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Week number three in our series entitled The
Glory. Everybody say The Glory. The Glory. And
I believe we don't just sit around and go, oh,
what would be a good sermon topic for Elation
Church this month? That's not what happens. That
might happen other places, but we're not talking
about them. We don't download like a 12 -week
guide to church growth. That's not... That's
not the way this works. We go to God and we ask
for direction and where he wants us, right? We
don't lean on our own understanding. We acknowledge
him and everything and we follow him, right?
His direction, his lead, and his now word for
the church because God is speaking. He is speaking
to those who seek him and to listen to him. Maybe
you say you've never heard him before. I'm not
talking about like an audible voice from heaven
that shakes the room, but I am talking about
hearing him in your spirit. Because did you know
that God is spirit and he communicates to his
children through the Holy Spirit alive on the
inside of us so we can know the things of God?
And here this series is important because I believe
it's setting us up to acknowledge and experience
a move of God in this church, in our homes, in
our individual lives, and for us to experience
the glory. in this area. Because, like, we've
seen things, right? We've seen the Spirit move
and how he's going to move in this area. So that
is certain. But what we don't see is point A
to point B, but what we know is this, that we
need the presence. And the power of God. We don't
need all these other things. We need the presence
and power of God in the believers, in the church
of God to be a glorious church as we've seen.
And that's up to us. Did you come prepared? Did
you come this morning expectant to be with God?
We've been looking at Exodus 33. I know that
was really heavy. I'm sorry. We started out.
That was rough. That's usually not the way I
start. I usually fumble around and, you know,
trip over words. But that's just kind of... where
we're at. I believe we're going somewhere. We're
called to experience the glory, and this series,
God laid it on Dad's heart to share because we're
about to experience it. And we need to, like
we've talked about, we need to recognize it so
we don't back down from it. We need to understand
what's happening, and then we need to be hungry
for it to happen. We expect it with faith, right?
We're hungry for God's presence and power in
our lives, and then by faith we expect that it
will be so, because it's promised to us. In Exodus
33, 15 through 16, we find Moses. And God had
been back and forth with his people, but basically
Moses had found himself as like the representative
between God and the people because they were
like, we don't want to hear the voice of God
anymore. You just go talk to God, Moses, and
then tell us what God says because they were
too scared. God forbid that we get like that,
right? And Moses makes this profound statement.
All the verses that I'm reading from today are
out of the New Living Translation, unless otherwise
noted on the screen. But he says this to God.
He's praying to God. He says, For your presence
among us sets your people and me apart from all
other people on earth. God's people are marked
by his presence and his power. In their lives.
Not just a Sunday morning rub a little Jesus
on a sunscreen that you apply and then hope you
live a transformed life. Of course, we're marked
by the love of God. God's people are characterized
by his love, but they're also carriers of the
presence of God everywhere you go. And Moses
is here saying, he's like, Your presence among
us sets your people apart from all other people
on the earth. It's a marker. It's a characteristics
of who we are. And then verse 18, Moses responds
and he shouts to God, then show me your glorious
presence. That was the cry of his heart. It wasn't
for a better circumstance. It wasn't for a better
people that would maybe listen and follow God's
way. No, he says, God, we need you. If you don't
go with me, if you're not here, I don't want
to continue any farther. He says, God, show me
your glorious presence. And what happens? God
shows him again and again and again. God speaks
to him. It's said that Moses would go out, he
would set up a, they called it a tent of meeting
outside of their camp where they stayed. And
everyone would go there and make requests, but
when Moses would go to the tent of meeting, a
cloud would come down from heaven. And it was
said that the people who could hear, it was like
Moses was talking to God face to face. He had
a relationship with God. See, this is what God
wants. He wants to show himself strong in your
life. He wants to talk to you. He wants to be
there, and he wants you to experience his goodness.
But we have to look up and say, God, show me
your glorious presence. We have to seek him in
order to find him. This word glory in the Old
Testament is called bode. It means weight, figuratively
in a good sense, meaning it's... Glory, splendor,
honor. Often when the glory, when you feel it
in the room, it feels like a heaviness. But not
a bad heaviness, but just a heaviness in the
room. And that's even a part of it. But as we've
seen throughout this series, what is the glory?
