A Word in Season: Glory in the Church (Ephesians 3:21)

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I hope that you have some sense of purpose as a Christian. I hope that as a blood -bought child of God, you are confident that you have some definite aim in this world.

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I hope that as part of the Church of Jesus Christ and a local congregation, you have definite aspirations as a church.

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And I hope that when you gather together on the Lord's Day, you have some specific aims in mind, and that when you go out at the end of that day, having been fed and watered from the

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Word of God, having come together morning and evening to hear the truth proclaimed, to sing his praises, to lift your hearts and voices in prayer, that you will go out with definite intent to glorify

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God, because that's why we exist. It's our very reason for being.

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At the end of the first half of the Ephesian letter, just as Paul is about to shift from the things that God has done for us to the things that we do in response to what

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God has done, he says, That's the climax of the

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Apostle's consideration of the wonderful works of God toward us. He's been praising the

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Lord God, the God of salvation. He's been seeking God's richest blessings upon the congregation.

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He wants Christ to dwell in our hearts through faith, to be rooted and grounded in love, to be able to comprehend with all the saints this love of Christ, which passes knowledge to be filled with all the fullness of God.

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And it is this God to whom now Paul turns his attention in this particular way, asking, seeking, urging, that the church would be the sphere in which

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God gets glory by Christ Jesus to all generations forever and ever.

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Now that's a grand aim. It means that everything that we do, both as individual believers and as a church gathered together and functioning with the same mind and heart, we have as our goal

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God and his glory to him, not to us, not our glory, not our reputations, not our names, not our honors, not our lives, but to God.

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That is the one who has, he is the one who has called the church into existence, and he is the one for whom the church exists.

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And he ought to receive glory. Now we cannot make God glorious.

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He is altogether glorious. We cannot add to his glory. But what we can do is express that glory.

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We can testify to that glory. We can honor that glory. We can sing of it and pray for it and preach of it so that everything that we are and do is for him.

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We can live for it. We can make sure that our praises, our worship, our witness, our labors, our service, our affection, whatever it may be, all of this is with an eye to the exaltation of the

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God who has loved us and saved us through his Son, Jesus Christ. And though it's right that all the earth should glorify

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God, it is particularly in the church. It is among those who have tasted his love, who have been redeemed by the blood of his

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Son. If we will not glorify his name, if we will not commit body and soul with every fiber of our being to the honoring and the exalting of God in Christ Jesus, then who will?

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It is proper, it is natural for redeemed creatures to exalt their

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Redeemer, for the people of God to glorify the God of their salvation.

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And we're to do it by Christ Jesus. In this, as in all things, he is the one by whom we come to God.

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He is the one who strengthens us for the task. He is the one who makes all that we do acceptable to the

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Lord and in smiling upon it, makes it truly fruitful. And we do this to all generations forever and ever.

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We are only beginning for ourselves and we are only taking up the baton of those who've gone before and God willing passing it on to those who will come afterwards.

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We are entering in to the work of the whole redeemed host of God to praise him, to bring glory to his name in the church by Christ Jesus now and forever.

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What a privilege to enter into that today and every day and for every day to come.