The Weight of God’s Glory
Introduction:
1. His Glory
2. What is stopping you from accessing it?
3. How can we access and experience the weight of God’s Glory?
Revelation 5:11-14
11 Then I looked and heard the voice of many angels, numbering thousands upon thousands, and ten thousand times ten thousand. They encircled the throne and the living creatures and the elders. 12 In a loud voice they were saying:
“Worthy is the Lamb, who was slain,
to receive power and wealth and wisdom and strength
and honor and glory and praise!”
13 Then I heard every creature in heaven and on earth and under the earth and on the sea, and all that is in them, saying:
“To him who sits on the throne and to the Lamb
be praise and honor and glory and power,
for ever and ever!”
14 The four living creatures said, “Amen,” and the elders fell down and worshiped.
The Glory of the Lord is what we have been created to pursue, to enjoy, to desire, to prioritize.
Both to give him glory and behold His Glory.
My testimony of experiencing his Glory and worship.
I. His Glory
A. What is the Glory of the Lord?
“Kabod is the Hebrew word for glory; it literally means “weight.” The glory of God is the weight of all that God is, the fullness of his understanding, virtue, and happiness, as Jonathan Edwards put it.”
“God’s perfect love, power, wisdom, sovereignty, and grace make him glorious. Pointing others to the majesty of God and being satisfied with the worth and weight of this majesty make us God-glorifiers.”
B. The Weight of His Glory or Shekinah Glory is seen through out the word of God.
1. The Shekinah Glory was present in the O.T. tabernacle in the Most Holy Place.
2. The Shekinah Glory was present when Solomon dedicated the new Tabernacle.
1 Kings 8:6-7, 10-11
6 The priests then brought the ark of the Lord’s covenant to its place in the inner sanctuary of the temple, the Most Holy Place, and put it beneath the wings of the cherubim. 7 The cherubim spread their wings over the place of the ark and overshadowed the ark and its carrying poles.
10 When the priests withdrew from the Holy Place, the cloud filled the temple of the Lord. 11 And the priests could not perform their service because of the cloud, for the glory of the Lord filled his temple.
3. The Skekinah Glory fell upon John in Revelation 1 when He saw Jesus
Rev. 1:12-17
12 I turned around to see the voice that was speaking to me. And when I turned I saw seven golden lampstands, 13 and among the lampstands was someone like a son of man,[d] dressed in a robe reaching down to his feet and with a golden sash around his chest. 14 The hair on his head was white like wool, as white as snow, and his eyes were like blazing fire. 15 His feet were like bronze glowing in a furnace, and his voice was like the sound of rushing waters. 16 In his right hand he held seven stars, and coming out of his mouth was a sharp, double-edged sword. His face was like the sun shining in all its brilliance.
17 When I saw him, I fell at his feet as though dead. Then he placed his right hand on me and said: “Do not be afraid. I am the First and the Last. 18 I am the Living One; I was dead, and now look, I am alive for ever and ever! And I hold the keys of death and Hades.
It is a tangible weightiness that we humans, in these natural bodies simply cannot stand in. We have to go down. We fall under the weightiness of his Glory.
C. Why would we want to pursue His Glory?
We were made to live in his Glory. For all of eternity we will be in His Glory.
When we set aside this temporal, fading, natural life and allow our spirit a minute to actual see God and feel God and hear God, we doing the very thing we were created to do. We are allowing ourselves to be satisfied not by worldly fleshly desires but we are being satisfied by God himself.
I don’t want to wait until I get to Heaven to experience the weight of his Glory. I want to experience God now. I want his hand upon me now. I want to please
him and walk with him now. We don’t have to wait till our troubles are gone. We can say no to sin, no to fear, no to self-absorbed living, and stop running from his presence and we can run to his presence.
D. Giving the wrong things glory in our Life:
Whatever you speak most of, whatever you dwell on, whatever is the why you make decisions is given Glory in your life.
What are you giving Glory in your life?
Are you giving offense, addiction, rejection, pain, fear, anxiety, sickness, lack, the Devil, Glory in your life?
Giving God Glory is not just something you say at the end of the Super Bowl.
Giving God Glory is what we are to do on a daily Basis.
II. What is Stopping Us from accessing or pursuing His Glory?
A. What the Weight of His Glory accomplishes:
Think about it, If something is heavy upon you, what do you? You go down. You are humbled. You are brought low. The weight of his Glory accomplishes John the Baptist and the apostle Paul’s prayer. You must increase and I must decrease, More of you and Less of me Lord.
