Message - Child of God (Inheritance)

Well, hey, if it's your first time with us on a Sunday, welcome.

My name is Justin.

Those of you watching from home, glad you guys are with us today.

And last Sunday, we started a new series, and it's it's called Child of God.

We're studying this section of Romans chapter 8, the last half of Romans chapter 8.

Romans 8 · chapter mention Romans 8 · chapter mention

And if you're not familiar, uh, the book of Romans, the letter to the Roman Church in the New Testament of the Bible is probably the most comprehensive, nuanced, layered, deep dive into who Jesus is, what Jesus came to accomplish, what our life would be like without Jesus, why we need him, what he does for us, and what life looks like living in relationship with Jesus.

But if you're new to the whole Jesus thing, if you're just checking it out, don't worry.

Don't worry, because this is stuff that you're gonna click with.

You're gonna understand this.

And the reason why, and we say this a lot, but it's important to understand, is that you are created by God to have the capacity to understand deeply spiritual things.

And so we always do our best to make it accessible, to help you grab a hold of it, but you are created by God with the capacity to understand deeply spiritual things, and you're gonna get this because you're meant to.

And this section is all about what it really means to be a child of God.

Now, last Sunday we ended with this statement: I am a child of God.

That statement, 2,000 years ago, would have gotten you killed.

We know that because it got Jesus killed.

Of all the things that Jesus did, of all the things that his enemies, the religious leaders of his day, used against him, it was his claim that God was his father.

To them, that was blasphemy to say that you were a child of God was such an audacious, shocking thing to say that it was punishable by death in the culture that Jesus grew up in.

And fast forward to today, and we can say this really easily.

And maybe actually the pendulum has swung too far the other direction, to where we can say it so easily that the weight of it doesn't really hit us, that we don't say it with the kind of awe and wonder that we're meant to, that I am a child of God.

I am the son of God.

You are the son or the daughter of the God of the universe.

That's that's amazing.

It's truly incredible.

Sometimes we say things like that, and to us it's just a nice sentiment.

It's a nice thought, and it's meant to bring us some comfort to encourage us.

But no, no, this is a life-changing reality.

But in our culture, in our world today, we we throw this out there a lot because maybe we have the thought, after all, isn't everyone a child of God?

And the answer is, well, kind of, but but no.

Everyone is God's creation.

And God loves all of his creation, God loves every single person on this earth.

Jesus made that so clear.

For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only son.

Every single person is God's creation.

He loves all of his creation.

He desires every single person that he has created to know him, to be known by him, to have a relationship with him.

But there's a difference between being God's creation and being God's child.

And so we we read Romans chapter 8, verses 15 through 16, and this is what we started with last week.

Romans 8:15–16

You've not received a spirit that makes you fearful slaves.

Instead, you received God's spirit when he adopted you as his own children.

Quick show of hands, how many of you of you have children?

Okay.

Another show of hands, if you don't mind this, it's a little personal.

How many of you have adopted children?

Okay, several of you.

Wow.

Um, yeah, you can clap for those who have adopted people.

That's amazing.

It shows the father's heart there.

Um, another show of hands.

How many of you have adopted your biological children?

You know?

Okay.

Like, yeah, you don't adopt the children who are already yours.

Now you commit to them, and sometimes you may think about giving them up for adoption, right?

But you don't adopt your actual children, right?

So, so if we're all just the children of God, why does he need to adopt us?

See, there's a difference between being God's creation, his beloved creation, and look, if you're here and you haven't given your life to Jesus, you need to hear this.

You are his beloved creation.

He adores you, he knows you.

But he has invited you to be part of his family, to be something more than his creation, to be his child.

And when we give our lives to Jesus, that's what happens.

We become adopted.

Now we get to call him Abba Father, for his spirit joins with our spirit to affirm that we are God's children.

And this is amazing and this is incredible.

This is something so audacious, like we looked at last week, that saying this out loud 2,000 years ago in Jesus' day, it would be scandalous, it would be shocking, it would be deserving of death.

But Jesus is the Son of God, and because of what He's done for us, we have now been invited into that same family.

When we put our faith in Jesus, when you put your trust in Jesus, you are adopted.

God is your father, he's not like your father, he's not a father figure in your life, he is your father.

You are his child, everything changes.

It's awesome.

It's a life-changing reality.

It's incredible.

And today, what we're gonna jump into and look at, I hope, just makes this all the more incredible.

I want to get us there with a little mental exercise.

Um, I'd like for you in your mind right now to fill in this blank.

I got my blank from my mom or dad.

