The 500 Year Plan: Glorifying God

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The 500 Year PlanGlorifying God

• Mark Hagen
• February 27, 2005

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Glorifying GodThe 500 Year Plan

• The chief end of man is to glorify God and enjoy
  Him forever.

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Glorifying GodThe 500 Year Plan

• God is most glorified in me when I am most
  satisfied in Him.
• - John Piper, Desiring God, p.9

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Glorifying GodThe 500 Year Plan

• You are clothed with honor and majesty, You who
  cover Yourself with light as with a garment . . .
• - Psalm 1041-2

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Glorifying GodThe 500 Year Plan

• It is very appropriate that God's revelation of
  Himself should be accompanied by such splendor
  and brightness, for this glory of God is the
  visible manifestation of the excellence of God's
  character. The greatness of God's being, the
  perfection of all His attributes, is something
  that we can never fully comprehend, but before
  which we can only stand in awe and worship.
  Thus, it is appropriate indeed that the visible
  manifestation of God be such that we would be
  unable to gaze fully upon it, and that it would
  be so bright that it would call forth both great
  delight and deep awe from us when we behold it
  only in part.
• - Wayne Grudem, Systematic Theology, p.221

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Glorifying GodThe 500 Year Plan

• Glory is the relational beauty that every
  person's heart yearns to behold and even enter.
  The word "glory" in Scripture refers to the
  essential worth, beauty, and value of people,
  created things, and of course, the Creator
  Himself. The Hebrew word for glory is a word
  meaning weight, substance, and at the same time,
  brilliance or radiant beauty. To glorify someone
  is to recognize their intrinsic worth and beauty,
  and to speak of that feature in a public way.
  To glorify God is at the heart of true worship
  throughout the Scriptures.
• - Steve Hawthorne, The Story of His Glory, p.1

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Glorifying GodThe 500 Year Plan

• . . . The superlative honor that should be given
  to God by everything in the universe
• - Wayne Grudem, Systematic Theology, p.221

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Glorifying GodThe 500 Year Plan

• Who is the most God-centered person in the
  universe?
• For the sake of My Name I delay My wrath, and
  for My praise I restrain it for you, in order not
  to cut you off. Behold, I have refined you, but
  not as silver I have tested you in the furnace
  of affliction. For My own sake, for My own sake,
  I will act . . .
• - Isaiah 489-11

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Glorifying GodThe 500 Year Plan

• Who is the most God-centered person?
• As the highest value in the universe, the course
  from which all else derives, God must choose His
  own glory ahead of all else.
• - Millard Erickson, Christian Theology, p.288

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Glorifying GodThe 500 Year Plan

• Who is the most God-centered person?
• He God puts a greater value on His glory than
  on anything else.
• He delights in His glory above all things.
• He loves Himself infinitely.
• He Himself is uppermost in His own affections.

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Glorifying GodThe 500 Year Plan

• Who is the most God-centered person?
• God is the one being in the universe for whom
  self exaltation is the highest virtue and the
  most loving act.
• God wants to be admired, marveled, exalted, and
  praised.

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Glorifying GodThe 500 Year Plan

• Why did God create us?
• Everyone who is called by My Name, And whom I
  have created for My glory, Whom I have formed,
  even whom I have made.
• - Isaiah 437

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Glorifying GodThe 500 Year Plan

• Why did God create us?
• We exist for His sake, for His glory and
  pleasure, rather than He for ours.
• - Erickson, Christian Theology, p.352
• For the LORD takes pleasure in His people He
  will beautify the afflicted ones with salvation.
  - Psalm 1494
• The steps of a man are established by the LORD
  And He delights in his way.
• - Psalm 3723

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Glorifying GodThe 500 Year Plan

• Why did God create us?
• that at the name of Jesus EVERY KNEE SHOULD BOW,
  of those who are in heaven, and on earth, and
  under the earth, and that every tongue should
  confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory
  of God the Father.
• - Philippians 210-11

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Glorifying GodThe 500 Year Plan

• What does God love most?
• Us
• His glory
• Both us and His glory equally
• None of the above

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Glorifying GodThe 500 Year Plan

• What does God love most?
• Us
• His glory
• Both us and His glory equally
• None of the above

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Glorifying GodThe 500 Year Plan

• What does God love more Us or His glory?
• Therefore, say to the house of Israel, Thus
  says the Lord GOD, It is not for your sake, O
  house of Israel, that I am about to act, but for
  My holy name, which you have profaned among the
  nations where you went. And I will vindicate
  the holiness of My great name which has been
  profaned among the nations, which you have
  profaned in their midst. Then the nations will
  know that I am the LORD, declares the Lord GOD,
  when I prove Myself holy among you in their
  sight. 32 I am not doing this for your sake,
  declares the Lord GOD, let it be known to you.
  
