In this sermon, the speaker emphasizes the importance of understanding the true meaning of the word "glory" from God's perspective. He shares a personal experience of witnessing the glory of the Lord in a family that radiated love and joy. The speaker seeks guidance on how to experience the same in his own life amidst challenges and needs. He learns that Jesus is the answer and that God wants to make known His glory to us so that we can know Him and experience His life. The speaker also addresses the misconception of viewing the Bible as a mere rule book and encourages listeners to aim for the glory of God, knowing that it is attainable through Christ.

Okay, how do I glorify God? We're at Ephesians chapter 1, in verse 11 and 12. We're kind of jumping into the middle of a rather extended and lengthy sentence. The Apostle Paul has some of the longest sentences in the world, if you happen to note his sentences. But verse 11 starts like this, "...in whom also we have obtained an inheritance, having predestined according to the purpose of him who works all things after the counsel of his own will, that we should be to the praise of his glory, who first trusted in Christ." That we should be to the praise of his glory. So, looking back there at verse 11, he says, according to the purpose. And now in verse 12, he declares the purpose is to the glory of God. That our life would be a praise to him that brings glory to him. So he's not talking here just about how we just sang, or he's not talking about expressing the word praise by saying praise the Lord. But he's talking about something far beyond that, although certainly those things could be involved. We could sing, and that would be a form of praise. And we could say praise the Lord, and that would be a form of praise. But in reality, what he's saying is our entire life is to be a praise unto him. And that happens as our life is glorifying him. Now, this word, glorify the Lord, this is a big word. And the challenge is to understand what it means to glorify the Lord. My dear mother, who was a wonderful, godly woman, at one time in her life, talked to her pastor, and I happened to be there, and overheard the conversation. And her question was this. I don't see how it's possible for me to glorify God. She said, I'm a mother of five children. I don't know how to drive. I stay home all day. All I do is clean house, fix meals, take care of babies. And raise a family, and tend to my husband's needs. And, well, it's true, I do work with seven-year-olds in Sunday school. And, yes, I know I sing in the choir. But I don't seem to have much chance or opportunity to glorify God. And what my mother was thinking is, I believe, all too common in our mindset. And we think that glorifying God is about doing some big thing for God. Now, the special music was wonderful. And it was a blessing to my heart. But you don't have to have that kind of a voice to sing in the choir in order to bring that kind of glory to God. You don't have to be the one that stands up here in the pulpit to speak or preach or teach in a Sunday school class. I mean, you're not limited to that in the way you glorify God. All of our family came to the Lord because my mother knew the Lord, including my father. I believe God was glorified in her life. In fact, she was one of the most godly women I know. A great inspiration to me. A large part of where I am today is because of what I saw of the Lord in her life. Her life brought glory to the Lord. But how does that happen? How is it possible? What does it mean? You know, the song we just heard, the song we just heard, To God Be the Glory, I had the privilege of meeting Andre Crouch, the writer of that song, shortly after he had written the song. He was in the airport in Nashville, Tennessee, and he was sitting by himself. And so we walked up to him and began to talk and told him how much that song meant to us and how it ministered to us and how grateful we were for the song. And he began to tell us the background. And he said, well, one day as I was in my room, I just began to think about how great God was and what he had done in my life. And he said, suddenly I found myself compelled to worship him. And he said, the words just flowed out of me, To God Be the Glory, great things he has done. And he said, I just, as I began to sing it, then I stopped and I wrote it down real quick. And he said, that was it. It wasn't a long, drawn out process. It was the heartfelt expression of my praise and adoration to him, giving glory to God for the great things he had done in my life. And that's how it is for all of us. It just is to come out of our life in the natural flow every day as we walk through this earth. Our life is to be a praise and a glory to him. Glorify thy name in all the earth. Well, how do I glorify God? Let's go back to the psalmist who certainly was a man who glorified God. David the psalmist, at least the primary psalmist, was known as a man after God's own heart. There was a reason for