I got my my blank from my mom and dad.

And there can be a lot of options here.

Um, some of you, for example, you might say, I got my appearance from my mom or my dad.

How many of you show of hands if you don't mind?

How many of you would say, like, yeah, I am the spitting image of my father or my mother?

If someone saw your mom or dad, they wouldn't have to wonder where you came from.

They'd be like, that one, that's yours, okay?

How many of you don't look anything like your parents at all?

Okay, how many of you are grateful for that?

I'm just joking.

Don't raise your hand for that.

Um, it's funny, uh, I think the only child in our family that looks like me is my one girl.

I have one daughter, three boys.

None of the boys look like me.

My daughter looks like exactly like me.

And so I get to see what I would have looked like had I been a girl.

It's really, really interesting and weird.

Um, some of you, maybe it's not your whole appearance, maybe it's just one aspect.

Maybe you got your eyes from your mom or dad, or your nose, or or your smile, uh, but you got something physical from your parents, your height.

You know, I feel bad for my son because he loves basketball, my oldest, uh, and I'm 5'9.

I didn't help him there.

You know, so I'm banking on some of Megan's jeans to come in.

Uh her dad's six five.

Hopefully he got that.

We'll see.

But you got that from your parents.

How about this?

Maybe your temperament.

You got your your temperament from your mom or your dad.

And you don't even have to raise your hand for this because it's always a shameful raise of the hand if you're like, yeah.

Because here's what that means.

If you got your temperament from your mother or father, generally, it means that there's something that your mom or dad used to do that you hated.

And you swore to yourself, I will never do that.

I will never be like my mother or father in that situation.

And then one day, usually it's like mid-20s when it first happens, you do something, and it's like you stop and go, Oh no.

I'm my dad.

It happened for me about a decade ago.

Uh, we got a basketball goal in my house, and uh, and I was I was having to, I got on a ladder and I had to put the little the little net in the little hooks.

I mean, has anyone ever done that, by the way?

You've had to like put the net.

It's one of the most frustrating things in the world.

It's like right below putting IKEA furniture together, right?

Like your fingers have to be so small.

And I sat there and there I got most of them, but there was this one I could, I just couldn't do it.

And I tried like 30 times, and I just like, and the anger inside of me, I'm Irish, and it started to boil a little bit.

And by the time it was done, I got off the ladder and I just threw the ladder across the driveway.

Uh and my neighbor was outside, and I was like, hey, I'm a pastor at his hands, you should come visit us on a Sunday sometime.

You know, it's great, don't worry about it, it's all good.

But like, I as soon as I did that, I had this flashback because I remember moments where my dad would be doing something, and and he would just get so frustrated that some inanimate object around him just happened to be in the wrong place at the wrong time.

And we got to go get a new one of those, you know?

And I I swore I will I'll never do that.

I'll never lose my cool over something so silly.

And nope, but I got that from my dad.

At least you have someone to blame.

You know, that's the good thing about being a child.

You know, maybe you got your personality from your parents.

Maybe some of you may have gotten your job, your career path from your mom or dad.

Maybe they had a family business and and you were allowed to kind of apprentice into that and you were given that.

Some of you it's your resources.

Some of your parents maybe left you something that helps you get a head start in life.

It's your name, it's your reputation.

You know, maybe you grew up in a place where your parents were well known.

And so when people found out that you were your father's child, there was a certain expectation that went with that.

I actually feel kind of bad for my kids here because uh, you know, I'm the pastor, they're the pastor's kids.

And when people find that out, even though I will say this something unique about his hands is that no one has the pressure, not even me here, to be perfect, which is great.

So my kids don't have any pressure to be more perfect because they're the pastor's kid, not at all.

Uh, I think his hands is actually really unique in that aspect that I can stand up here and talk about my failures and it's fine.

A lot of pastors don't have that luxury, they have to like act like they've got it all together.

I don't.

And so if I don't have it all together, my kids certainly don't have to have it all together, and that's great.

But there's still that expectation, and they feel it sometimes.

Maybe you grew up like that.

The reality is we get a lot from our parents, and we have a word for that.

When you get something from your parents, you inherit.

You inherit things.

Like it or not, good or bad, we have all inherited something from our mothers and our fathers.

And we have another word, I like words if you don't know this.

Uh there's another word for someone who inherits something, and it's it's the word heir.

When you inherit something, you are an you are an heir.

And when you're set to inherit something, you are an heir.

And with that in mind, I want to keep reading in Romans chapter 8.

Romans 8 · chapter mention

I want to go back to the original verses we started looking at, because this all connects.

