. Amen? Let's pray. Father, we thank you for who you are.
Lord, we give you the rest of this this message, this service, Lord God. And we ask you, Lord God, to reveal yourself. Reveal who you are and reveal what you do. Lord God, teach us what glory means so that we can walk in it for the rest of our days, the rest of our lives. *Father* God, I pray everybody in here today or under the sound of my voice walks away with a deeper revelation of you that changes everything.
In Jesus' name I pray. Amen. I'm a start out with a statement. All *creation* exists to *manifest* the *glory* of God. Let's pull up Psalms-19 verse 1.
Not Chabad. There we go. Psalms-19:1. The the heavens declare the glory of God. The skies proclaim the work of His hands.
Pull up the next verse. *Isaiah-6:3*, and they were calling to 1 another, holy holy holy is the Lord Almighty. The whole earth is full of his glory. All creation exists to manifest the glory of God. His glory is everywhere you look if you have eyes to see.
Every blade of grass has his glory in it. The sun, the moon, and the stars, when they're shined, they're declaring the glory of God. Every animal, every mammal, every amphibian, even every reptile. My wife was chased by an alligator this past week. Even that alligator, God placed his glory inside of it.
It exists with glory. She was running like this. It was I mean, you ever seen an alligator run after you? Yeah. If you're from Florida or Louisiana, maybe you have.
We're from Louisiana, now we live in Florida. You have glory. I have glory. And, the glory that you have have experienced is probably just a dim reflection of the glory that He has created you for. Because, you are created to go from glory to glory.
Amen? So, question then is, what is glory? We're gonna
talk about glory. What is glory? I don't
know about you, but I grew up in church. I got like a a church history, a church background, and and I grew up hearing the word glory all the time. You hear songs like, All is for Your Glory. And then, you hear people praying, growing up in church, and you hear people praying, God, we we just we we lift up your name, Lord, we we we glorify you. And and then and then at the same time you hear people pray, let your glory fall.
And it's like, you get confused. What does glory mean? Do we lift it up? Do we do we want it to fall? And you hear Jesus say, you hear Jesus say, now is the time for the Son of Man to be glorified.
But then, in John-17, when he's praying for you and I, those who would believe in him in the future, he prays, I have given them the glory that you gave me. So, he's given us his glory. And then, to make matters even more confusing, he says in in Colossians-1:26-27, he's talking about the great mystery. If if you want a belief system with a mystery behind it, you don't have to go to Scientology. Christianity has a mystery behind it.
But, it says that the mystery is revealed to the Lord's people. So, it's revealed freely to you and I. And, the mystery is Christ in you, the "hope of glory". Colossians-1:27. That means, God's hope of being glorified throughout the world is Christ in you.
Think about that for a minute. Meditate that on on that for the rest of the week. So that begs the question, what is *glory*? Alright. Now, I'm gonna put my I'm gonna take my preacher hat off.
I'm gonna put my my teacher hat on. Wifey, do you think my teacher hat looks cute? It doesn't matter what you guys think. Alright. Now, we can bring that word back up there, Chabad.
Kabad is a Hebrew word for glory. It has the connotation of **weightiness or fullness**, like high importance. Have you ever been placed in a role or placed in a position where you felt the weight of the responsibility was greater than what you were doing before, like almost immediately? And, it it required more from you, and you had to put everything that you had in into this. And then finally, when you accomplished the goal, when you finished the task, when you when you managed the responsibility, you walked past the finish line, it felt glorious.
Kind of the understanding of Chabad. Let me give you another example. Most of us probably graduated from high school. Right? Or or some of you are still in high school or in some kind of schooling.
It takes 13 years to graduate high school, unless you're on the fast track and skip, you know, some grades and stuff. But, it takes about 13 years to graduate high school, kindergarten through twelfth grade. Right? I got my math right there? Did I?
But in that, you have to persevere. You have to go day in and day out. You have to do your homework. You have to learn to study. You have to do your projects, and sometimes it's last minute.
Sometimes you make that accidental f, and you're like, what's going on? Am I gonna actually pass this time? Or or you know, you're you're studying to make all whatever it is. But, there is a responsibility and there is some time in order in order for what is inside of you to be revealed through high school. When you finally graduate, you get to graduation day, you walk across the stage, you have your gown on and your cap, your regalia and stuff, you have your diploma, and everybody's clapping at you like, wow, I didn't know you had it in you.
