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I want to speak about an inward longing
that has to be in the heart of
every true Christian.
At least it starts that way.
In many people's lives, it may not end
up this way, but it starts this way.
I believe the moment that you and I
are genuinely born again of the Spirit of
God, there is a cry.
We're going to talk about it tonight and
let the Holy Spirit begin to search us
and see the work that he needs to
do within us.
Now, Father, I commit my life and time,
my mind and everything you've given me into
your hands.
I ask you to be glorified tonight.
I ask God that you would push back
the powers of darkness that would so want
to encroach on the truth that can set
people free.
I pray, God, that you give me quickening,
a clarity in my mind and heart and
spirit that I can say this.
And I ask, Lord, that every word would
have an eternal weight on it that comes
from your heart.
I ask you, Holy Spirit, to animate me.
I don't want to even be in the
mix of this message.
Let it come from your heart.
Let my body just be an expression of
your life that is within me.
I'm asking you, Jesus, to be glorified in
this.
And, Father, I yield my life and heart
to it.
And I ask, O God, that you would
be satisfied at the end of this evening
and that you would be glorified in your
church.
And I ask it in Jesus' name.
John chapter 17, beginning at verse 1.
These words spake Jesus and lifted up his
eyes to heaven and said, Father, the hour
is come.
Glorify thy son, that thy son also may
glorify thee.
As thou has given him power over all
flesh, that he should give eternal life to
as many as thou has given him.
And this is life eternal, that they might
know thee, the only true God, and Jesus
Christ, whom thou hast sent.
I have glorified thee on the earth.
I have finished the work which thou gavest
me to do.
And now, O Father, glorify thou me with
thine own self, with the glory which I
had with thee before the world was.
Father, Jesus said, glorify me with yourself.
In other words, let your life be what
resurrects me.
As it is, he knew he was going
to his death.
There was a cry in the heart of
Jesus Christ, which I am convinced has to
be in the heart of everyone who says
that they have Christ living within them.
The word glory in the original text is
doxa, and it means an inward radiance which
attracts attention.
Now, for the New Testament Christian, it speaks
of what God destined us to be in
Christ before the world began.
That's an amazing thought.
Did you know that you're not a happenstance
tonight?
You were in the mind of God before
the world was created.
He knew you.
He knew you by name.
He knew where you would be born.
He knew where you would live.
He knew you would be here tonight in
Times Square Church.
Now, before sin entered the world, God had
created you and I in his own image.
We were to be an expression of the
person and character of God, as it is.
Not for purposes of self-glorying, but that
God, through his creation, might be glorified.
I was created to glorify God.
Now, sin broke that channel, as it is,
and left me and you, before we knew
Christ, to a fallen nature, which is depraved,
which even with its best efforts falls extremely
short of the glory of God, falls short
of what you and I are called to
be, of how we're to live our lives,
and how God, in effect, is to be
glorified through us.
You see, he knew us before the creation
of the world, and he determined that he
would be made known through you.
To a world that lies in rebellion, to
the person of Jesus Christ, to his justice,
and even to his mercy.
I believe, personally, there's an inward cry in
a true Christian.
It's, Jesus, glorify yourself in me.
Be glorified in my life.
Let me finish on this earth the work
which you have given me to do.
Nobody else can do what I've been called
to do.
I've been uniquely called in fashion of God,
and there's a divine purpose of God that
my life has been set apart for.
Now, I could not have known it when
I was outside of the kingdom of God,
but when I came to Jesus Christ, I
was grafted back in to the life and
lineage of almighty God through Jesus Christ, and
Jesus Christ himself is the firstborn from the
dead.
I, too, am raised from the dead in
him.
If he is in me, I am raised
from the dead.
I already have eternal life.
I'm not hoping to have it someday.
I already have it.
His life is now in me.
Yes, of course, I'm in a body that
is going to perish, but one day even
this body is going to be changed by
the word of God.
Until the day he takes me home.
I have been left on this earth, just
as you have, for a purpose.
It's a divine purpose.
God has something he wants to do through
my life.
And whatever it is that he wants to
do, he has determined that he will be
glorified in it.
There's a song that the church used to
sing years ago.
Father, glorify thyself.
Father, glorify thyself in me.
Whether pleasure or in pain, over my life
I give you rain.
Father, glorify thyself in me.
Whatever it is you want to do, God,
I just invite you to do it.
I invite you to lead me on that
path.
I invite you to do the work that
needs to be done.
I invite you, God, by the power of
the spirit of Christ within me.
By the Holy Spirit inside of me to
take dominion as it is over this flesh
that is so alienated from the mind of
God.