1. We are humbled. His Glory will humble us. His presence will get our eyes off of our selves and onto his majesty.
2. The sin in man is exposed in God’s Glory. We become painfully aware our condition and our. Need for God. That can either keep us from pursuing and beholding his Glory or it can draw us close.
Our pride is what hinders us from leaning into the process of what it takes to access and behold the Glory of God.
Luke 5:8 “Depart from me, I am a sinful man”
3. Circling the Bronze Altar: The O.T. tabernacle was a type and shadow of the N.T. fullfillment of the God’s provision for us, mortal sinful man to access his presence. It is also a copy of the tabernacle in heaven.
Revelation and Hebrews Jesus entered the Holy place to offer his blood once and for all.
Why don’t we all just show up to church, show up to our devotions at our home or to a small group and simply feel God’s Glory. Boom. There He is. What is the roadblock.
The O.T. tabernacle had something at the first beginning in the Inner court. Right when you walked into the tabernacle there was the Bronze Altar where animals were sacrificed for the Sins of the people. This represents salvation through he cross. Jesus shedding his blood once and for all. When we come into relationship with Jesus this is the first step.
It is first step towards His Glory and his presence.
Beyond that was the Holy Place with the incense, bread and the wine.
Beyond that was the Most Holy Place. This was the where the manifest presence of God appeared between the cherubim above the art of the covenant. This is where the weight of his glory was most present.
Jesus paid the price for all of us to know access the Most Holy Place. It is the place of promise, it is the place of friendship and intimacy of Christ. He knows us, we know Him. Where do most of us get stuck. We get stuck at the bronze altar.
We come into worship, having lived that week or day giving into our flesh, sinning and we feel dirty, un interested in meeting with God. We feel defeated. What’s the point. I am just going to sin again. This isn’t working. We make a decision to stay in the inner court by the bronze altar. That is the level of worship we get to. It is a relationship with God that centers around his grace and mercy and our continual repentance for sin.
I am here to tell you today. There is so much more.
We need to stop circling the bronze altar.
III. How can we access and experience the weight of God’s Glory?
We sing, “Let the weight of your Glory, Fall on me”
We sing, “Your shekinah Glory Comes and fills this.” That is the Shekinah Glory. The weightiness of this presence. That is the manifest presence of God.
A. How can we get past the bronze altar and in to the Most Holy Place?
I have heard people say, Well when God shows up, Really shows up then I will repent and change my ways.
I just don’t see Him,
I just don’t feel Him.
He is far off.
When he decides to show up, then I will show up. Then I will make some changes.
Do we really say this, some do, but most of us make decision with this belief as the center and we don’t even realize it.
So what comes first? His Glory then our repentance, or our repentance and this his Glory?
B. We show up. (By the way God is already there and he is waiting), as I was telling the ladies last Ladies night.
We aren’t waiting on God, God is waiting on us. What is he waiting for?
Humility, repentance, our worship. Getting our eyes off of ourselves and getting our eyes on him.
C. We Repent.
When we are repentant God does a supernatural work in us.
We may become painfully aware of our need for God but we yield to his presence and the transformation work of Christ starts to happen.
Isaiah 6: 1-8
6 In the year that King Uzziah died I saw the Lord sitting upon a throne, high and lifted up; and the train[a] of his robe filled the temple. 2 Above him stood the seraphim. Each had six wings: with two he covered his face, and with two he covered his feet, and with two he flew. 3 And one called to another and said:
“Holy, holy, holy is the Lord of hosts;
the whole earth is full of his glory!”[b]
4 And the foundations of the thresholds shook at the voice of him who called, and the house was filled with smoke. 5 And I said: “Woe is me! For I am lost; for I am a man of unclean lips, and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips; for my eyes have seen the King, the Lord of hosts!”
6 Then one of the seraphim flew to me, having in his hand a burning coal that he had taken with tongs from the altar. 7 And he touched my mouth and said: “Behold, this has touched your lips; your guilt is taken away, and your sin atoned for.”
Isaiah’s Commission from the Lord
8 And I heard the voice of the Lord saying, “Whom shall I send, and who will go for us?” Then I said, “Here I am! Send me.”
Isaiah was self aware and repentant about who he really was when he beheld the Glory of the Lord, he said, I am a man of unclean lips. And the Lord cleansed him.
D. We actively engage in worship.
We need to know what it is we are actually pursuing.
We need to be an active participant like Isaiah, cleanse me Lord. Come and have your way. Deal with the dirt. Deal with the sin.
Deal with. My offense,
Deal with my hurt and anger.
Deal with my attitudes and selfishness.
We need to start making the connections between our life, our daily lives, our daily routines, our relationships, our words, our thoughts, our habits and the pursuit of his Glory.