Right? And you're like, man, yeah, I did that. It was glorious. Because what was in you is being displayed for the world to see. You follow me?
Okay. So, when we're talking about glory, that weightiness, fullness, honor, respect, dignity, when it's used in connection with God, theologians define Chabad as a visible manifestation of God that is directly related to God's self disclosure. It's God revealing himself, a k a glory is God displaying his nature, his character, and his *attributes* for the world to see. Glory is God displaying his character, his nature, and his attributes for the world to see. John-1:14, We have seen the glory, the glory of the 1 and only Son, who came from the Father full of grace and truth.
You guys with me so far? I still got my teacher's cap on. In the New Testament, the Greek word for glory, that's the Old Testament. Old Testament is written in Hebrew, the words chabad. New Testament is written in Greek mostly, and the Greek word for glory is doxa.
It's where we get the word doxology. Perfection of God's character, especially his righteousness, and the showing of his attributes and his ways. It's the connotation of God displaying who he is. *Hebrews-1:3 says, Jesus* is the exact representation of the father in bodily form. Therefore, Jesus is the exact representation, the exact manifestation of God's perfection, of the father's perfection, his character, His righteousness, all of His attributes, and His ways.
You want know what the Father looks like? Look at Jesus. He is the Chabad, the doxa of the Father. Alright. You guys follow me so far?
So, combining the Old Testament and the New Testament word for glory, kabad and doxa, in our understanding of God, we have the weightiness of His person, the fullness of His presence in the earth, the visible manifestation of His attributes, His character, and His nature, aka the glory of God is the fullness of who God is, and what he does on display for all to see. *Colossians-1:27* says, Christ in you, the hope of glory, God's plan a for manifesting who he is and what he does in the world is placing Christ in you so that you can put on full display his character, his nature, and his attributes for the world to see? That's Christianity, man. Alright. I got 4 attributes, 4 principles, not attributes, 4 principles of glory in creation.
Number 1, and pull up number 1. God created everything with glory. I want you guys to say that. "God created everything" with glory. God created everything with glory.
It's a memory thing. If you if you see it, you hear it, and you say it, you're probably gonna remember it. God created everything with *glory*. If he created it, his intention was to put his character, his nature, and his ways on display through it. Just like a piece of artwork, you see a a Vincent van Gogh.
If you understand art, then you can probably tell that that is a Vincent van Gogh painting. Why? Because the attributes of the artist are found in the artwork, and you're like, oh, that's because it shows who the artist. The artistry shows who the artist is. Am I right?
That's why man doesn't have an excuse not to know God. *Romans-1:20*. People are without excuse because everything, all creation shows his nature and his eternal power. All creation exists to put who God is on display, if you would have eyes to see. The Bible says, seek and you will find.
Right? But the problem is a lot of people just don't want to seek. They don't want to find because they want to be their own God. Scientists really should be the most religious people, the most the people with the deepest relationship with God because they're studying his creation and seeing his nature on display. And, the more that they find, the more they see the order of God.
Really, they should be crying out for him. But, it's pride that would say, no, we're gonna find a way that there is no God. Right. Right? Right.
Right. I'm gonna read this to you. *God made everything with its own unique glory. Every part of creation* doesn't necessarily show you all of the creator, but it shows you an aspect of him. The that glory is the nature of God residing in that thing, a hidden reality that God placed inside, which holds the full essence and potential of what creation is supposed to be and do.
When that creation realizes what it's supposed to be, and does what it's supposed to do, it is **manifesting** the glory of God. Did you catch that? That's amazing. So, number 1, once again, God created everything with glory. Number 2, God created everything to manifest its glory.
*God*'s original design was that every creature become, or everything in creation become all that God created it to be, and as it's doing that, it is manifesting more and more the glory of its creator. Let me show you. Genesis-1:11. It says, then then God said, let the land produce vegetation, seed bearing plants, and trees on the land that bear fruit with seed in it according to their various kinds. Everybody say, according to their kind.