that because, you see, David had a heart for God. He loved the Lord with all of his heart, and he expressed it through his life and through his hymns and songs of psalms that we call them. But in Psalm 24, we find some remarks here, a psalm of David. Psalm 24, in verse 7, we'll pick up with the psalm, in which he is inviting us to the place where the King of glory can come in. He's inviting us to the place where we would allow the King of glory to have his rightful place in our life, that he might be glorified in us. And let's look at it. Let's jump into the middle of this psalm. Psalm 24, verse 7. Lift up your heads, O ye gates. Be ye lift up, you everlasting doors, and the King of glory shall come in. Who is this King of glory? The Lord strong and mighty. The Lord mighty in battle. Lift up your heads, O ye gates. Even lift them up, ye everlasting doors, and the King of glory shall come in. Shall come in. You know, we talk about opening our heart to the Lord, and even some would go into saying, open the door of your heart to the Lord. And you see, you and I are the gatekeeper of our lives, but you and I are not capable of keeping our lives correctly, and you and I are not capable of guarding our life as it should be and as it needs to be. And yet, it is our privilege and responsibility to open the doors of our heart wide and say to the King of glory, come in, O King of glory, come in. So how do we glorify the Lord? Well, the scripture there that we were reading there in Ephesians, it talked about to those who first trusted Christ. And so the way it all begins is to open your heart, open the doors of your heart and place your faith and trust in Jesus Christ as Lord. Now, that allows the Lord of glory to come in. Who is this King of glory? He's called the Lord God Almighty. And you see it notes there that He is mighty in battle, which means He can overcome every obstacle in your life. He can overcome every problem in your life. He can solve every problem. He can meet every need. He is the Lord God Almighty, all-powerful. So you and I, we walk through life and we've been beaten and battered. I've talked to so many who've been wounded and hurt. And one lady who had been abused as a child by her father, and the abuse was primarily through anger and hostility. He would be harsh and hard on her. And even at one point she remembered that he took a stick when she was playing in the yard and he ran through the yard and he hit her as hard as he could and knocked her down and hurt her back very seriously. And she just left her there crying. And the reason was because she was supposed to have been watching the baby's sister indoors and she had stepped out in the yard to play with one of her friends. And the father was just furious. And this is how he treated her throughout her lifetime. And the sad thing about that is she learned to hate men and she was drawn to the gentleness of women and she became a homosexual. And here was a woman wounded and deeply hurt. But one day as I was counseling her, she opened her heart to the Lord of Glory and the King, the glorious King Jesus came in, the one who is the great physician and healed her broken heart. He bound up her wounded spirit. He restored her and made her whole. And you know what she said to me afterward? She said, Could I just sit in this room and just soak in my new self? She said, I now see that God has made me a new person in Christ and He's made me beautiful again. I've hated my life. I've despised my life. I've been so empty and now I feel so full of the Lord's life and His love and acceptance. And she said, I just want to sit and soak in the Lord's presence and enjoy my new self. Wow. Wow. Think about it. That's the Lord whom we serve. And if you don't know Him today, He's here for you. Oh, He cares about you and He's ready to take care of your life right now. So this is the King, the Lord of Glory. Well, to understand that, there's so much involved. There's so much involved. So what I want us to do is to go over to the book of Colossians. And let's look at this word glory a little bit more. Let's look at the book of Colossians to understand more about the glory of the Lord. In Colossians chapter 1 and verse 25 through 27, the Apostle Paul gives us some understanding about the glory of the Lord. And furthermore, he's going to let us see that this is the primary message he was called to deliver to the world. So let's look here. Colossians chapter 1, verse 25. The Apostle Paul says, Whereof I am made a minister. You see, God made him a minister and thus God called him to the ministry. And the ministry he was called to and the message he was commissioned to share, well, he's about to tell us. According to the dispensation of God which is given to me for you. See, a minister is a gift from God for the body of Christ, for the world, for people like you and I. And so our privilege is to share with you. But he goes on to say, To fulfill the word of God. To fulfill the word of God. In what way? How is