The glory, if we've seen, I encourage you to
go back. If you've not listened to the past two
sermons, you might be a little lost this morning.
But I hope you've listened to those. prepared
to come and prepared to receive, right? But what
is the glory? The glory is the manifest presence
of God. It's his manifested presence in the earth.
It's the weight of who he is. It's his goodness
revealed, and it's his reality made known. It's
his reality made known. Glory is not just a promise
for our future. A lot of people think, well,
glory is just in heaven, and when I get to heaven
one day, we'll be surrounded by the glory. We'll
feel and experience the glory. Well, guess what?
Moses experienced the glory in that tent of meeting.
The clouds from heaven are coming down and meeting
with him, and he's talking to God face to face.
His glory passed before him, right? His goodness
passed before him. And see, It's not just a promise
for the future, it's a requirement for our present.
It's a requirement for each and every believer
to experience God, to know Him, His eternal life.
But why don't we experience the glory? Often
it's just being ignorant of the Word. And being
ignorant of, we just don't know what is available
to us in Christ as believers. But God's word
has told us, as we've looked at the past two
weeks, that God is coming for a glorious church,
marked by his power and presence, and then that
the latter glory, everybody say, we're in the
latter glory, the latter glory would be greater
than, everybody say, greater than, greater than
the former glory. Think about it. When Jesus
went up, What did he say? He said, I'm sending
you someone, a helper, a comforter, right? His
spirit. And he said, too, that we would be able
to do, because he leaves, that his people would
be able to do greater things than he was able
to accomplish on the earth. Whoa. Have you seen
greater things recently than what Jesus did on
earth? Are as many people around, many of us
are just wanting to experience some of the things
that happened long ago. We sin, we want a move
of God like happened way back in the past. We
want God to do something like he's done. But
God wants to do new things, greater things, and
we see throughout his word. Let's get a hold
of this church. He's coming for a glorious church,
and God's will is clear. He wants glory in his
house. He wants glory in his people, and he wants
glory in his generation. What's another reason
we don't experience the glory? I would say just
distracted. We're just distracted. We're too
busy with the natural to be focused on anything
spiritual. Everything else gets in the way and
it's okay. Like those things are okay. They're
good in and of themselves. But if we don't take
time, if we don't focus on God, if we don't...
Deliberately give him our attention and our focus.
He's not just going to into your car. Now you're
awake. Sometimes we just won't. We want God.
We want to experience God. We want to hear from
him. But then we just give him a little bit on
Sunday morning. We're like, okay, if you speak
to me in this window, that's great. That's fine.
You know, I'm going to give you 10 minutes of
reading today, and then I'm going to do maybe
a little bit of prayer this afternoon, maybe
before bed if I feel like it. But I'll probably
get too tired, and that show will be on that
I want to finish, and I'll, you know. That's
just the truth, right? That's just throwing it
out there. Because we're too busy with the natural.
You're never too busy for what you want to do.
You always do what you want to do, right? To
be focused on the spiritual things. And then
this kind of goes along with this one. But another
reason we don't experience the glory is just
because we have misplaced focus. Our priorities,
our attention, like what matters most to us is
not, God, show me your presence. It's God, show
me this thing to help me with this specific,
right? It's not seeking God, it's seeking the
things of God. But we need to seek him and him
alone. We need to just look to heaven and just
say, God, show me your presence. Show me your
glory. And show him. that he is the one who matters
most to us. I was reminded this week of John
1 .14 says this, and the word became flesh. Everybody
say word. Word became flesh. Everybody say flesh.
Everybody say dwelt. Dwelt among us and listen.
And we behold his glory. The glory as the only
begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth.
How profound is this scripture? The word became
flesh and dwelt. Then we behold the glory. The
word became substance. encamped with us, and
then we saw his glory, right? Let's look at these
words. That word here is legos. It means spoken
word or systematic built -up word. So it's the
word becoming flesh. This is obviously talking
about Jesus. In John, he was writing about Jesus.
