Glory Be (Lord's Prayer 4)

If anybody gives you kids the gears about entertainers like M & M or 50 Cent or Dr. Dre, ask them about Gorgeous George. Gorgeous George was one of those preposterous characters on the wrestling circuit before the even more outrageous WWE. I have no idea what he was like in his private life. But part of his PR pose was to preen and fuss and demand admiration and praise. Like many celebrities and stars, he strutted about, surrounded by toadies who continually assured him of his virtue, his intelligence, his delightfulness and animal magnetism. Because it sold tickets, it was cash in the bank.

Do you know any insecure people who constantly have to be reassured of their beauty, or of the truth of their ideas, or the shine of their skills? Don’t we think that there is something wrong with a person who has to be told over and over again how great he is? Is our God like that? Is our God like the wicked queen in Snow White, who stood before the mirror and said, "Mirror, mirror on the wall, who is the fairest of them all?"

"Thine is the glory." The Bible tells us that God is jealous for our love and loyalty. God demands that we give glory to Him alone. And for some, that’s a problem. There are some who sneer like this: "I could never worship a god who sits on some heavenly throne somewhere, demanding glory, demanding praise, demanding constant reassurance of his worth. What kind of a god is that?" Or so the objection goes.

"Our Father, which art in heaven, hallowed be thy name. Thy kingdom come. Thy will be done earth, as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread; and forgive us our trespasses as we forgive them who trespass against us. And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil." Most of the reliable manuscripts stop there. But the response from Christians over the centuries has been: "for thine is the kingdom, and the power and the glory, for ever and ever. Amen." For some people, it’s a problem, because giving glory to anybody, let alone to God, is a problem. It seems, well, undemocratic.

But we keep tripping over that word in the Bible: "glory." In the Psalms, "the starry skies tell the glory of God." In Isaiah: "I am the Lord, that is my name; my glory I give to no other, nor my praise to graven images." "Give unto the Lord the glory due to His name." "The Word became flesh, and lived among us. . . And we saw His glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth." "He has given us the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ." "He was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father." "Christ in you, the hope of glory."

"Glory." The word is shot throughout the Bible. What does it mean? Well, among other things, it means "praise." It means "excellence", "fame." Not notoriety, but fame in the sense of being well known for superior character. It means "splendour". We say to God, "yours is the glory."
Does it help to look at it this way? Once, when I was golfing with some friends, one of the guys came within a hair’s breadth of getting a hole in one. Did he keep quiet about it? Another drove a 350 yard tee shot. ‘You’re the man!" somebody yelled. In July, my grandson Juliano snagged a very large northern pike. Did he keep it a secret? We could hear him yelling clear across the lake! Have you ever noticed what you do when you have done something that fills you with great joy? A game played well, a rivetting book read, a place you visited, a movie you saw, a restaurant you visited. Is it natural for you to tell your friends? Don’t we instinctively praise whatever we enjoy? And haven’t you also noticed this: that enjoyment, when shared, is actually increased?

Try this as another way of understanding the praising or the glorifying of God: Praise is the spontaneous overflow of enjoyment. Giving God glory is the spontaneous expression of our joy in God’s splendid worth.

And that spontaneous overflow begins with this shocker: God says to us, "I delight myself in you." If God were to say, "I endure you," much as a you might endure a belligerent cashier, or a rude immigration officer, or a lying politician, we’d understand that. When God says "I forgive you," we know deep down that we need that. But in the Psalms, God says to His people: "I delight myself in you." And that’s where the spontaneous overflow of joy that expresses itself in worship begins. It begins with what God thinks of us. God delights in his people. God delights in you.

But then, it continues with another shocker. The Bible calls us to find delight in God, to find joy in Him. Does that sound indecent? How many of us are convinced that church is like medicine or like the dentist? - probably good for you, but certainly not enjoyable! Yet, the Bible calls us to find our joy, our satisfaction, in God, who is at the heart of the church.

So the real question is: Do we enjoy our God? If there is no enjoyment in His presence, how can we bring Him praise? We may sing the songs and say the words, but will there be glory? To glorify God is to enjoy Him. And to enjoy God is to glorify Him. Can you believe it? God is most glorified, when His people find their satisfaction in Him. God wants to bring us satisfaction. And we will find satisfaction when we turn to Him in all that we do.

So the problem is not that God claims glory. The problem is that there is a splendour of perfection to God, there is a luminous brightness to His character that was meant to be ours as God’s people. But it’s not ours any more. We were meant to have a shining radiance about us a people, a splendour that comes to us from God. But we have fallen short of it, as an arrow misses its target. And what we have fallen short of, the mark that we have missed, is seen in Jesus Christ. The glory of God shown in Him is His grace and His truth.

Glory is not away out there somewhere. Glory is in Jesus Christ. Jesus died to bring the glory of God to each and every one of us. In Christ’s death, we see all of the goodness of God extended to us. In His death, there is provision for human sin, yours and mine. In His death, there is forgiveness for our sin. In His death, there is the good news of life. He was raised from the dead by the glory of His Father. That glory comes to everyone who puts confidence and trust in Jesus Christ.

"God is preparing for us an eternal weight of glory beyond all comparison . . . He has called us through the Gospel so that we might obtain the glory of our Lord Jesus Christ . . . when the chief shepherd is manifested among you, you will obtain the unfading crown of glory." That’s all in Jesus Christ, for you and me. Knowing Jesus, we understand the God to whom we pray: "Thine is the glory." The glory of His grace is the life He gives to us. Out of the goodness of His heart and for no other reason, by His grace, He gives life to people who don’t deserve it. God delights in us. That’s the glory of the good news of God in Jesus Christ. And God gets glory every time we turn away from our sin to Him. God gets glory every time we receive His forgiveness and new life. God gets glory every time we find joy in the truth that God takes delight in us.

It is not always easy. I know from my own experience that it is not always easy. It may not be all glory for you. It wasn’t all glory for our Lord Jesus Christ either. He took a cross on our behalf. And that became His glory. And He will always have the final word. His glory makes sense out of everything. St. Paul said it best: "I reckon that the sufferings of this present time are not worth comparing with the glory that shall be revealed in us." That’s what will come to us from God. Christ himself is part of our life. He is not out of your life, but in it. He is at the raw sore heart of it. He is touched by the feeling of it. Jesus Christ tasted death for every one of us. He is at home with our infirmities. He is afflicted with everything that torments us. He is desperate with our despairs. He takes delight in us. He is with us. And He will bring us to glory.
"I am the Lord," He says, "and have given you as a covenant to the people, a light to the nations, to open the eyes that are blind, to bring out the prisoners from the dungeon, from the prison those who sit in darkness."

"I am the Lord, that is my name; my glory I give to no other." Will you give Him your confidence? Will you let Him give your life? He calls you and me to give Him our life, and to let Him give us glory.

"Thine is the glory" is a word of celebration from us to God. He delights in us. When I let that grip me, my life overflows in joy to Him. Celebrate Him. Give Him the glory.