Episode Transcript
[00:00:01] Our dear Heavenly Father, we are exploring the riches of your nature.
[00:00:10] You have revealed to us that you're rich in kindness and forgiveness and patience, that you're rich in mercy and grace.
[00:00:21] But you've also revealed to us that you are rich in glory.
[00:00:27] And I pray this morning your spirit would enlighten the eyes of our understanding so we could see the riches of your glory.
[00:00:36] In Christ's name, amen.
[00:00:41] In the century before Jesus, there was a man named Strabo who traveled around the Mediterranean and he wrote a book about what he saw.
[00:01:01] So he ventured to.
[00:01:04] He ventured to Egypt and he wrote about Egypt. And one of the places he mentioned was the Artemisian in Greece.
[00:01:17] It was a beautiful temple to Artemis. And this is an artist reconstruction of what it looked like.
[00:01:28] It was considered one of the most beautiful buildings in Greece.
[00:01:34] And once a year there was a giant festival.
[00:01:39] And it began with a parade of thousands of soldiers, followed by Calvary, followed by chariots, followed by people who had come from all over the Mediterranean for the festival.
[00:01:55] And they came to this beautiful temple.
[00:02:01] It was.
[00:02:02] It was the most glorious place. They knew they couldn't in their wildest imagination ever believe that it wouldn't be there forever.
[00:02:18] Archaeologists started looking for it about 100 years ago and they couldn't find it and they couldn't find it and they couldn't find it until finally some people liked the piece of land this was on and they started building villas.
[00:02:38] And to build these villas they had to excavate. And when they excavated, this is what they found.
[00:02:45] You're looking from the air down at it. This is an aerial view. You're looking straight down. And these. All that's left of that beautiful temple was, is the foundations.
[00:03:00] It's gone.
[00:03:03] The once most glorious place that they could imagine today is this.
[00:03:14] And the rest of it still hasn't been excavated because there are actually houses on it.
[00:03:22] The glory of humanity is temporary.
[00:03:30] You can walk around the ruins of the Roman forum and the Romans would never believe that it would get to that.
[00:03:39] You can wander around the ruins of Babylon.
[00:03:44] You can see the ruined face of the Sphinx.
[00:03:48] The glory of man is fleeting, it's temporary.
[00:03:55] Cultures exhaust their glory.
[00:04:00] They spend the riches of their glory and then they fade into ruins, they fade into archeology projects.
[00:04:16] But unlike man, the glory of the Lord is eternal.
[00:04:24] Before God created the heavens and the earth, he was infinitely glorious in his nature.
[00:04:34] In his creation, we see hints of the glory of God.
[00:04:41] The word glory is used in the English Bible, a New Testament 166 times.
[00:04:51] The glory of the Lord is tangible in the world.
[00:04:57] The riches of his glory are inexhaustible.
[00:05:03] And so Paul wrote to the Ephesians, for this reason I bow my knees before the Father, from Whom every family in heaven and on the earth is named.
[00:05:18] Humble prayer originates in our thinking about the riches of God's glory.
[00:05:27] If you could contemplate the riches of his glory, it would change your prayer life because you would be thinking about a God who is infinite in glory.
[00:05:42] And what can, what, what possible demand would ever tap the riches of his glory?
[00:05:53] If everybody on the earth asked for the hardest thing they could ask and God said yes to it, it not dent the riches of his glory.
[00:06:07] He it wouldn't cost him enough to make him feel any pinch at all. He is infinite in the riches of his glory.
[00:06:19] Ah, the riches of his glory can be seen in the narrative of human history.
[00:06:27] He says, for this reason I bow my knee before the Father, from Whom every family in heaven and on the earth is named. Human existence is a reflection of the glory of God.
[00:06:46] Humanity is what we are because of the glory of God.
[00:06:51] Humanity has been what we have been, and we will be what we will be because of the glory of God.
[00:06:59] It's all for his glory.
[00:07:02] All of humanity exists for the glory of God.
[00:07:11] If I pray because of the riches of his glory, I give thanks.
[00:07:19] When I think about the glorious things he has done, my heart naturally says thank you.
[00:07:27] I start looking around and I start seeing the most beautiful things in life. And I see the riches of his glory and my heart says thank you.
[00:07:38] If I pray into the riches of his glory, I'm making request. I'm saying to God, you are wealthy enough in your glory to do this thing for me. And I pray that you would do it for your name's sake.
[00:07:57] And then Paul said, according to the riches of his glory, that he may grant you to be strengthened with power through his spirit in your inner man.
[00:08:10] Now let's drill down and ask ourselves, what do we really mean by the riches of his glory?