• - Exekiel 3622-23, 32

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Glorifying GodThe 500 Year Plan

• What does God love more Us or His glory?
• God loves His glory more than He loves us, and
  this is the foundation of His love for us.
• - John Piper, Brothers We Are Not Professionals,
  p.5

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Glorifying GodThe 500 Year Plan

• What was the ultimate purpose
• of God saving us?
• He predestined us to adoption as sons through
  Jesus Christ to Himself, according to the kind
  intention of His will, to the praise of the glory
  of His grace, which He freely bestowed on us in
  the Beloved.
• - Ephesians 15-6

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Glorifying GodThe 500 Year Plan

• What was the ultimate purpose
• of God saving us?
• also we have obtained an inheritance, having
  been predestined according to His purpose who
  works all things after the counsel of His will,
  to the end that we who were the first to hope in
  Christ should be to the praise of His glory.
• - Ephesians 111-12

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Glorifying GodThe 500 Year Plan

• What was the ultimate purpose
• of God saving us?
• In Him, you also, after listening to the message
  of truth, the gospel of your salvation having
  also believed, you were sealed in Him with the
  Holy Spirit of promise, who is given as a pledge
  of our inheritance, with a view to the redemption
  of God's own possession, to the praise of His
  glory.
• - Ephesians 112-14

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Glorifying GodThe 500 Year Plan

• What was the ultimate purpose
• of God saving us?
• For I say that Christ has become a servant to the
  circumcision on behalf of the truth of God to
  confirm the promises given to the fathers, and
  for the Gentiles to glorify God for His mercy . .
  .
• - Romans 158-9

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Glorifying GodThe 500 Year Plan

• Who will God share His glory with?
• "I am the LORD, that is My name I will not give
  My glory to another
• - Isaiah 428

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Glorifying GodThe 500 Year Plan

• What should be our primary motivation for
  evangelism, service, etc.?

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Glorifying GodThe 500 Year Plan

• The chief end of God is to glorify God and enjoy
  Himself forever.
• The reason this may sound strange is that we are
  more accustomed to think about our duty than
  God's design. And when we do ask about God's
  design we are too prone to describe it with
  ourselves at the center of God's affections. We
  may say, for example, His design is to redeem the
  world. Or to save sinners. Or to restore
  creation. Or the like.

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Glorifying GodThe 500 Year Plan

• But God's saving designs are penultimate, not
  ultimate. Redemption, salvation, restoration are
  not God's ultimate goal. These He performs for
  the sake of something greater namely, the
  enjoyment He has in glorifying Himself.
• - John Piper, Desiring God, p.23

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Glorifying GodThe 500 Year Plan

• What should be our primary motivation for
  evangelism, service, etc.?
• People are indeed saved by the global
  declaration of God's salvation, but the ultimate
  value of their salvation is not to be seen in
  what they are saved from, it is what they are
  saved for that really matters. People are saved
  to serve God in worship.
• - Steve Hawthorne, The Story of His Glory, p.3

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Glorifying GodThe 500 Year Plan

• What should be our primary motivation for
  evangelism, service, etc.?
• World evangelization is for God. It is common
  to work out of a concern for the predicament of
  people either to see them saved from hell, or to
  serve them to communal wholeness, or both. Such
  compassion is biblical and necessary. However,
  our love for people takes on balance and power
  when our overriding passion is for God to be
  honored by the kindness extended in His name and
  even more, for God to be thanked personally by
  the people transformed by the power of the
  Gospel.
• - Steve Hawthorne, The Story of His Glory, p.14

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Glorifying GodThe 500 Year Plan

• What should be our primary motivation for
  evangelism, service, etc.?
• Mission efforts which draw their motivation from
  compassionate response to human predicament will
  go only so far. Such "response missiology" has
  proven inadequate again and again. Guilt-based
  appeals to care for billions of people continues
  to soften our hearts a little. In practice,
  however, they weary and harden believers to a
  minimal token obedience.
• - Steve Hawthorne, The Story of His Glory, p.14

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Glorifying GodThe 500 Year Plan

• Application
• Whether, then, you eat or drink or whatever you
  do, do all to the glory of God.
• - 1 Corinthians 1031

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Glorifying GodThe 500 Year Plan

• Application
• What would glorify God the most?
• The churchs primary goal is not to benefit
  mankind.
• In what ways do we not give God glory in
  everything?
• How can I learn to be involved in kingdom
  building?