It says, You've not received a spirit that makes you fearful slaves.

Instead, you received God's spirit when he adopted you as his own children.

Now we call him Abba Father.

Abba's a very intimate word, it's personal.

We call him Abba Father.

For his spirit joins with our spirit to affirm that we are God's children, and since we are his children, we are his heirs.

In fact, together with Christ, we are heirs of God's glory.

But if we are to share his glory, we must also share his suffering.

Yet what we suffer now is nothing compared to the glory he will reveal to us later.

Now, usually when you talk about someone being an heir, generally, at least in our culture, the idea of an inheritance being an heir, it's almost always financial.

That you're set to inherit a sum of money or a possession, maybe it's a house, an estate of some kind.

But what this says is that we, together with Jesus, which by the way, let's just stop there for a second and appreciate that.

Like sometimes you have to read scripture and just stop and go, wow, this just says that I am together with Jesus an heir.

Some translations say that we are co-heirs with Jesus.

I've said this before, I would be co-anything with Jesus.

But but to be a co-heir with Jesus, that I am I am risen to that level with Jesus Christ, that's unbelievable.

But it says that what we are set to inherit is this word called glory.

That you are an heir of God's glory.

If you've put your faith in Jesus Christ, you are an heir, you are set to inherit the glory of God.

I just want to say this.

I believe that you could not find a more powerful statement in the entirety of Scripture.

You could not find a single sentence that is so loaded, that is so spectacular, that it should make you stop and drop to the ground saying, No, it can't be, it's impossible, it's too good to be true, there's just no way that cannot be.

You couldn't find one statement more worthy of that response than the statement that we are the heirs of God's glory.

That we are set to inherit the glory of God.

That's amazing.

But I think it's it's hard for us to wrap our minds around it because of this word, it's glory.

Like this is this is not a word that we use in the same way that it used to be used.

I was thinking this week about the the kinds of things that I have described with the word glory.

Things that I have said it's glorious.

And I actually, I'm pretty sure recently I described a flavor of ice cream as glorious.

There's a restaurant in Canton, Georgia called the Frosty Frog, and they have a flavor of ice cream that they only bring out every once in a while.

It's called Blackberry Bramble, and it is glorious.

I've said that.

This is glorious.

There's all kinds of things that we we use the word glorious to describe.

And to be honest, our understanding of glory, it's just drifted very far from what this word would have meant to those who used it.

See, the the Hebrew language had a word for glory, and it was kovod.

And it means weight.

That's interesting.

The word glory, it it meant weightiness.

Something heavy.

I kind of grew up as a movie person.

I worked at Blockbuster Video for that was my first job.

I don't know what your first job was.

My first job was Blockbuster Video.

I got fired from Blockbuster Video.

That's an accomplishment.

That takes it takes dedication to get fired from Blockbuster.

I'm just telling you, you have to be really bad to get fired from a place like Blockbuster.

Um, but I did it, I did it.

And so I used to watch a lot of movies.

Has anyone ever seen the movie Glory?

With uh Denzel Washington, Civil War movie?

Okay.

If if you see that movie, it's an amazing movie.

Uh it's actually a really interesting picture of this idea of glory being weight.

Because that's a heavy movie.

Like if I said, hey, you want to come over to my house and watch the movie Glory, if you had no idea what it was about, you might be like, that sounds fun.

That sounds like that sounds like a fun, exciting movie.

And actually, it's like, no, you're gonna you're gonna cry for sure.

You're gonna feel like someone has reached inside of you and pulled out one of your most vital organs and just taken it out, shown it to you, and then like put it back in.

That's how you're gonna feel when you watch the movie Glory, because that's a heavy movie.

And what happens at the end, and I won't spoil it because it's a it's a really powerful movie.

If you want to watch it, I encourage you to.

Um I say that having not seen it in a really long time, so I don't know.

Not an endorsement.

Uh no idea, I don't remember things very well, but but I remember it being really powerful.

But but it's heavy.

It's heavy.

Something is is so weighty that you have to stop and take it in.

And we still have we still have that idea in our language today.

Like someone may share a piece of news with you at some point in time and it's it's heavy.

It requires you to stop and just chew on it and think about it.

You can't just go, oh, cool, and keep going.

No, it's it's heavy.

Or maybe we use the phrase, uh, I don't think you understand the gravity of this situation.

I don't think you understand the weight, the gravity of what's happening.

That is that is cavod, that is glory.

Or maybe we we actually describe a person as someone who has gravitas.

There's just something about this person that's that's weighty.

And when you're around them, you can't help but notice.