According Great. We're going to skip to verse 20. And God said, let the water teem with living creatures, and let birds fly above the earth across the vault of the sky. So, God created the great creatures of the sea and every living thing with which the water teems and that moves about in it, **according to their kind**. And every winged bird according to its kind.
And God saw that it was good. God blessed them and said, be fruitful and increase in number, fill the water in the seas, and let the birds increase on the earth. Verse 24, and God said, let the land produce living creatures according to their kind. The livestock, the creatures that move along the ground, and the wild animals, each according to its kind, and it was so. God made the wild animals according to their kind, the livestock according to their kind, and all the creatures that move along the ground according to their kinds, and God saw that it was good.
*God* made everything according to its kind in order to display a type of glory of of God that nothing else was supposed to display. Everything is supposed to display an aspect of God's glory. For instance, you look at a bird flying. It is the glory of a bird to fly. It is the glory of a fish to swim.
It's the glory of a cow to moo and to create milk and to be steak for me to eat. If you don't like that, that's okay. I'm I apologize. It's more steak for me. Amen.
It's the glory of the thing to be what God created it to be. And, God instilled in that thing everything that it needed to be what he created it to be from conception. Everything. Nothing needed to be added. So, what is it?
What what does it take for the glory of something to be revealed? It takes 3 things. It takes being in the right environment. It takes nourishment, and it takes time. Persevering in the right environment, in consistency, in nourishment, time for it to grow and to be all that God created it to be.
The right environment. If I take a fish out of water and put it on land, and it flops around, it's not in its glory. It actually looks kind of dumb. You have fish thinking about a fish flopping? Yeah.
But yet, you put a fish in the water. I mean, people pay thousands and thousands of dollars in order to have tanks in their house with fish in them, so they can just stare at them to be in awe at the glory. Because a fish is supposed to swim, and a fish in the right environment is in its glory, and everybody goes, wow, it's beautiful. You ever been scuba diving? It's amazing.
Or at least seen like shows on the Discovery Channel. People go "bird peeping". Why? They're they're peeping at birds in their glory. What?
Bird peeping? Nobody's heard bird peeping before? Oh, okay. Leaf peeping, bird watching. People are gosh.
Leaf peeping is great too. I'll take that. You get what I'm saying here. Alright. It's not his.
Alright. Let's let's bring up that that picture. Is that glorious? Don't play. That ain't glorious.
That's only glorious to the "trained eye". That is ugly. That thing that thing can't see. It can't jop. It's not cute.
No. That is that is ugly. It can't fly. It don't even have any feathers. Do you know what that is?
It's not a chicken. No. That's a toucan. That's what that is. That's a toucan in its full glory.
Everybody goes, wow, it's gorgeous. People pay money to go to zoos in order to see toucans in their full glory. But go back to the first picture. He doesn't even want to stay there. That is not exemplifying the full glory that God created to exemplify.
It's born. And, you know what? It has everything inside of it that it needs in order to exemplify the full glory that God created it to display for the world to see. But, it's not there yet. You know what it needs?
It needs the right environment, it needs nourishment, and it needs time. If I take it out of the right environment, put it put it somewhere that's too cold or too hot, then it's gonna die, and all of the glory that God placed inside of it is gonna die with it. And, it's a tragedy. If I put it in the right environment, but don't give it the nourishment that it needs, then it's not gonna mature. And, all of the glory that God placed inside of it will stay locked up inside of it or will die.
And, it will be a tragedy because everything exists to manifest the glory of God. Yeah. You guys follow me? You hear what I'm preaching here? And, some people or I'm sorry.
Some toucans, they are in the right environment and they have the right nourishment, but they don't give the right amount of time. And so, they leave before they're ready. And so, they don't *mature* and never make it. And, that's tough too. The glory is still residing within.
We'll get back to that. Okay? You guys, let's I think you you you get the point, but we'll we'll bring the birds back around. Alright. Number number 1, what was the first point?
Yeah. I didn't know I was going to test you guys on this, did you? God created everything with glory. I told you I got my teacher hat on. Number 2.
*God* created everything to manifest his or its glory, but in manifesting its glory, it's manifesting his glory. You understand? Number 3, God is pleased when glory is seen. God is pleased when glory is seen. After God finished creating each day, what'd he say?