this word to be fulfilled? And what word is he referring to? Well, he adds that in verse 26. Even the mystery. The mystery. My wife loves a mystery. Perhaps you do too. I know every child is interested in secrets. And Paul says, I have a secret. I'm going to tell you the secret. I'm going to let you in on the most important secret of all. And then he says, Even the mystery which has been hid from ages and from generations. But now, right now, in this present age, in this present time, this mystery is made manifest to his saints. So he's saying, God has made known the mystery. It's not a mystery anymore. It's knowable. It's available. It's attainable. Well, what is it? Verse 27. To whom God would make known what is the riches of the glory of this mystery among the Gentiles. That is among all people. Not just limited now to the Jewish nation. But to all people, all places. Among the Gentiles. And the mystery? Christ in you. The hope of glory. Christ in you. The hope of glory. This is the mystery. This is the mystery. And because it's a mystery. And because it is so mysterious and intangible and invisible and often, in many ways, untouchable. We need to understand it from God's perspective. Now, how do we find out about a mystery? From the mystery writer. The mystery writer. Uh-huh. Murder she wrote. That's Lou's favorite. Angela Lansbury. Well, Mrs. F., as she's affectionately known by some. Well, anyway. What about God's mystery? What about God's mystery? To understand God's mystery, not just to know the concept, but to know the reality of the mystery takes more than mere words. You and I can now say, well, okay, I see now that God's purpose is for me to glorify him. We can go a step further and say, we see now that the means of glory is from the Lord of glory. And that the mystery is that Christ in me is the hope of glory. And we can say all those words. But what does it mean to me in my life? Right here, right now. Or as I go out into the community and deal with the job and the miserable people I have to attend to. And the challenges of parenting and all the hassles of life. What does it mean there? It's more than a word. I submit to you, it's more than a concept. It is a life reality and it's transforming. It is liberating. So we've got to come to see it from God's perspective. And as he makes it known to us, then we will be able to walk in the truth of it. And experience the good of it. To do that, I believe we need to go over to the last chapter in the book of Romans. Romans chapter 16. So let's go back over to the book of Romans. To chapter 16. At the very end of this wonderful book. Which lays out so clearly and completely about the Christian life. The Apostle Paul comes back to summarize it all in these words. Romans chapter 16 and verse 25. Romans 16, 25. Now to him that is of power to establish you according to my gospel. My gospel. Well, we just read what Paul's gospel was. Christ in you, the hope of glory. That's the message. That's the ministry. Christ. The gospel is about a person. Jesus Christ. And about that gospel he says, the preaching of Jesus Christ. He says, now make it clear to you. As I refer to the gospel, I'm referring to proclaiming Christ. Because Christ is what the gospel is all about. It's about a person. Jesus Christ, the Lord. There is no good news without it referring in some form or fashion at its central and total point to Christ. Because he is what the gospel is all about. Now Jesus Christ. According to, and here's where we want to get into it. The revelation of the mystery. You see. The mystery must be revealed. The revelation of the mystery, which was kept secret since the world began. See, it started out way back in the beginning. In the beginning was the word. And the word was God. And the word was with God. And the word we see, in fact, is a reference to whom we know as Jesus Christ. Who is the living Lord and Savior of all mankind. But that mystery began way back. Way back. Now, he says that in verse 26. But now it's made manifest. Now the mystery is made known. The mystery is made known. According to the commandment of the everlasting God. Made known to all nations for the obedience of the faith. See, it's made known so that we might live out according to the will of God and the purpose of God. As given in his word and as instructed by his spirit. So we have an insight now about the mystery. The mystery can only be known by revelation. Now don't think of revelation here as in reference to the last book of the Bible. This is a different kind of revelation. It is God pulling back, as it were, the curtains of heaven. Pulling back the clouds. And all of a sudden that bright sun comes shining out. And suddenly we see it in its full brilliance. In fact, it's so bright. We set out this morning, or yesterday morning, and looked out at the ocean. We saw the sun rise. And once it came up past the clouds, bam! It was so brilliant we couldn't stand to look. Because the glory of the sun was so bright. Well, the