See, in the Old Testament, when God was described as being glorious, it's always heavy.

It's this like amazing, admirable, but at the same time, better not take it for granted, better not treat it lightly, kind of thing.

I'll give you an example.

Uh Exodus chapter 24.

Exodus 24 · chapter mention

Exodus, if you don't know, it tells the story of the people of Israel escaping slavery in Egypt, and they're out in this place called the wilderness.

It was a desert, and they're just kind of learning how to be God's people.

They're nomads, and some crazy stuff goes down.

In Exodus 24, it says, Moses climbed up the mountain.

This was Mount Sinai, and the cloud covered it.

And the glory of the Lord, that word glory, cavod, the weight of the Lord, settled down on Mount Sinai, and the cloud covered it for six days.

And on the seventh day the Lord called to Moses from inside the cloud, and to the Israelites at the foot of the mountain, the glory of the Lord appeared at the summit like a consuming fire.

And surprise, when Moses walks into it, they're like, Well, he's dead.

I mean, they literally believe he's he's clearly that he's gone, he's a goner.

Because he walked into the glory of the Lord, and the glory of the Lord appeared to them like a consuming fire.

It wasn't like a rainbow with sparkles, and they're like, let's all go and play in that.

It was a consuming fire, it was heavy, it was weighty, and it was one of those things that you would simultaneously stand in awe of, but also be a little bit afraid of.

What I'm trying to say is God's glory is it is serious, it's intense.

It's it's like his power and his might and his authority and his goodness all rolled in together.

That is his glory, and it's it's something incredibly powerful.

It's actually kind of hard for us to find sort of modern examples of it.

But I think there are a few examples.

For example, let's not quite modern.

Let's think about like an ancient king.

Take like the story of Esther.

If you're familiar with the story of Esther in the Bible, Esther marries a man named Xerxes, he was the king of Persia.

If you've ever seen the movie 300, a movie I know not to recommend, uh the uh the king in that movie is the same Xerxes.

It's depicting Xerxes from the story of Esther.

Not a good guy.

But he led the Persian army, and the Persians were the most powerful empire at that time.

And his glory, his weight, his authority was so much that even Esther, being the queen, couldn't just go hang out with him if she wanted to.

She couldn't just say, Hey, I want to go see the king.

I'm the queen after all.

I'm just gonna go walk into his room and be like, hey, what's up, honey?

No.

Even the queen had to be summoned and invited into his presence, or else she could be killed.

That's how, that's how heavy the glory of the king was.

And everywhere that the king went, you couldn't mistake the weight of his presence.

Because there would be an entourage.

You know, there would be all kinds of soldiers dressed in their finest apparel, and they would have weapons, and they would clear the streets, and there would be people shouting, hail to the king! Every single thing that you would see from the way the king was dressed to what he was sitting in, and the people lifting up his throne and carrying it with him on it, everything was there to magnify and amplify the glory of the king.

And you as a person would have to add to that.

You would be expected to bow down to the ground.

Why?

Why would you bow in his presence?

Because you were expected to add to the glory of the king.

You weren't to look the king in the eye.

You were to bow low.

And you were to do everything in your life.

In fact, your entire life would be all for his glory, all for the glory of the king.

That means everything you worked for wasn't really for you, it was for the king.

That would mean that you would work to grow not your own kingdom, not your own glory, but his.

You would just do your part to add to the weight of the king's kingdom and authority to his glory.

That might mean suffering for his glory, so be it.

Good for you.

That might mean dying for the king's glory, and thousands did, and if you did, hey, good for you, because everything was about living for the king's glory.

Now, let me ask you a question.

How many of us right now are like, man, that sounds great?

I wish I lived back in Xerxes' day.

Because you know, in America, like, we have a president, and if he showed up, there'd be an entourage and there'd be Secret Service members and there'd be cars and you'd feel the weight of it.

But at the same time in America, like, we just get to make fun of our president.

You know, we get to laugh at him, and like people make a good living just literally making fun of whoever happens to be in the sea of the.

That didn't happen in Xerxes' world.

There was no one's like, hey, I do hilarious impersonation of King Xerxes.

Wanna see it?

Because it's like, yeah, and then you'll die.

That'll be the last thing you do.

You know, we have the freedom to do that on July 4th.

I think it's appropriate to say, I'm glad we have the freedom to do that.

But that didn't happen in the Persian Empire.

And honestly, how many of us would would really think to ourselves, man, I would love to just go back in time and live there?

I would love my entire life to be all about the glory of a king like Xerxes.

Anybody?