[00:08:18] What does this phrase mean?
[00:08:22] Well, here's a theological definition. The glory of God is the sum and summation of all the attributes of God. His might, his majesty, his holiness, his purity, his righteousness, his justice.
[00:08:39] God in the totality of his being.
[00:08:42] But that's a little hard to hold onto, isn't it?
[00:08:45] So I'm going to say it in an easier way.
[00:08:49] These would be good to talk about in your life group.
[00:08:53] The glory of God, the splendor and majesty of his nature.
[00:09:03] If you meet God, you meet intrinsic splendor and majesty.
[00:09:13] There he is just splendid.
[00:09:17] He is just majestic.
[00:09:20] The natural response to the splendor and majesty of God is human awe.
[00:09:28] When the soul is awed by the sense of God, we are experiencing the riches of his glory.
[00:09:42] The glory of the Lord is also his radiance.
[00:09:46] Often when you read the Bible and it speaks about God, it says things like this. He dwells in unapproachable light.
[00:09:56] Well, what is the unapproachable light? He dwells in his glory.
[00:10:02] His glory is so radiant that we experience it as unapproachable light.
[00:10:12] Moses once said to God, if I have pleased you, let me see your glory. And God said to Moses, you can't handle my glory.
[00:10:23] You want glory? You can't handle my glory.
[00:10:27] Ah.
[00:10:29] And so the Lord said, I will.
[00:10:33] I will pass by you and I will proclaim my name.
[00:10:38] That's the closest you can get to my glory. Moses and Moses. And the Lord passed by Moses. And he said, the Lord, the Lord God, gracious and merciful, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love and kindness, forgiving iniquity, transgression and sin.
[00:10:57] He was proclaiming his attributes. He was proclaiming the riches of his glory.
[00:11:05] God's glory is his fame and honor.
[00:11:11] The name of the Lord is glorified in all the earth. What does that mean? The name of the Lord is famous in all the earth.
[00:11:21] The Lord has made his name known in every generation, all over the earth.
[00:11:28] But he's not just famous on the earth. He's more famous in heaven.
[00:11:34] Ah.
[00:11:36] He is more famous than in heaven, than every rock star that ever lived on the earth. Added up.
[00:11:44] He is more famous in heaven than every great athlete on earth. All added up.
[00:11:51] His fame and his honor in heaven are unlimited. And that is an expression of his glory.
[00:12:00] His glory is his greatness.
[00:12:04] When we say God is great, we're saying his greatness is so awesome that it crosses over from just being greatness into glory.
[00:12:21] His glory is his magnificence.
[00:12:26] The magnificence of God is a his grandeur, his royal bearing, his divine beauty and his divine existence.
[00:12:47] And finally, the glory of the Lord is His transcendence. Transcendence means one step above what you can reach.
[00:12:56] God is infinite in glory because he is one step above what we can ever reach. Man cannot reach to God. His glory elevates him too far above us. So God in His goodness comes down to man. In Jesus Christ, he lays aside his glory so that he can be experienced by people like you and I in Jesus Christ.
[00:13:30] This richness of God empowers our inner self with the greater ability. That you may be strengthened by his power, that you may be strengthened by his ability. What's this saying?
[00:13:46] God shares the riches of his glory to change our nature so that we are actually strong enough to experience him in his reality.
[00:13:59] Without the riches of his glory strengthening your inner self, you can't bear God.
[00:14:08] Ah. When God descended on the mountain and spoke to Moses on Mount Sinai, the people were terrified. And they said to Moses, you talk to God, we can't take this. Do you remember this? And Moses had to go up on the mountain and talk to God because the glory of God was overbearing to them and they couldn't take it out of the riches of his glory. He strengthens you in your inner person so that you are capable of experiencing more and more of who he is in his glory.
[00:14:49] And he does this by the Holy Spirit in our daily lives.
[00:14:54] Day by day, the Holy Spirit wants to show up in you. Day by day. He wants to share the riches of God's glory with you. Day by day. He wants to make your soul more and more capable for union and fellowship and friendship and co service with God.
[00:15:17] And then Paul wrote, so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith, that you may be rooted and grounded in love.
[00:15:28] The riches of his glory makes it possible for us to dwell for Christ to dwell in our hearts through faith.
[00:15:38] Unless God shares His glory with your soul, your soul is a ghetto.
[00:15:48] And Christ has no intention of living in a ruined soul. Can you hear this?
[00:15:59] Don't ever deceive yourself that your soul is this wonderful and beautiful place that Christ would like to go on vacation in.
[00:16:09] Without the riches of his glory, my soul is a crumbling ghetto.