glory of the Lord is of a greater, far greater brilliance than that. And yet that glory, that brilliance of his beauty, and the beauty of his life, he wants to make known to us in a way that we can know him and experience his life. So, I used to think about that. And people would tell me, well, you know, Christ in you, the hope of glory. Christ is the answer. Yes, okay. I finally got tired of that. One time this one man, and I could tell he knew the secret. And I kept trying to get him to tell me what's the secret. And he was a leader in the Baptist church where my wife and I were attending. We were just recently married, and we were excited about each other, and we were excited about the Lord. It was just a good, good beginning for us in many ways. But he was this guy who obviously lived a quality of life that was quite desirable. And as I saw it, I realized what he's got is what I'm looking for. Now, I'd been a Christian at that time ten years. But I could see in his life that he had exuberance of joy. He was just joyful and peaceful and content. And he was loving and considerate of others. And he was a bold and fervent witness. He was always so full of the Lord that he just couldn't help but tell somebody about him. And he didn't do it in a pushy or brash way, but it just came so natural in the course of his life. And I thought, wow, this guy has something. In fact, my wife and I were drawn to their family, and we spent two or three days a week at their house. And yet, we would consider them in abject poverty. He had never finished high school. He was a construction worker. He got laid off half the time because the jobs were short term. And he lived off the land. They milked their own cow. They had their own chicken eggs, you know, stuff that we're kind of getting back to. Actually, we've come to find out that's pretty good to have healthy food. But he was doing all that. And he had his own bees, so he had his own honey. And, you know, he had his own garden, and he went and hunted in the woods. And he got his own fish, and he ate fish. And he ate deer meat and squirrel, if you like squirrel. Well, anyway, he ate squirrel and other things. You know, we won't go there. But he had all kinds of things there at his house. But he had this old house that wasn't even complete indoor plumbing. And yet, here's this guy that had such a radiant life. And his family was so loving and joyful. And I'm going, wow, what's going on? You know what I was seeing? I was seeing the glory of the Lord. I was seeing God evident in a family that was full of the glory of the Lord. Because who is God? God is love. And the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, and all those beautiful things that are attributes of our Lord Jesus. And so suddenly I saw that in this household, in this family, and with this man's life. And I'm saying to him, tell me the secret. I didn't use those words exactly, but I just said, look, I know Jesus is the answer. But how is he to be the answer in my life right here and now? We're going through stuff. We've got challenges. We've got needs. And we need to know about the Lord. Whatever you've got, we want it. Well, he just said, I don't know. All I can say is Jesus is the answer. Don't tell me that anymore. I want the secret. Little did I know. And it took God's show on me because I just kept, you know what I did? Lou and I kept praying and searching the scripture. We kept praying and searching the scripture. We said, God, someway, somehow, you're going to make known that secret. Now, what was happening with us is we saw his life and the life of his family. And you know what? When you walk in the glory of God and God is being glorified in your life, you are salt and light. Now, salt makes us what? Thirsty. In fact, I'm a little thirsty right now because I took some salt spray and, you know, now I'm thirsty. Kind of. And I get more thirsty after I've eaten some salty food. And you do, too. Salt makes us thirsty. And when you're thirsty, you want to drink. And to be salt in the way God intends for us to be is to cause people to desire to drink of the well that never runs dry. And I was thirsty for that living water. Give me that living water that I might thirst no more. Because even though I had Christ in my heart, I didn't know what I got when I got Christ. So I didn't know this wonderful secret was already resident in me. And he merely wanted to be president of my life and rule and reign as Lord over me. But I didn't understand that. OK. So all I knew was I had Jesus in my heart. But here's the dilemma in my life. Even though I was hungry and thirsty and, of course, they whetted my appetite for the Lord. But my mindset, which started way back when I was in the United States Navy, actually my first trip to Florida in Mayport, Florida with the Navy. And as I would be on the ship off the coast out here and going down to the Caribbean and later over in Vietnam, I would sit out on the deck of the ship at night. And I'd look at the