Those of you

Home, I can't see you, but I imagine you're you're having the same response as everybody here, which is none.

No one.

But with that in mind, check this out.

1 Corinthians chapter 10, verse 31 says, Whatever you eat or drink, whatever you do, do it all for the glory of God.

1 Corinthians 10:31

Whatever you do, whatever you do for a living, however you conduct yourself at work, out in public, at home, when everyone's watching, when no one is watching.

Whatever you do, do it all for the glory of the Lord.

Now, if none of us, if none of us would raise our hands and say, ooh, I wish I could go back and just be someone who lived their entire life for the glory of the king, then why would this be any different?

Why would why would living our entire lives for the glory of God, which we're we're asked to do, why would that be any different?

Why is this any less tyrannical and oppressive as living for the glory of a Xerxes or you name it, fill in the blank?

It's for a few major reasons.

It's vital for us to understand this as the children of God.

I mean, number one, God is nothing like a Xerxes or anyone else that you have ever seen in power.

Jesus shows us this for a few different reasons.

Number one, he shares his glory.

God shares his glory.

Now, the normal way for people on the earth who have power and authority, the normal thing that they do with whatever glory they get, with their authority, their way, is they keep it and they hoard it.

And they make sure no one can threaten it.

But God, the Father, He He shares His glory.

It's what He's done from the very beginning.

In fact, if you read Genesis chapter 1, verses 26 through 28, it says, Then God said, Let us make human beings in our image to be like us.

Genesis 1:26–28

They will reign over the fish in the sea, the birds in the sky, the livestock, all the wild animals on the earth, and the small animals that scurry along the ground.

And so God created human beings in his own image, and in the image of God he created them, male and female, he created them, and then he blessed them.

And he said, Be fruitful and multiply, fill the earth and govern it.

Reign over the fish in the sea, the birds in the sky, and all the animals that scurry along the ground.

So the story goes like this: God creates everything.

He makes it all, and it's glorious.

It is a reflection of his glory.

And of all the things that he created, there is nothing that could be arguably as much a reflection of his glory as the earth and everything in it and everything on it.

It's unique, it's beautiful, filled with life.

And he creates this thing, and then he creates us.

And if you know the story, we're we're like the last to arrive.

We're not in on the ground floor.

We're the last piece.

And here's this glorious thing.

And here's the God who made it.

And his first ask of human beings, of us, was not bow down in reverence to me and worship me.

His first ask was, here, I made this for you.

Own it.

Reign over it.

Govern it.

I created this, it reflects my glory, it's yours.

Have it.

From the very beginning, God shares his glory with us.

He shares his glory.

Matthew chapter 5, verses 3 through 10.

Matthew 5:3–10

Jesus is uh giving what's commonly known as the Beatitudes.

This is like the orientation class of what life connected to Jesus is really all about, of what God actually values, what it's like to follow Him.

And he says, God blesses those who are poor and realize their need for Him, for the kingdom of heaven is theirs.

God blesses those who mourn, for they will be comforted.

He blesses those who are humble, for they will inherit the whole earth.

God blesses those who hunger and thirst for justice, for they will be satisfied.

God blesses those who are merciful, for they will be shown mercy.

God blesses those whose hearts are pure, for they will see God.

God blesses those who work for peace, for they will be called the children of God.

God blesses those who are persecuted for doing right, for the kingdom of heaven is theirs.

Three times in that short statement of Jesus, he uses inheritance language.

He says, the kingdom of heaven, the whole earth, will be yours.

Why?

Because his heart is the same as it was when he created the earth.

His desire, his heart is to share his glory.

It is to give to us, to share with us this world that he's made.

He doesn't hoard it for himself.

He doesn't keep it for himself, he shares it with you.

And so, practically speaking, when you live your life simply to add glory to God, when that's the motivating function of your being.

Like I want to do whatever I can do to add to God's glory.

You don't do it because you're going to receive that.

It's kind of like giving financially if you're a Jesus follower.

Giving financially is a really powerful thing to do.

And I've seen God bless it in my life in really amazing ways.

That's not why I give.

But it's just the way it works.

Because God is not like a Xerxes, He's not like the kings of this world.

He shares his glory.

And when you live your life to add to his glory, when everything you do is for his glory, when whatever you do, whether you're eating, drinking, working, the way you speak to your children, the way you speak to your parents, the way you interact with those around you, whatever it is, the kind of husband you are, the kind of wife you are, the kind of employee or employer that you are, when everything you do is for the glory of God, all you're doing ultimately is adding to the very thing that God's going to give to you.