He's saying, Jesus, God, the Spirit, He becomes
flesh. He takes on flesh at the incarnation,
as we've been talking about over Christmas. He
takes on flesh, substance, and then He dwells.
It means to tabernacle or to pitch a tent. So
the glory is the spiritual turning physical.
It's God's presence becoming present, and it's
God's dwelling. extending to us. I want you to
see it this way. It's God's dwelling extending
to humanity. He stepped down out of heaven, took
on flesh, became a man, and came to us. Amen?
Amen? Often when we think of God things, when
we think of spiritual things, we don't think
of the tangibleness of it. But Scripture again
and again uses things like taste and see that
the Lord is good. That we're supposed to experience
Him. We can see His presence. Moses saw the cloud,
right? The disciples in the upper room saw fire.
But there's visible evidence, there's tangible
evidence of God's presence. And then we beheld
his glory, that verse says. It means to look
upon, to view attentively, to contemplate. The
glory is something, it's a reality that you and
I can see. It's unmistakable. You can't say,
oh, I don't know if it's here or not. Maybe it
was. No, if the glory is here, it's a reality
that you can see. It's not just an inward sense,
but it's an outward visible expression of God's
power and reality to look upon, to view intently,
attentively, and to contemplate. Get this, Colossians
1, 26 through 27 says this, the mystery which
has been hidden from ages and from generations,
but has now, everybody say now. But now has been
revealed to his saints. I'm a saint. Everybody
say, I'm a saint. I'm a saint. To them, God willed
to make known. I love that. It's God's will that
we know something. What is it? To know what are
the riches of the glory of this mystery among
the Gentiles, which is Christ in you. The hope
of glory. When you start reading your Bible and
start seeing glory, it's just all over. And it's
easy to miss it. But to them, God willed to make
known what are the riches of the glory of this
mystery among the Gentiles, which is Christ in
you, the hope of glory. What does Christ in you
mean? What does this look like? Christ in you
means he's not just visiting you, but he's indwelling
you. He's not just an external deity somewhere.
He's an internal God. He's an internal friend.
He is with you and in you if you believe in Christ.
So in Christ. The glory, listen, the glory changed
addresses. In Christ, I'm going to say, in Christ,
the glory changed addresses. As we look in the
Old Testament or the Old Covenant, God's glory
was what? It was on earth. It was manifest in
the Ark of the Covenant. It was carried by priests.
It was kept in the holiest of holy places. And
it was only accessed, allowed to be accessed,
one. by one person, one time each year. Imagine
that. But it changed addresses. The glory changed
addresses. Where did it go? In the New Covenant,
as we see in the New Testament, one of Paul's
great revelations is that God's glory manifests
in and through his people. And God's presence
can be carried everywhere. If you're a child
of God and you walked in this room, more of God's
presence walked in this room. Because you are
a carrier of Him. Not something like Him. Not
something lesser. But you are a carrier of Him.
Him Spirit. Him physical, with you, in you, through
you. He is here. Everybody say, God is here.
And his power can be accessed by every child
of God. The same spirit that raised Jesus from
the dead is alive on the inside of you. Do you
think that's just to make you feel a little better
today? Or should it accomplish something in the
earth? You know, when Jesus came, he had a mission
and he had a purpose. Do you think him in you
is still meant to carry out that same mission
and that same purpose? Don't you realize that
he indwells you to use you? In the kingdom, in
the eternal, while you're busy setting up your
temporal, God is calling us, each one of his
believers, to set up some eternal treasures in
heaven. There's things that need to be accomplished
in the earth. That's why we're here. It's because
God had something that he wanted to accomplish
here. He called us to hear with a mission and
a purpose to take care of kingdom business. What
is he calling you to? Are you a part of this
vision? What is his plans for you? Man, it's
heavy. What has God called you to? What is your
purpose here? Your purpose is to fellowship with
a holy God. Have faith in him to do, to hear,
and to act according to what he says. And follow
his will and his way. And when we do that, We
see his power. I like the way Paul writes in
1 Corinthians, and then later he put, Don't you
realize that all of you together are the temple
of God, and that the Spirit of God lives in you?