beautiful sky and the stars and the sun during the daytime. But I would always look up and think of God far removed from me. Now, if you were to ask me, I would say, yes, yes, I invited Jesus Christ into my heart. But as I thought of him, I always thought of him out there somewhere far removed from me and me being so distant from him. So most of my 10 years as a Christian, those first 10 years, was about trying to get closer to him or somehow trying to get him closer to me. So it was a very long distance relationship. And even though I knew the Lord and loved the Lord and, you know, I was doing all the right things, but I didn't really know him because I didn't know the secret. And so this family had shown me a glimpse of the secret and I was hungry and thirsty. And Lou and I are now in the process of searching the scriptures because we're saying, God, we want to know the secret. And as we were searching the scriptures, we came upon a verse, John 14, 26, and it's a reference to the Holy Spirit being our teacher. John 14, 26, Jesus said, the spirit will come and he will lead you into all truth. And he will teach you all things. And it goes on again to say further about that in John 16. So he's telling us there how the Holy Spirit is our 24-hour tutor. He's constantly available to make known to us the truth of God's word. And in fact, to teach us about every area of life because God knows about everything. And he will teach us and explain to us and guide us through every detail of every area of life. And here was my dilemma. I had tried to understand this wonderful book we know of as the Bible by reading it with my intellect. And as I would read this book, I had been gifted with a very fine mind. And I was able to do well in school. So I would read the Bible, as it were, like any other textbook or merely as a history book. But this book is far more than a history book. It is filled with the wonderful words of life. Because this book, the written word is representative of the living word, Jesus Christ, the Lord. And so look at this book and understand it a little bit now from that verse in John 14, 26. It dawned on me, wait a minute, this is a spiritual book. The Holy Spirit is the author. Remember I said you've got to find out who the author is and see what he's going to tell you about the mystery. And being as the Spirit of God, according to Peter's letter, is the one who inspired the men of old to write these rich truths from the Lord to us. Then it would be the Spirit of God who would interpret them to us. And there's where the word revelation comes in. The Holy Spirit will reveal the truth of God's word to you. He will show you what it means. And more importantly, he will apply it in your life. God's Spirit is the divine applicator who applies the truth of God's word to your life. That is to say, he makes it real in your everyday walk. He makes it real. So you don't have to try to say, oh, I hope I can remember that when the time comes. No, the Holy Spirit brings it to your remembrance at the time you need to know it. And he makes it real in your life as you need to experience it. He just makes it come alive. It's called the living word. It's called the word becoming flesh again in you and me. That's what he's about. Because remember, it's Christ in you. That's the hope of glory. So Jesus Christ is in you. But we understand that by revelation. In fact, it's said one more time in a little different way. And I think we need to look at that for clarification. In the same place where you just were, if you're still there, in Romans 16. If you just go one page over, 1 Corinthians chapter 2, verse 9 and 10. The Apostle Paul underscores again that the Holy Spirit is our teacher and he will reveal the truth to us. So 1 Corinthians chapter 2, verse 9 and verse 10. In verse 9, he begins this way. But as it is written, a reference to an Old Testament passage. And here's the dilemma. We so often stop right there and say, well, God has so much, but we can't see it and know it. And so we just think God is so beyond us and he is unattainable and we can't understand him. And he's just, he's way. But he says, oh, you don't understand. The reason I came in flesh through the person of Jesus Christ is so I could make myself known to you on the human plane. So that I could make myself known to you in a way you could know me and understand me. You could identify with me because I came to identify with you. And I have left my spirit to make sure that you know me, even as I am known. So he goes on to say in verse 10 there. Even though our human eye can't see or know God, our human understanding can't comprehend God. He is beyond our reach on the human plane. He's not unattainable because God has made a way. Because God has provided for us his interpreter that we might know the mystery. So there we find the verse 10. But God has revealed them unto us by his spirit. For the spirit searches all things, yes, the deep things of God. But note there in verse 10. God has