Because you are an heir, along with Jesus, a co-heir of the glory of God.

It's yours.

God shares his glory.

And like I just said, this segues, he doesn't just share his glory, he shares it with you because you are the inheritor of God's glory.

We are heirs of the glory of God.

And this is where stuff gets kind of crazy.

Because I think it's hard for us to picture what does that mean?

Like, if God is a cloud that is an all-consuming fire, how does that mean?

Like, what is that about?

And the answer is I don't know.

There's a lot of mystery here.

And we've got to be careful not to try to solve all the mysteries that God clearly does not solve for us, but we do get clues along the way.

Let me give you an example of a clue.

Matthew chapter 17, verses 1 through 8.

Matthew 17:1–8

This is a section in the story of Jesus' life, often called the transfiguration.

Here's what it says.

After six days, Jesus took with him Peter, James, and John, the brother of James, and he led them up a high mountain by themselves.

There he was transfigured before them.

His face shone like the sun, and his clothes became as white as the light.

Just then appeared before them Moses and Elijah talking with Jesus.

Peter said to Jesus, Lord, it is good for us to be here.

Like this is Peter.

Peter is so, we have so many amazing moments with Jesus that if Peter just could be a person who could keep his mouth shut, we wouldn't have.

And so I'm grateful that Peter, like me, is a verbal processor because we get some good moments because of that.

So this is Peter just being like, Wow, this is amazing.

Let's just be here forever.

He says, if you wish, I'll put up three shelters, one for you, one for Moses, one for Elijah.

And he's just trying to like, Peter's trying to ruin this moment.

Okay?

He doesn't realize it.

While he was speaking, though, just cut off mid-sentence, a bright cloud covered them.

And a voice from the cloud said, This is my son whom I love, with him I am well pleased.

Listen to him.

But when the disciples heard this, they fell face down to the ground, terrified.

Why?

Because the glory of God is heavy.

And you just fall down sometimes when life gets heavy.

They fall down terrified, but Jesus came and touched them.

Get up, he said, don't be afraid.

And when they looked up, they saw no one except Jesus.

And Jesus at this point is back to the way that they were used to him.

Now it's interesting that we see Jesus here transfigured, and his face shines like the sun, and his clothes are as white as light.

You have other times in scripture where we see angels, and we like to picture angels like we have weird depictions of angels.

Like in art, angels are floating naked babies sometimes with wings.

Which when you think about it kind of terrifying, you know what I mean?

But in a really creepy sort of way.

But usually angels, you see them in art, it's just like a dude with wings.

That's it.

Did you know there's not one depiction of an angel in the entire Bible as a guy with wings?

Now there are certain types of angels that are that have wings, but they have three sets of wings, and one set covers their face, and one set uh covers their entire body, and the other set is flying around, and these angels happen to be covered with eyeballs, like all over their body.

Which is awesome, right?

That's what you picture when you picture an angel, a giant eyeball creature with lots of wings flying around, right?

Or there's times in the Bible where they're like faces like lightning and they speak and it's like a multitude of voices and it's thunderous.

And every single time an angel shows up, pretty much every time, that an angel shows up in the Bible, the reaction of the person in front of them is they just fall down.

They just faint.

They're on the ground.

And we've joked about this before, but it has to be so annoying to be an angel and be sent by God to tell people something.

Because it's like they did it again.

They fell.

And every time you're like, hey, God, get up.

Are you good?

Okay, here's what God wants you to know.

My goodness.

Just stay on your feet, people, right?

But but here's what I'm getting at, all jokes aside.

The Jesus here that we see, like that's the real Jesus.

Jesus became a man, and for 33 years he lived as a man, but Jesus is not a man.

Not not in terms of who he actually is at his core.

He he was a man.

And he was 100% God and 100% man, but uh but Jesus pre-existed his human form.

And it's like they're getting this little glimpse into Jesus, and oftentimes he's described as glorified.

They're seeing the glorified Jesus.

Now, again, this is where it just gets spiritual and it's supernatural.

And you know what?

I believe in a supernatural God.

And why would I be a person who believes in a supernatural God, but I don't believe in supernatural things?

That doesn't make any sense.

We see a little glimpse of Jesus' glorified body here.

But you know there's tons of promises in scripture that that when the kingdom of heaven comes in its fullness and when this kind of age that we live in is all said and done, and God restores the earth to what it's meant to be.

Heaven is not a floating place in the sky with naked baby angels.

That's not a thing.

Okay?

And can we just be grateful for that?

That that's not what heaven is?

Like, it'd be a little creepy and weird.