Don't you realize that together you are the temple
of God? And then later it says, Don't you realize
that your body, Don't you realize that your body
is the temple of the Holy Spirit? Christ in you
is the, back to Colossians, Christ in you is
the hope. It's from the Greek word elpo, meaning
to anticipate or welcome. It's expectation. We
talk about this a lot here at Adulation. It's
expectation of what is sure, what is certain
that will be. It's not a hope -so hope. It's
like the world describes it, like I hope it doesn't
rain this afternoon. Hope it doesn't drop too
cold, my plants die later this week. It's not
that kind of hope. Christ in you is the hope.
It is the confident expectation of what you know
will happen. It's not a matter of if, it's a
matter of knowing. It's a matter of what you
know, right? You're certain of it. It can't be
taken away from you because you are so certain.
You're just like guaranteed that it's going to
happen. A lot of us act like we don't know the
will of God. But how many times has it been preached
from this pulpit? We should know His will. We
should know His way. We should know how to hear
from Him. We should be experiencing Him, right?
We should know, because he's told us, faith comes
by hearing and hearing by the word of God, and
then hope is that foundation of faith in which
you stand upon. Unshakable, unmovable foundation
that you say, I know something. The world around
me is spinning, but I know something. I know
somebody. Christ in you, therefore, is the guarantee,
you could say it like this, the seed or the source
and the joyful, confident expectation of what?
Of what? What does the verse say? Of God's glory
in your life. This glory. New Testament Greek
glory is doxa, splendor, majesty, honor. It's
God's infinite, intrinsic work, and it is his
substance. Everybody say substance. Everybody
say essence. It's his essence of who he is. It's
his reality. Again, it's his reality made known.
Because Christ is in us, listen, this is what
this verse is saying, because Christ is in us,
therefore we can know, we can eagerly anticipate
and welcome the very atmosphere and substance
of heaven. What is heaven? It's the substance
of God's goodness. It's the reality of who he
is, shining, glowing. And it's a place God calls
us to. And it's a place where God is. Just like
the tent of meeting that Moses went to. You are
now the temple where Christ himself dwells. James
4 .8 says this, Come close to God, and God will
come close to you. You might ask, like, what's
the difference? We know that God is everywhere
all the time. He is spirit. He's everywhere in
the earth. We call that his omnipresence. But
what we're talking about specifically is his
manifested presence. His manifested presence
in his people, right? So what does this mean?
How do we get a good picture of this? As we talked
about last week, we talked about the reserved
seat. It's a reserved place of honor for God
and just a visual representation of how we should
acknowledge God's presence and his power with
us in this room every time we meet together,
right? But think of it like this. Come close
to God and God will come close to you. It's not
like we're trying to pull glory out of heaven.
Don't think that. Don't think that it's like
a works thing where if I do this and I do this
and I do this, A plus B equals all of a sudden
God flies out of heaven and sits right here,
right? It's not what we're talking about. What
does the verse say? Come close to God and God
will come close to you. That's a good verse,
right? But when you think about it, what is it?
If God's here and I'm over here, am I close?
No. If I move, am I closer? Am I nearer now?
What does this mean? What does this verse mean?
A lot of people, we act like we're pulling God
out of heaven. That's not what's happening. When
you draw close to God, when you seek Him, you
find Him. When you turn your heart away from
the temporal things of this world, and when your
focus and your main attention in life is directed
towards Him, you gaze steadily at who He is and
His goodness through His Word. Through his presence
on the inside of you, you talk to him, you fellowship
with him, you give him an inkling of your day
and your time. Each time you do that, you're
just inching closer to God. And you find yourself
nearer to him. God's power and presence is tangible,
and God's glory, the glory's impact is physical
and transformative. And I want us to look at
a New Testament believer. His name was Stephen.
If you're familiar with his story, after the
day of Pentecost, but we see Stephen, he's just
a wonderful New Testament example of Christ in
the believer and the physical and transformative
power of the glory. And I want us to see this.