So wants to live its own way.
It even wants to produce its own form
of Christianity.
Which, of course, won't glorify God.
The true cry of every Christian, every believer
in Christ, has to be, Jesus, be glorified
in me.
How can we say that the spirit of
Christ is in us and not have the
same cry?
Now, I know that that's not the way
many of God's people live today.
But honestly, even if the cares of this
world are choking out the fruit of Christ
in your life, even tonight.
If you're honest, just for a moment, you
have to acknowledge that if you are a
Christian, that cry, that seed of that cry
is in you.
It's in there.
There's a desire in you planted by God
to glorify God.
You may not know how to get there,
but the desire is there.
You have a desire.
Now, the devil will come against you with
everything he's got to take that desire out
of your heart.
He does not want Christ glorified through your
life, because he knows, through history, when somebody
is set apart and their lives begin to
radiate Jesus Christ, things begin to change around
them.
Families come to God, communities get changed, and
sometimes whole countries come into revival.
When one person is laid hold of by
the spirit of God and says, God Almighty,
glorify yourself in me.
Guide me, lead me, wherever you want me
to go, take me there.
And let my life be an expression of
who you are.
Now, our natural minds may not understand this.
We may not even understand where it's going
to lead us or how we're going to
get there.
But we really don't have to.
I think I've learned through a little bit
of experience that all I have to do
is walk with him.
He knows where we're going.
I just have to love him with all
of my heart and trust him.
And I just walk through my day.
And the inward cry is, be glorified in
me.
Be glorified in everything that you have chosen
to do in my life.
Now, many Christians are misled.
And this is a generation, I think, of
largely misled Christianity.
Not all, obviously, but many are misled because
this is no longer the cry of their
lives.
If you go with me to Matthew 3,
just for a moment, I want to take
a little journey through the life of Jesus
Christ.
Matthew 3, verse 16, talks about the beginning,
as it is, of his public earthly ministry.
It says, In Jesus, when he was baptized,
it's Matthew 3, verse 16, went up straightway
out of the water, and, lo, the heavens
were opened to him, and he saw the
Spirit of God descending like a dove and
lighting upon him.
And, lo, a voice from heaven sang, This
is my beloved Son, in whom I am
well pleased.
Now, many of us have known this.
Those that are new Christians, you're beginning to
understand this now in your walk with God.
You set out after salvation to be baptized.
You go down into this water of immersion
after you've received Jesus Christ as Lord and
Savior.
And the water of immersion really means I'm
dying to my old way of living.
I'm dying to my old values, system, my
old desires, my doing things my way, living
by my own will and stubbornness and rejection
to the will of God.
And now I'm coming up out of the
water and believing that as Jesus was raised
from the dead, so now I too am
going to walk in newness of life.
And many of you have followed.
You've received Christ as it is.
You've followed into the waters of baptism, the
Scripture says, and the heavens were opened.
And all of a sudden, you lived under
this cloud.
You know what I'm talking about, those who
have come to the Lord in the last
while.
There's this doom that just surrounds you, this
foreboding of the future, this sense of inadequacy,
this feeling of what was I created for,
where am I going, what is my life
all about?
And all of a sudden you receive Christ
and the heavens are open.
It's like there's an endless possibility now.
My life can become anything that God...
No, you instinctively begin to know this.
I can't tell you how I knew this,
but I knew it when I came to
Christ.
I knew God had a plan.
I knew somehow He's going to be glorified
through my life.
And the Scriptures, which before were just a
dead letter book, because the Spirit of God
was now inside of me, became a living
expression of God's mind in me.
And every word was life that I could
go in and devour and feed on it.
And as I fed on it, it became
stronger in the knowledge of Christ and the
grace of my God.
We begin to understand that as the heavens
are open, we are changing into the image
of what it is that God in Christ
is destined us to be.
Of course, it's the image of Christ himself.
Then the Scripture says the Spirit of God
descended upon him like a dove.
And we've come through the waters of baptism.
We've seen the heavens open.
The Spirit of God comes upon us.
And then this voice comes from heaven.
This is my beloved Son, in whom I
am well pleased.
And we have this deep inner knowledge that
we are pleasing in the sight of God.
You know, it's a strange thing.
It's only the supposed learned believer that loses
this, but the new believer has this.
Instinctively of God.
Yeah, you're a mess.
You're coming to the Kingdom of God.
You've got a wagon load of baggage that
goes right down to 42nd Street.
But still you're here tonight.
And you know that you are pleasing to
God.
You haven't got it all together.
You have a long way to go, but
you have this inner knowledge.
I am in Christ.