Like, God, I'm it's cool to be here, but what's the naked baby thing?

That's gotta stop.

That's no one likes that.

No, no, that's not what heaven is.

Heaven is a recreated earth.

It's here, and it's as it's supposed to be.

And in those promises, we are told that we receive glorified bodies.

That God will raise us to life and we won't be in these bodies.

Praise God.

We'll be in glorified bodies.

Now, I don't know what your glorified body looks like, but I get a little glimpse of what Jesus looks like here.

That's pretty cool.

And I'm just saying, again, it's a mystery.

I can't, I'm not saying this definitively.

I'm not, I'm it's not something I'm preaching like this is true.

I'm just saying it wouldn't surprise me if your glorified body looks a lot more like Jesus is here than yours now.

Why?

Well, because you're a co-heir with Jesus.

That you're set to inherit the very glory that He has.

That you will share in His glory.

He's your big brother in the family of God.

So you're gonna kind of maybe look like your brother.

That's a weird thing to think about.

But you are a co-heir with Jesus.

So whatever glory he has, and however that glory is manifested, again, it's mysterious, we don't know, but what we do know, what we're promised, is that we will inherit, as his children, we will inherit the glory of God.

That's amazing.

That you and I, if we've given our lives to Jesus, we are co-heirs of the glory of God, this glorious weight and authority and power, this thing that you can't even describe, this thing that's both amazing and at the same time, like, whoa, stand back, this is serious.

Whatever that all is, it's ours because of what Jesus has done for us.

That's nuts.

That's exciting.

That is exciting.

It doesn't say it, but I just hope that my glorified body has abs.

That's my only hope.

I don't know, I have no biblical precedent for it.

I've just always wondered what it's like to have those.

So I'm looking forward to that.

All right, let's wrap this up.

It's 4th of July.

All for his glory.

All for his glory.

Church.

Everything that you do.

And I want you to hear this.

It's ultimately meaningless if it's not for the glory of God.

Because everything else fades away.

Everything else is temporary.

You know that phrase that we have in our culture, the glory days?

Oh man, remember the glory days?

Sometimes people's glory days is like high school.

Not my glory days.

And not your glory days either.

You know why?

Because your glory days haven't happened yet.

Because your glory days are ahead of you.

They're with God.

They're in heaven when you get to be an heir of God's glory.

And right now, the opportunity that you have, if you are a Jesus follower, is to do everything for the glory of God.

To live your life and just say, Lord, what can I do?

What can I do today that will add to your glory?

What can I do today, Lord, that will magnify and amplify how great you are, how glorious you are.

Because God, with the time that I have on this earth, I don't know how much it is.

I just want to do whatever I can to add to your glory.

I want to do whatever I can to make your glory grow, to make you more famous.

And Lord, I recognize that as your son, that glory as it grows, it's it's mine and that's not why I'm doing it, but Lord, I'm not gonna say no when you hand it to me.

I don't deserve it, but I just want to see your glory go.

If we live our lives for that, guys, that is a life fulfilled.

That is a meaningful life when you do everything, even if it means suffering, even if it means suffering, you you don't care.

That's why Paul said, yet what we suffer now is nothing compared to the glory that will be revealed to us later.

You say, I will do everything, everything for the glory of my God, because that glory is what I inherit.

That is amazing.

That is awesome.

And here's, by the way, as we wrap up, the worship team, you can make your way out.

I want to leave us with this.

Because you know, it's one thing to stand on the stage and be like, go do everything for the glory of God.

Okay, what is that?

What does that look like?

And and let's let's do do me a favor real quick.

Um, Alex, can you have the the lights come down a little bit?

At least on in the in the room.

Glow sticks, remember those?

We brought the lights down so you can see some if you uh if you don't have one.

So the average glow stick is gonna last about eight hours.

And we ordered the cheap ones, so I'm not confident that they're gonna last that long.

Okay, so what that means is the light that is on that glow stick of yours, it is going to fade about eight hours from now.

Maybe a little longer, maybe a little less.

Before that happens, add to the glory of God.

Now that's a child who's saying, no, I'm not gonna do it.

No, you it's okay, kid.

You can do it.

Now I'm teasing.

Uh sounded defiant.

But but no, seriously, before that that glow stick fades away, do something intentionally today that is just to magnify and amplify the glory of God.

And if you're wondering what that looks like, Colossians 3:12 through 17 gives us a great look.

Colossians 3:12–17

Because it's it's not it's not as hard as it might seem.

It says, since God chose you to be his holy people that he loves, you must clothe yourselves with tender-hearted mercy, kindness, humility, gentleness, and patience.