[00:16:18] Without the riches of his glory remaking and restructuring and rebuilding my soul, my soul is a dungeon.
[00:16:29] It's a prison, it's a swamp of iniquity.
[00:16:37] But in the riches of his glory, he comes to each one of us and he says, I'm going to do a little remodeling here because I'd like to hang out here a little more. And I can't live here in this condition.
[00:16:54] And out of the riches of his glory, through Jesus Christ, he starts remodeling our souls. And our souls become places where Christ enjoys abiding.
[00:17:09] And he does it out of the riches of his glory.
[00:17:21] And then he says, as this happens, as he shares the riches of his glory with us, as He Remodels us into a place where Christ is pleased to dwell.
[00:17:37] He changes the environment into an environment of love.
[00:17:45] I become rooted and grounded in love.
[00:17:49] The riches of his glory changes the atmosphere of my soul.
[00:17:55] And the atmosphere of my soul is not resentful. It's not angry, it's not lustful. It's not all these wrong things. It. The atmosphere of my soul becomes love.
[00:18:09] Out of the riches of his glory. I am existing and thriving in the environment of love that comes out of the riches of his glory.
[00:18:26] I wonder, are you experiencing the riches of his glory in your personal life?
[00:18:35] Or has your Christian life drifted far from the wonderful, the beauty, the majesty, the splendor of the riches of his glory?
[00:18:50] I wonder, is your soul being made new?
[00:18:55] Are you being renewed in the spirit of your mind?
[00:18:59] Is something strengthening and something beautiful happening in you? Because day by day you're drawing on the riches of his glory. And it's changing who you are from the inside out.
[00:19:17] If you have.
[00:19:20] If you have gone astray, if you find your inner life is not pleasant.
[00:19:34] In fact, if you got yourself in a place where you try to avoid too much quietness. Because you don't like what you hear on the inside, when it's too quiet.
[00:19:48] I'm telling you it's time to go back to the bank.
[00:19:53] It's time to go back to the riches of his glory.
[00:19:57] And allow the riches of his glory to renew you, to refresh you, to restore you, to remodel you. So that you can live the rich and good life that God created you to live.
[00:20:15] You don't have to continue in the emptiness. There is a richness of glory that God shares with those who seek him with all their heart.
[00:20:28] And then Paul wrote that you may have strength to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length, the height and depth. And to know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge.
[00:20:49] The riches of his glory enables me to take hold of the reality of the fullness of God once more.
[00:21:03] As with my soul, so it is in my mind.
[00:21:07] My mind is not capable of thinking about God the way he should be thought of. And I have to have help.
[00:21:18] And Paul says, out of the riches of his glory, God recreates my thinking. And I can think about him in a way that is closer to who he really is.
[00:21:33] I guarantee you that most of us have more flawed thinking about God than we have correct thinking about God.
[00:21:45] I absolutely guarantee you that in the natural condition of man. Our thoughts about God are infinitely less than who he really is but out of the riches of his glory, out of the riches of his majesty, his splendor, out of the riches of his radiance, he recreates your ability to think. And day by day, you grow to have the capacity to think about God more and more as he really is. You come to know God as the only true God, instead of knowing myths and misrepresentations of God.
[00:22:35] And then Paul says, ah, what is the breadth and length, the height and depth?
[00:22:46] Paul is trying to make tangible an intangible idea.
[00:22:52] So what he describes here is how tall something is, how wide it is, how deep it is, how long it is, so you can start getting a mental image. So here's what I want you to do. I want you to have a mental image of a cardboard box, a square cardboard box. You got that in your head. You've carried enough of them in your lifetime, all right?
[00:23:20] You'll be wrapping some up this Christmas, all right?
[00:23:24] If you can think of that cardboard box as an object.
[00:23:30] Now, Paul says, I want you to take that object and I want you to abstract it.
[00:23:39] And I want you to think of that object bigger and bigger and bigger.
[00:23:46] The box starts this big, then it gets this big, then it gets this big, Then it's too big to be in the building. Now it's filling up the outside, now it's filling up the sky. And pretty soon the box is so big, all you can see is the box. It takes over everything, all right? He's trying to create a tangible image of allowing the riches of God to swell in your mind that when you think about God, you think about his riches, of his glory, and you let it get bigger, and you let it get bigger, and you let it get bigger.
[00:24:26] The biggest thought you can think of, the riches of his glory, is still less than what it is. Do you understand this?
[00:24:38] And he said, in fact, I want you to come to the place where you can know something that surpasses knowledge. Is that an odd statement?
[00:24:57] And to know the love of Christ, that surpasses knowledge. If you read that honestly, you say, well, if it surpasses knowing, then how can I possibly know it?