revealed them unto us by his spirit. There's the word reveal or revelation. God has made them known to us by his spirit. You see the spirit of God makes known to us the things of God. And thank God for that. Because otherwise we'd be out on a limb. We would be left like so many that look at this book as more of a rule book. And we go out and we try to somehow do all these things the best we can. And, you know, I had this thinking early on that, well, this is a good goal to shoot for. But, hey, it's way beyond me. It's way beyond any of us. So, you know, God doesn't ever expect us to attain to this. He just expects us to do the best we can and kind of go as far as we can go. And it's a good thing to aim for. But, of course, none of us are ever going to make it. Well, no. No, that's not it at all. Jesus is saying, look, this is a book that shows you a picture of what I desire for you and what I have made available to you through my son, Jesus Christ. That's why, you see, it takes Christ to live the Christian life. And so he gave himself to us by first giving himself for us through his death on the cross. And then we have the privilege of receiving the King of Glory. Now King of Glory come in. So now it's Christ in you, the hope of glory. Christ in you, the hope of glory. What is he telling us? He's saying that there was a time in the Old Covenant, under the Old Covenant, and prior to the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, when God was with his people as an external presence. Throughout the Old Covenant picture of God and the Israelite nation, God was with them. And God would always protect them and he would lead them. But they were always only in a long distance sort of way. And through the liaison of someone like Moses or one of the other prophets, they had communication with God. But they never had that personal intimate relationship with him. So God was always there in an external sort of way. Well, what about you and I today? Well, that's not the case. Because when Christ came, he came to the earth that he might come into your heart and that he might be your life. That he might live the life you could not live. And he might do for you what you could not do. Which is everything. Everything. Everything. So, Jesus Christ comes to reside inside of you. Now, Jesus put it this way, and I would refer to John 14 for this. It's in the same chapter we looked at a moment ago. He explained the difference. In John 14, verse 16. Beginning in verse 16. John 14 and 16. Jesus said, and I will ask the Father, I will pray to the Father, and he will give you another comforter. That he may abide with you forever. That sounds like eternal life. Yes, it is. Forever. And ever. And ever. Now, this one who would abide with us forever, he goes on to say, is the Spirit. Verse 17. Even the Spirit. But then he qualifies the Spirit of truth. For Jesus has already said, I am the truth. And now we see that the Holy Spirit will make known the truth, which is Christ, to you and I. But then he goes ahead and explains further. He says, now the world cannot receive this Spirit because it does not see him, neither does it know him. But he says, but you know him, for he dwells with you and shall be in you. Now, he's talking now to his disciples. And he's saying, he dwells with you. Okay, who is it that was dwelling with them? Well, it's Jesus Christ. He was there on the earth, in a physical body, right there with the disciples. They walked and talked together. They heard him give his sermon on the mount. They saw him do the loaves and fishes. They saw him do miracles of healing. They were with him continuously. He said, but he dwells with you, and yet he shall be in you. And what they didn't realize was, it was the Spirit of God in this human form of the Son of Man that made all the difference. It was the life of God, Jesus Christ, the living God, resident in human form. It was divinity clothed in humanity, standing right there with them. But he was saying, I'm going to do something better than just be with you. So forget about praying, God be with me, because he's gone way beyond that. Because if you've ever said, I do, to Jesus Christ, guess what? He's already come within you. You don't need to ask him to be with you one more time in your life. If you've ever said, Lord Jesus, come into my life and take control and be Lord of my life. He's in you. He is in you. So you need to get conscious of what you got when you got Christ. You got his life. You received him. He came in. And friends, he is not about to go anywhere, because he's committed to you till death do us part, and then throughout all eternity, world without end. Praise God. That's eternal life. That's for you, and that's for now. So he's saying here, look, he's saying, I was once with you, but I'm about to come and be in you. But he's going to do it by way of the spirit. And this kind of hung me up, because for 10 years, my view of Jesus Christ was the person that we typically see in some kind of