And it's found in Acts 6, kind of goes through
to 7, but I'm not going to read each and every
verse, but I kept adding. and I probably should
have just listed all the verses, and we should
have just read the whole passage, but here we
go. Acts 6, 2 says this. I thought this was interesting,
so I've just left it in here, but it says, So
the twelve called a meeting of all the believers,
and they said, We apostles should spend our time
teaching the word of God, not running a food
program. Little side note, God's people, when
they gathered together, they were eating, they
were also selling their possessions, they were
regularly meeting together, and they were giving
of their goods to one another. If someone was
less fortunate, they would just gladly give.
They were generous towards one another. The New
Testament example is not feeding all the hungry
in the world. It's not taking care of every single
person all around the world. The New Testament
church, listen, New Testament church was very
focused on feeding and gathering and taking care
of those who called themselves Christians and
who joined the fellowship with other believers.
Okay? And the apostles, they got together, people
were meeting. Now the, you know, the Greek speaking.
Jews and like the Jewish people, they kind of
gotten a little tiffs at times. You know, anybody
gets together, there's some tiffin going on,
right? Because we're human and we're flawed.
And there was some, you know, there was some
issues that the distribution, like some people
felt that like some of the widows didn't get
their rightful portion and people were being
stingy and people were, you know. I don't know,
eating too much banana pudding at the end, you
know, and not leaving some for the rest of it.
You know what I'm saying? Be careful. But the
12, I just thought that was interesting. The
12, though, decide, they're like, you know, we
need to spend our time in prayer and about the
word and not run a food program. And in verse
3, and so brothers, select seven men who are
what? Well -respected and are full of the spirit
and wisdom of God. Full of the Spirit and wisdom
of God. Jumping over to verse 5. Everyone liked
the idea. How about that? Believers agreeing
on something. That's new. Everyone liked this
idea, and they chose the following. Stephen,
and listen to how Stephen's described. Stephen,
a man full of faith. Everybody say full of faith.
And the Holy Spirit. So say full of the Holy
Spirit. That's a good definition, right? I would
hope someone would say that about me, or I hope
someone would say that about you this morning.
Full of faith, not weak faith, full of faith,
and then full of the Holy Spirit. Holy Spirit's
cool because we need to continually feel on the
Spirit, right? Continually feel up on Him and
the goodness of who He is. It's never -ending,
right? But Stephen is characterized as a man
full of faith and the Holy Spirit. And I want
you to see this, these two things. Faith and
the Holy Ghost are the atmosphere to experience
the glory of God. These things are required in
the hearts of believers to be full of faith and
to be full of the Holy Spirit. This is where
transformation truly begins. Full of faith, full
of the Holy Spirit. Verse 6, these seven were
presented to the apostles. I didn't list out
all the other seven because they're not important
for today. The seven were presented to the apostles
who prayed for them. Get this, who prayed for
them as they what? Laid their hands on them.
And something happened. It wasn't just the apostles
touching them. It was God himself appointing
people for a call for a service in his kingdom.
Now we look at it and might be like, well, that
was just distributing food to like those let
know. It's important. The kingdom of God business,
no matter if it's like the lowliest thing or
the greatest thing, it's all important and it
all must be done. But the apostles lay their
hands on them and something happens. Stephen
is then called something else and defined a different
way. I believe he's still a man full of faith
and full of the Holy Ghost, but now Stephen is
described as a man full of God's grace and full
of God's power. And what happened? He performed
amazing miracles and signs among the people.
Now, wait a minute. He was running the food bank.
What is he out here doing? Doing miracles and
signs and everything? If you're full of the Holy
Spirit, you see your service and you see your
life in a different way. You live with a kingdom
perspective. And when you stop and really acknowledge
him, acknowledge his presence, he begins to tell
you what to say and what to do in certain situations.
He leads you. He guides you. And I believe Stephen,
so he's like handing out food and someone begins
to talk to him. And all of a sudden the Spirit
leads him and says, hey, pray for that person.
Why? Is it that Stephen carried some special
power to heal? No. God wanted to do something
in the earth. And God told Stephen, act in obedience
and you'll see a miracle. Stephen, do this. And
he did. Why? Because he was full of faith and
full of the Holy Spirit. When he heard from God,
he said, yes. I hear you, I believe you, and
I'm going to do it now because I'm certain that
on the other side of this act of faith, I will
see your promises, and I will see you move in
the earth. And that's where God is waiting for
us in this room to be, is full of faith and full
of the Holy Spirit. Then we will see. The fullness
of his grace and experience his power in this
room. That's when we will experience the glory
in this room is when we have obedient hearts.