[00:25:09] Right? Isn't that fair? If it surpass a Paul, I'm not getting it. If it's too hard to know, how do I know it? Well, what he wants to say is, you can't reason your way to understanding the riches of his glory.
[00:25:27] You cannot sit down one day with a sheet of paper and reason your way to understanding the glory of God. It's unknowable through reason.
[00:25:40] You can't feel your way to knowing God.
[00:25:44] You can use your five senses to the very peak of their capacity and you won't come to know God in the riches of his glory through your senses.
[00:25:59] So if I can't know him through reason and I can't know him through my existence, my empirical knowledge, then how do I come to know Him? There's only one way to know him, and that is through revelation. God reveals Himself to us in the love of Jesus Christ.
[00:26:21] Are you hearing me? The glory of God cannot be reasoned to, it cannot be felt to. It can only be known by God revealing it to us in the love of Jesus Christ.
[00:26:37] The way Christ loves you is an expression of the glory of God.
[00:26:45] The way Christ is going to love you throughout all eternity will be expressing again and again and again the riches of his glory.
[00:26:56] What do you do? Not what do you really desire to know about the riches of his glory?
[00:27:07] Does it trigger anything in you?
[00:27:10] Do you feel like I've missed out on something awesome in my life?
[00:27:18] I don't understand the riches of his glory and it feels like I've missed out on something incredible in my life.
[00:27:27] Church, could I appeal to you? Could I, Could I. Could I reach beyond the barriers and could I whisper to your soul, there is nothing worth knowing that is better than the riches of his glory.
[00:27:51] Church, There is nothing worth experiencing more than the riches of his glory in the love of Jesus Christ.
[00:28:03] It's what the human soul was created for.
[00:28:10] And then Paul says that you may be filled with all the fullness of God.
[00:28:19] That is an incredible statement.
[00:28:23] Out of the riches of his glory, it is possible for you and I to be filled with the fullness of God from the riches of his glory. God fills us so that we can be generous just as he is.
[00:28:45] God doesn't fill you with his glory so you can gloat.
[00:28:52] God doesn't fill you with his glory so you can act like you're better than other people.
[00:28:58] God doesn't fill you with his glory so you can. You can walk around with a judgmental attitude. God fills you with your his glory so that you have the resources to share the nature of God with others. Church, God expects every one of us to take from the riches of his glory that he has shared with us and to share it with other people.
[00:29:27] You have everything you need to be generous. God has already shared it with you.
[00:29:34] He has already shared with you the riches of his glory. You have everything you need to be generous.
[00:29:41] If you're not Generous. It isn't because you don't have what you need. It's because you have misunderstood the riches of his glory.
[00:29:51] You have it in your head that somehow or another, if I'm generous, I'm not gonna have something and somebody else is gonna have it. That is a total miscomprehension of the riches of his glory.
[00:30:06] The riches of his glory? Sounds like this. The more you invest of my glory, the more of my glory I invest in you, Church.
[00:30:18] The more you share, the more he shares with you in your life. You say, well, Doc, you don't know what condition I'm in right now.
[00:30:32] In a hard way. I believe that I've been in hard places in my life.
[00:30:41] But the external experience that is temporary mustn't be the guiding principle of the internal life that is eternal.
[00:30:55] Do you hear this?
[00:30:57] My external temporary circumstances can't set the agenda for my internal life that is eternal.
[00:31:06] And Christ has already promised you that he will fill you with the fullness of God.
[00:31:16] Listen. Listen what the prophet said.
[00:31:19] Bring the full tithe into the storehouse that there may be food in my house and thereby put me to the test, says the Lord of Host, and see if I will open the windows of heaven for you and pour down a blessing on you that you are.
[00:31:38] This is a different. I memorize this in a different way.
[00:31:42] Pour down for you a blessing until there is no more need.
[00:31:46] I'm sorry, I read that poorly. I'll just quote it to you.
[00:31:51] The Lord says, try me in this and see if I'm not able to open up the windows of heaven and pour out on you a blessing that you can't contain.
[00:32:02] Do you see what he's saying? God says, I am infinite in the riches of glory, and I have already committed myself to sharing that with you.
[00:32:16] You can experience it if you want by the remodeling of your soul. You can experience it if you want the recreation of your mind to be able to think the way God wants you to think.
[00:32:30] And then he says, now you have to get practical with it. And the way you get practical with it is you start requiring yourself to be as generous with others as God has been generous with you. Do you hear this?
[00:32:50] You will profit from the riches of his glory, but you have to start experimenting with it.