It's good. You know why he said that? Because he was seeing his nature shining out from his *creation* by each aspect of his creation being all that it create it was created to be. And God said, that's good. That's a good that's a that's a good reflection of a piece of my character, of a piece of my nature, of an aspect of who I am.
But then, we get to the best part. It's the final day of creation. *God* created mankind, man and woman. His masterpiece, his crowning achievement. And you know what he said?
He's "very good". You know why? Number 4. God created mankind as the ultimate exposure of His glory. Creation displays aspects of His glory, but mankind is created in God's image.
The image of God, the word image is the Hebrew word tselem. I've already said t s e l e m is the tselem. It's also the word for idol. It means representation. It means resemblance.
It means likeness. *God* created you to be in his likeness, his representation on the world in on the earth. To be like him. Not physically like him. You're not you're not made to to physically look like God, but because God is spirit.
You're made to be like him in morality, in your character, in your nature. You're made to represent him in the aspects of who you are, to put on full display who God is. *Jesus is the exact representation of the father in bodily form. Right? Hebrews-1:3, 1 John-4:17*.
You heard me quote it quoted all the time. It says, in this world, we are like Jesus, the image of the father in bodily form, created to be his represented representation to the world around us, to show who he is and what he does, and in doing so, glorifying the father. If creation is his artwork and he's an artist, then you are his masterpiece. Problem is, he said it was very good. Problem is sin, what did sin do?
*Sin tainted creation*. Sin marred it. Right? We were created to walk with him in his presence. And sin cast us from his presence.
Didn't it? Remember, I told you the environment. You you had to have an the right environment, you had the right the right nourishment, and time to grow. You know what the environment is in order to reflect the glory of God as the image of God? The environment is his presence.
Like a fish can't swim outside of water, mankind can't reflect the glory of God outside of his presence. And outside of his presence, we don't look right. Sin cast us from his presence. And that's the beauty of Jesus. Jesus made a way where we could enter back into his presence.
*Jesus* made a way. Jesus is the way to restore us to our created value. **restoration projects**. You ever seen a restoration project? Let me pull up the next picture.
Man, I don't know about you. Like, you have the the right eye to see that, you will see beauty. I see trash. I I look at that and I see something that I need to take out of my house, wonder why it was in my house in the first place, put it on the side of the road for that claw to come by on Monday, snatch it up, take it to the garbage pile, burn that sucker. That's what I see.
Because I don't have the trained eye for restoration of furniture.
But, you have somebody that has
a trained eye for restoration of furniture, maybe a John Krueger, or a Gabe Mullins, or whoever you guys are. Mike Keith. Mike Keith. They see that and they say, man, that's going to be a lot of work, but it's going to be worth it. It's going to be gorgeous.
It's going to be this I'm going to restore that to its original, maybe even better than its original created value. I know the amount of time it takes. Actually, this piece took hundreds and hundreds of hours, Weeks and weeks of work. You know why? Because they have to take apart every single part.
Sand down the imperfections, reinforce the pieces that were broken, and and and then piece by piece, you know, take off all the old glue and the old things that stuck it together, piece by piece, glue it back together, put the right little staples and stuff in it to put it exactly right, then then stain it exactly how it's supposed to be, put the right things Is that me? Oh, no. Okay. Put the right things on it. I don't know how to fix it.
But put the right things on it, the right hardware and things to make it restored. Let's see the second the second 1. There it is. Gorgeous, restored to its original created value, maybe even better than it was before. *Sin* does the first 1.
*Jesus* does the second 1. A lot of people see themselves as the first 1, unable of restoration Or they see aspects of their life as the first 1, unable of being restored. But do you realize that God put everything inside of you from conception that you need in order to display his full glory? In order to display who he is and what he does, and it's never too late because Jesus is the restorer of men and women. That's what he does.
And you're like, yeah, but it it's gonna take a lot of work. Well, Jesus has patience that we don't have. And by his grace, he gives us patience. Jesus wants to work with you. This is being born again.
Marred by sin, a dim reflection of the glory of God, but receiving the restorer of projects, Jesus Christ, in order to enter into your life and he begins the restoration process. And when he starts, another way that you look will you go back to that bird? The first 1? No. That that that's that's a finished project product.