Acknowledging him and he and see Stephen, he's
full of God's grace and power. He performs amazing
miracles and signs among the people. We see this
spiritual transformation from full of faith to
full of God's grace, carrying out miracles. And
now. Something else, later on it talks about
that he gets into a debate with some of these
religious leaders. But every time they do, it
said that he spoke with a wisdom and a knowledge
that no one else had ever seen. And so they would
try to trap him and try to get him to talk about
something, which he wasn't. They knew good and
well he wasn't like a skilled person, like he
didn't study, he didn't do a bunch. But they're
just like... They tried to trap him. And the
spirit of God would come on him. And all of a
sudden, he would begin to say things and talk
from a place of knowledge and understanding that
outsmarted them all. And this made him really
upset. Stephen, he gets arrested. He gets tried
before the high council. They take him. And then,
to top it all off, the same people who he debated
start... I guess probably paying people to lie
about Stephen, about what he said and what he
did. You can read it further in Acts 6. But I'm
just trying to move us ahead a little bit. But
I want you to get this picture that he's standing
in front of this high council, being judged on
the stand. And he's just being lied about. He's
being falsely accused. And suddenly... What does
it say in verse 15? Suddenly, while everybody's
just running their mouth, suddenly they look
over at Stephen. And what? Everyone in the high
council stared at Stephen. Why? Because his face
became as bright as an angel's. Something spiritual.
becomes physical and it brings transformation,
physical transformation to Stephen's body. You
see it where all of a sudden the glory of God
is coming out of his pores of his face. He's
glowing, radiating. His face is glowing with
the presence of God. Why? Why did this happen?
Doesn't this remind us of Moses? Isn't this the
same verbiage that we hear about Moses? He meets
with God and his face is glowing. They had to
put a veil over his face because they were tired
of looking at it. It was too bright for them
to look at. Here it has happened again. But this
time in a Christ -filled believer. And even though
Stephen's body was in the presence of his accusers,
His spirit was in a different place. His spirit
was in the glory of God. Stephen's spirit's nearness
to God's goodness transformed his outward complexion
and then inspires the words, that are about to,
you know, pour out of his mouth. Because he gives
this long discourse of things and it's just amazing.
You can read about it later this afternoon. But
I want you to see this, what's taking place is
that Stephen had every opportunity to try to
defend himself, to try to say, no, they're making
up lies. He could have been focused on them.
He could have been trying to do, but no, he stops
and he focuses his attention on God. Not what
people are saying, not what they're accusing
him of, not what the high council or even the
outcome. He was not fearful of the outcome of
what would happen because he knows something
because his body might have been there, but his
spirit is with God. And that's the foundation.
That's the hope. So he was not worried. He was
not afraid. He was not offended by their words.
And then after he shares his discourse, listen
to what it says in 7 verse 55. But Stephen, full
of the Holy Spirit, gazed steadily into heaven
and saw the glory of God. And he saw Jesus standing
in the place of honor at God's right hand. You
see, being full of the Spirit, it affects your
vision and it dictates where you look. In your
times of greatest trouble, if you're looking
at everything else that's coming against you
and not the one for you, you won't experience
his power in your life. What your attention is
on is magnified to you. It appears bigger and
larger to you. That's why if I'm focused on myself
and what's going on in me and my body and whatever's
happening, if that is what my attention is on,
those things are going to be amplified in my
head and in my mind and in my life. I become...
bigger to myself. But when your attention is
on God, you become really small. And his love
for you becomes infinite. His goodness becomes
overwhelming. And the present trouble becomes
empty and has no voice. In the middle of this
terrible circumstance, Stephen doesn't complain,
he doesn't get offended, consider their hurtful,
untrue words, because he was setting his gaze
steadily up to heaven. And if we, if you and
I, set our eyes to heaven and seek God's glory,
we will continually be transformed. Because genuine
transformation does not begin from the outside
in. It begins from the inside out. The spiritual
things have more impact over your life than the
outward things. The spiritual things have more
impact, ability to impact, than the outward circumstances.