picture or we see in a movie like The Passion. And yes, he did dwell in an earthen vessel, a human body. But what we've got to see is the body was not who he was. It was the man inside the body, the man of God, the son of God, the living Christ within that made the human body what it was without. And it was his life within that did not perish, though the body died. He did not die. He arose. Praise God. He arose. We're going to celebrate an Easter pretty soon. And so this resurrection life now is available to us, his life. But I used to think, I used to think of this as the physical body of Jesus. And I would say, well, gee, there's no way this physical body is going to fit inside of me. And so I don't know what that means. And so I kind of just sort of dismissed it as, well, that's just kind of preacher talk or something. I don't know. But it didn't make sense until I understood, according to Romans chapter 8, verse 9, that if you don't have the spirit of Christ, you are none of his. And I thought, huh, the spirit of Christ. So I see that Christ. Oh, but he is God and God is spirit. And so now I see. God, spirit. And suddenly I had an understanding. Wait a minute. So it was the God in the man that made the man what he was. God. So now we understand that God is spirit. And so our connection with God must be by the spirit. And as we receive Christ in our heart. Well, what does he do? We say we're born of the spirit or we're born again. And so it means that God's spirit now comes to reside in us. And suddenly Christ moves in. The living Christ is now within us. And so now the source of glory is resident in you. Christ in you is the hope of glory. Your hope of glorifying God is simply based on Jesus Christ himself living in you. And more importantly, once he comes in, let him out and let him be himself through you. Now, have you asked Christ in your heart? This is the time for you to consider that. Is Jesus Christ really in you? A lot of people say they believe. Yeah, well, sure. A lot of people believe. But the issue is, have you accepted Christ's death on the cross for your sins? And have you then on that basis received Christ in your heart? John chapter 1 verse 12 says, To as many as received him. You must receive him. And you do so not on the merits of your own righteousness. But on the righteousness of the perfect sacrifice of the perfect son of God. His death on the cross for your sins. And you accept his death as total payment and complete provision. And you say, Lord Jesus, thank you for dying on the cross for my sins. Come into my life and make me a new person. I give myself to you. But having received him in, have you allowed him to come out again and live his life through you? You see, the way God is glorified is only one way. Through the one who is glory, Jesus Christ. Jesus Christ is the glory of God. And so I must allow the one who is glory to live his life through me. To put it simply, Lord Jesus, be yourself in me. Have your way with me. What are we saying? We're saying, Lord, make yourself at home in my heart and live your life through me. And as you do that, every moment of every day, whether you're cooking a meal. By the way, Jesus cooked a meal on the Sea of Galilee on the shore. And I submit to you, the Father was just as glorified by that simple act of cooking a meal for his hungry disciples. As when he healed the leper or when he preached the Sermon on the Mount. It is not about the activity, dear people. It's about the source of the activity. And the source of the glory is Jesus Christ. If you've received him, he's in you. And he is no longer going to be with you. He's done something better. He's come to live within you. That he might bring glory to the Father through you. Let Christ be himself in you. Let's stand for our time of meditation and for prayer together. All right, let's pray. Heavenly Father, we receive this opportunity from you to give back to you the one thing that you want, which is ourselves. Lord, thank you that you gave your life for us. Now we have privilege to give ourselves to you. Father, I pray that there are those here that have never ever given themselves to you. They believe in you. They believe everything about you. But they've just never made the one vital step necessary by simply receiving your death on the cross personally for themselves. And inviting you to come into their life and live in them. And Lord, there are some ready to do that right now today. And I trust your spirit will cause them to see the urgency of the hour. And Lord, for the rest of us, surely we've come to realize in a fresh new way that it is so important that you be glorified in us. And Lord, may we see that the Lord of glory resides in us from the day we said, I do. You came in. And you're not going anywhere. You're within us. And Lord, our privilege now is to simply submit to your lordship, yield complete control, and allow you to be yourself in us and have your way with us. And we do that now in Christ's name. Amen.