Now it's 4th of July.

Some of you are gonna go hang out with family members today.

That's gonna require some patience, some gentleness, some humility, some kindness, and some mercy.

But I just want you to know that today, before that glow stick fades, if someone in your family, someone that you're hanging out with today, does something that annoys you, that frustrates you, that makes you want to roll your eyes, if you respond with mercy, kindness, humility, gentleness, and patience, you are adding to the glory of God.

It goes on.

Make allowance for each other's faults and forgive anyone who offends you.

Remember that the Lord forgave you, so you must forgive others.

Is there someone that you need to forgive today?

Before that glow stick that you have fades, forgive them.

Now, maybe that forgiveness requires you to reach out to them and actually shoot them a text or give them a call and just say, Hey, I just want you to know it's forgiven, it's it's gone.

Maybe, maybe not.

Maybe it's a forgiveness that just needs to happen in your heart.

Because sometimes if you send the text, they're like, forgiven for what?

And then you just have to forgive them for that, and it's complicated, you know?

Maybe it's just a forgiveness in your heart, but I'm telling you, if you have someone that you need to forgive, do that today before that glow stick that you're holding fades.

And when you forgive someone who has offended you, when you make an allowance for someone else's fault, you are adding to the glory of God.

It says, above all, clothe yourselves with love, which binds us all together in perfect harmony.

Just love each other.

Love each other.

That is the number one statement that my wife and I say to our children when we drive in the car.

And I mean it's playful, but we mean it.

Guys, just love each other.

Because as a father, when I see my children loving each other, that adds to whatever glory I have.

I delight in that.

Love each other, express your love in an intentional way for someone today.

Compliment them, tell them something that you appreciate about them, thank them.

Because when you do that, you're adding to the glory of God.

It says, let the peace that comes from Christ rule your hearts.

For as members of one body, you are called to live in peace and always be thankful.

Be someone who brings peace to whatever situation you're in today.

You know, if you if you go eat at a restaurant and it's taking forever and you're frustrated by the service, just peace.

Bring peace to that.

Because when you bring peace to a situation that's maybe a high capacity, high potential for conflict, you know what you're doing?

You're adding glory to God because this is what he asks for.

Let the message about Christ in all its richness fill your lives.

Teach and counsel each other with all the wisdom he gives.

Sing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs to God with thankful hearts.

Whatever you do or say, do it as a representative of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to Him, to God, through Him, to God the Father.

Whatever you do, whether you eat or drink, how you interact with your friends, how you interact with your family, how you behave when you're behind the wheel of the car that you're driving, how you behave when you're sitting at that table being being waited upon, being served.

How you handle it tonight at 1 a.m.

when your neighbors are shooting off fireworks, and they waited till 1 a.m.

to do that.

And you have four children, and they know that you have four children, they know that, and they did that anyway.

This is me pre-forgiving my neighbors.

When you do those things, guys, all you're just adding to the glory of God.

And we live all for his glory because his glory, crazy as it sounds, is ours.

We are the heirs of the glory of God, we are the sons and the daughters of God.

We are set to inherit everything that is due to Jesus.

And so I challenge you today, I encourage you today, before these glow stick fades, and to those of you from watching from home, just set a timer on your phone.

Do something before that runs out, do something on purpose, intentionally, to add to the glory of God.

He loves you, blesses you.

You are his son, you are his daughter.

So do it.

Watch what happens.

Let's pray.

Father, thank you so much for this day.

Thank you, Lord, for all that uh that you do, for all that you've done.

God, thank you for the opportunities that you give us to live for you.

Seriously, Lord, thank you for the opportunities that are ahead of us in these next five, six, seven, eight hours.

It's an opportunity to add to your glory, it's an opportunity to do something that blesses someone that you love.

And that someone that you love, it may not be someone that we love.

But you love everybody.

So, Lord, fill our hearts with a genuine excitement about doing something for your glory and your glory alone.

I pray, Lord, that we don't waste this opportunity.

I pray, Lord, that we don't take this opportunity for granted, but that we actually leave today on a mission saying, I'm gonna do something, I'm gonna bless someone, I'm gonna thank someone, I'm gonna be patient and kind, I'm gonna show love, I'm gonna forgive, I'm gonna bring peace.

Because those are the things that grow your glory.

And we love you, Jesus.

You are glorified, you will forever be glorified.

It blows our minds to believe that we're somehow included in that.

But thank you, thank you, thank you for the freedom that you've won for us, for the family status that you've given us.

It's your name, Jesus, we pray.

Amen.