Go back to the first 1. The 1 right there. That's how you look.
You're born again. You're a new creation in Christ Jesus and it's awesome. But, you need the right environment in order to grow. You need to be in his presence, and you need to learn how to live in his presence by coming to church. And then, you don't need to leave it there.
You need to realize that he is in you, and you need to take him with you everywhere that you go with a cognizant understanding that, hey, my God is in me, my God is with me, whether I feel him or not, I am in his presence by faith. Faith. And every now and then, you'll feel his manifested presence around you, knowing and reassuring you that you're his son, and you're his daughter, and helping you to grow to know that you're in the right environment. Even at home when it's tough and your spouse is coming against you, or
your kids are being kids. Thank you. You can know in the midst of all of it that he's with you. Getting along like Jesus did, spending time with Jesus in his presence, in the Holy Spirit's presence, it's important because you can't mature and grow and *manifest* who God is and what he does in your life and through your life without being in the right environment, his presence. You begin the restoration project, the next thing you need is the restorer always with you.
But you also need the right nourishment. The drink is the Holy Spirit. He quenches our thirst whenever we're thirsty, drawing on him. The food is his word.
There's a lot of people that, man, I'm all about his presence. I'm all about his presence. I want his I'm seeking his presence, and that's great. I love it. But, they don't know his word, so they're easily led astray by the next feeling,
The next tingle.
It's like, oh, I think I felt it here, and
they run over and become sexually immoral. You didn't feel God there, bro. The way to mature is to constantly seek and stay in his presence, and also to know that he's with you, and to know who he is by knowing his word and being nourished by what he says, and then doing what he says, which is nourishment as well. You can't display everything that you are created to display. Your full purpose is to manifest the glory of God.
Who he is and what he does through your life. So when people see you, they see God. They're like, man, what's different about you? And you can say, it's Jesus. He's in me, and he's shining through me.
And lead them to him. That's what it looks like to be a Christian. And the only way that you can live that way is to stay in his presence, the right environment. Can we get the band to come up here? And consistent and constant nourishment in his word.
Not just here, because you know what? The Pharisees knew all of this. In prayer, I'm learning to hear his voice. I'm not just reading this to stroke my ego so I feel super religious. I'm reading this to know him and then I'm putting it to the test in my daily life.
Nourishment. You know what else? Time for growth. Persistence. I plant a tree in its right environment, which is soil, by the way, give it the right nourishment, rain and sun, but then you know what?
It's growing. It's good. So I pick it up out of its environment and and and take it. Hey, I got this tree. What happens to the tree?
It dies. It dies, and never reveals the full glory that God put inside of it, which is to bear fruit, and shade, and and be glorious. It never does that. There's a lot of people that go to church, they have an experience of his presence. They get in the word, and they they get a little bit of word inside them, and it's awesome, and wonderful.
And then, they
just like, I'm good, and you never see him again.
And they had the excuse. I don't need church. I got church at my house. I can read the Bible at my house. They ain't doing it.
They ain't doing it. You know what the Bible says? You walk in the light as he is in the light, you will have fellowship 1 with another. Those that don't have fellowship 1 with another, they probably ain't walking in the light. You know?
In some way, shape or form, we need the body of Christ. Because he's our restorer. It's what he does. He wants to display Christ in you, the hope of glory. His hope of glorification, of go of of of being glorified throughout the world is you.
You are his plan a. I wanna invite you guys to stand. Lord God, we just we thank you for who you are. You are glorious. Lord, we ask you to show who you are in the rest of this service and show what you do.
Lord, we praise you that you are the great restorer of people. Thank you, father. Thank you, Jesus. Thank you for tuning in today to the Real Church podcast. I pray that you walk away from today encouraged with a deeper understanding of how much *God* loves you.
If you'd like to connect with us, we can't wait to reach out you and pray for you. You can go to www.realchurch.us/connect. And then also, if you would like to give to what God is doing in and through our ministry, you can do so at www.realchurch.us/giving, or you can text any amount to 84321, and then just search in the link that comes up. Search for Real Church of the Lord. God bless you, and the best is yet to come.