I love this. Colossians 2, 9 and 10 says this,
For in Christ lives all the fullness of God in
a human body. So you also are complete. We need
to confess that today. Say, I am complete. Christ
is in me. I am complete. The fullness of God
is in my body. So you are complete through your
union with Christ, who is the head over every
ruler, our authority. So don't bow down and don't
be afraid of the rulers and authorities of this
world. Because who's the head over them all?
And where is he? On the inside of you, right?
My body's here. But Christ is in me? And what's
also the paradox here? Where is Christ? Where
did Stephen see him? He saw him standing at the
right hand of the Father in heaven. Don't miss
this. Where is Christ? He's in heaven. Where
is Christ? In me. And in the Spirit. To be absent
from the body is to be what? Present with the
Lord. You are so much more than your body. This
body will fade away. This body will pass. But
that's just not for the sweet by and by. One
day. That's for now. Experiencing his presence
and the fullness of who he is is why Christ indwells
us and not just visits us. And we enter heaven.
How? By the Spirit? Yes. We enter heaven with
thanksgiving in our hearts. We enter his courts
with praise on our lips. Because when the physical
things get connected to the spiritual things,
that's when things start happening. When we thank
God, when we praise him, and then in faith we
expect to see him move, expect to see the goodness
of who he is, that's when your circumstance starts
to change around. God's not going to change your
circumstance. He wants you to look to him. Get
your eyes off of it. Look to him. And then through
you, he will change your circumstance in the
earth. By your words, by your actions, by following
his will and his way. 2 Corinthians 3 .18 says,
All of us who have had the veil removed, when
Jesus died on the cross, the veil was torn to
the Holy of Holies. We've had that veil removed,
so now what? We can see, everybody say see, and
reflect the glory of God, the glory of the Lord.
And the Lord who is the Spirit makes us more
and more like Him as we are changed into His
glorious image. I like what the New King James
Version says, but we all with unveiled face,
beholding as in a mirror, the glory of the Lord.
Or what? Being transformed. Say, I am being transformed.
Being transformed into the same image from glory
to glory. It's like... It's like if you sleep
on a couch with a weird pattern. If you sleep
on a couch with a weird pattern and you wake
up and your face is imprinted with that pattern.
How many of you have done that? Or how many of
you have silly putty and you've like rubbed a
newspaper and you just push it down and all of
a sudden you pull it off and it's imprinted on
it? The more and more we're absent from this
body and present with the Lord, thanking him,
praising him, expecting him in our lives, the
more and more we do that, the more and more we
will see. The more we draw closer to him, the
more we will experience him. Because his fullness
is in us to impact us, to change us. So go ahead
and get happy about it. Should put a smile on
your face. Because in the presence of the Lord,
there is transformation. Many of you this morning
might be searching for something that you realize
that only God can do. And he's just wanting you
to turn to him. Seek him. Acknowledge him. Not
just with a prayer to change your circumstance,
but a prayer to see his glory. The glory can
be seen, it can be experienced, and it can be
carried, just like Stephen carried it. He was
full of faith, full of the Holy Ghost, full of
God's grace, and full of God's power. That should
be the definition of each and every believer
in the earth. That's what God wants. That's his
will for us. And God is waiting on us to turn
our hearts and our attention and our focus, praise
towards him, and give him a place of honor. Because
this creates the atmosphere for him to move in
our lives. God is a gentleman. He doesn't just
zap you. You don't wield him like a sword. He's
a gentleman. He has to be invited. He has to
be honored and respected. In a society that don't
respect or honor much, we have to respect him
and honor him. And that involves listening. That
involves obeying. Being quick to obey. and expectant
to see him move. And this ground creates the
atmosphere for the fruit of the glory to grow.
Christ in you is the source of glory. Your cooperation,
your honor, and your praise then becomes the
entrance. This online worship experience was
brought to you by the Friends and Partners of
Eulation Church.