[00:33:02] Two weeks ago, I talked to you about his kindness, forgiveness and patience. Have you experimented with the riches of his kindness, forgiveness and patience?
[00:33:14] Or did you take that idea and say, that's interesting, and go home and not change anything for this great plan? Of God to work, I have to start drawing on his riches and start expending it in my life. I have to start experimenting with the riches of his kindness and showing kindness I don't have that comes through me to others.
[00:33:46] I just started experimenting with his forgiveness. And as he forgives me, I let that forgiveness flow through me and I forgive others.
[00:33:56] I have to start experimenting with his mercy. And when I see the misery of the world around me, I draw on the riches of his mercy and I spend it in trying to comfort and show kindness to those are broken.
[00:34:12] I have to start experimenting with his grace and drawing from his grace so I can treat other people better than what they deserve.
[00:34:22] But Church, I have to be.
[00:34:25] I have to be equally as committed to drawing on the generosity of his the riches of his glory.
[00:34:36] I'm asking some of you for the first time in your life to consider being a weekly supporter of this church.
[00:34:46] Our church does very well on special offerings.
[00:34:50] We'll take in a whole bunch of money in the Christmas offering and we'll buy food for kids all next year. We'll do fine on that.
[00:35:00] But I'm talking about generosity not as something you do at a special offering. I'm talking about generosity as just part of your weekly Christianity.
[00:35:12] You just say to God, you are rich in glory. And I'm going to give this to you week by week in the belief that you are more than capable of filling me up again with the fullness of God.
[00:35:28] You see, it becomes part of who I think God is because I think God is rich in glory. I can share what I would not have otherwise shared because I believe he's rich enough to replace it in my life. Church, this is a spiritual step of growth. It's a step where I start saying, I'm not depending on myself.
[00:35:58] I'm depending on the riches of his glory.
[00:36:01] And I'm going to experiment with the riches of his glory. And I'm going to see what God does in my life. If week by week, I am a weekly contributor to what God is doing in the world through this church, let me tell you a few things.
[00:36:23] No man has ever given to God that he should repay him.
[00:36:27] If you think you're going to give to God and then somehow or another you're going to get ripped off, you don't understand the riches of his glory. He's so rich, he doesn't need to rip you off. Church, you don't really have anything that he didn't give to you already.
[00:36:45] So out of the riches of His Glory.
[00:36:49] God says, I want you to put your full faith in me and you be a weekly supporter of my kingdom and see if out of the riches, my glory, I don't make your life better.
[00:37:07] Church it has to be more than a religious idea. It has to be a life experiment.
[00:37:18] So some of you say, well, where do I start? Here's where you start.
[00:37:23] You sit down and you pray and you say to God, I'm going to do a 90 day experiment with you for the next 90 days. I'm going to experiment with the riches of your glory and I'm going to be a weekly contributor.
[00:37:40] And at the end of those 90 days, I'm going to look and see what has happened in my life.
[00:37:46] I'm gonna look around and see, was I not able to buy groceries because I was a weekly contributor?
[00:37:55] Did my car run out of gas on the road?
[00:37:59] Okay, if you can't buy groceries, that's why we have offerings and we'll help you buy groceries.
[00:38:06] You run out of gas, call aaa.
[00:38:13] All right?
[00:38:15] Church, listen, I'm only asking you to do what the Bible teaches you to do. Jesus, the prophet said, try me.
[00:38:25] Try me and see if I'm not able to out of the riches of my glory. Bless you. Beyond what you expect.
[00:38:34] And when we do that, we begin to. We begin to live out our new relationship with God. We are drawing on the rich of his kindness, his forgiveness, his patience, his mercy, his grace, the riches of his glory. We are drawing on that. But then we're. We're investing it back into life.
[00:38:58] It's one thing to be a perpetual withdrawer. It's another thing to be a consistent giver.
[00:39:07] And Christ says, if you'll try him, he'll open up the windows of heaven and pour out on you a blessing you can't contain. Our dear Heavenly Father, thank you for this church.
[00:39:20] Thank you for these good people.
[00:39:23] Thank you for the teaching of the apostle about your riches.
[00:39:29] I ask you that your Holy Spirit would do in us today what only he can do.
[00:39:35] I ask that you would convince us that you are infinitely rich in glory.
[00:39:43] And it is your desire to fill us with your divine fullness.
[00:39:48] And I pray for those who are afraid and I pray that you give them courage. I pray for those who doubt that you'd give them faith.
[00:39:57] I pray for those who are wondering that you would inspire them. And I pray that the end result of this would be we would share the riches of your glory in our generation in a way far beyond what we've been able to do. And I ask this through Jesus Christ our Lord.