Christ is in me.
I've started a new life.
The heavens are open.
The Spirit of God is upon me.
And I am pleasing in the sight of
my God.
And you know it.
Instinctively you know it.
And there's this inner cry, Oh God, use
me for your glory.
Do something through my life.
But you see, from Matthew 3, verses 16
and 17, when we see all of this
that came on his life, we would think
now that it just doesn't get any better.
It has to be up and up from
here.
I mean, it has to get better.
I'm baptized in water.
I've got the Spirit on me.
The heavens are open.
I'm pleasing in the sight of God.
I've got all this promise.
You'd think Jesus would move right from there
to a place of ruling and reigning.
But that's not the way it was to
be.
And many, many people come to Christ and
they have a little bit of understanding.
And they want to move right from that
little bit of understanding to ruling and reigning
with Jesus Christ.
They join the mountain mover crowd.
You know, the theological mountain movers are out
casting down this and renting helicopters and spiritually
taking over cities.
And all of the rest of this foolishness
that accomplishes nothing for the kingdom of God.
Doesn't bring them any glory.
You see, first, Matthew chapter 4, in verse,
well, just in the beginning, it says, Then
was Jesus led of the Spirit into the
wilderness.
After all of this knowledge, all of this
wonderful experience with God, He's moved into the
wilderness.
And if we had time tonight, I could
prove to you that this is the way,
this is the pathway to glorifying God.
You consider the children of Israel.
Out of Egypt.
Where did they go?
Before the promised land, there was a wilderness.
Consider Moses.
Called to deliver a people out of darkness.
Out of the king's palace.
And before becoming the deliverer, he had to
go into the wilderness and ended up really
on the backside of the desert, as the
scripture says.
You consider Jacob.
Before inheriting the true blessing, he had sought
it one way and thought he had obtained
it.
But before getting the true blessing of God,
had to be taken through a wilderness experience
where he had to learn some issues of
his own heart.
You think about Joseph.
Called to be a deliverer to his brethren.
And from the moment he's called to the
moment he becomes the deliverer with the keys
and the storehouse of food that a whole
generation was about to need, he has to
suffer betrayal and go into a very long
personal wilderness experience.
If I had time, we could talk about
Daniel who's taken captive at a young age
and brought into a very deep personal wilderness
before this knowledge of God that was given
to him that would influence kings became part
of his life.
Think of Ezekiel having to be taken on
a forced march with the rest of the
children of Israel into a place of wilderness
and captivity before the calling of God that
was to give revelation and understanding of their
situation in the future came into his life.
You see, it's in the wilderness that the
core values of your Christian life will be
formed.
Not on the mountaintop.
In the wilderness.
It's most often a place that's out of
the public eye.
It's known only to you and God.
Nobody else sometimes knows about the things that
you're going through, but God does.
And what happens here in this wilderness, and
it's a God-led wilderness, this is not
something the devil has brought into your life.
Oh, the devil is there because Jesus was
led into the wilderness and in the wilderness,
you see, the Spirit led him there, but
in there he was tempted by the devil.
It's not the devil leading you there, it's
the Spirit leading you there.
The devil will tempt you in this place.
But what happens here will determine whether or
not you and I will ever glorify Jesus
Christ in the wilderness.
That's where your character is formed.
The hidden walk.
Then you will emerge from this wilderness experience.
Now, some people run from it.
Some people try to escape it very quickly.
And you'll see very shortly as we go
through the Scriptures, their lives don't bring glory
to God.
Now, Satan was after Jesus' pursuit of a
life that would glorify his Father.
Satan knew the harm that would come if
the singleness that was in him, the single
pursuit of his eye to glorify his Father,
could not be tampered with.
He knew his kingdom, perhaps, was in incredible
jeopardy.
In Matthew 4 and verse 3, he came
to him and said, if you're the Son
of God, command that these stones be made
bread.
You see, the devil knows something.
He knows that God is not glorified in
ministry that focuses on its own provision.
There are all types of ministries out there
today whose primary focus is their own provision.
They look in the Scriptures, and everywhere they
look in the Scriptures, they're trying to turn
stones into bread.
They're trying to evade and avoid every hard
place, every wilderness time, every prison cell as
it is where the Gospel, as Paul did,
would be written.
They're trying to duck and avoid all of
these things and turn everything in the Bible
into their own provision.
And there's no glory.
People turn on the television looking for God,
and they encounter this type of ministry that
just focuses on everything that puts bread in
their hands.
There's no glory in it.
And even the unsaved instinctively know this isn't
God.
The greedy, perhaps, are drawn in.
But the honest seeker says, this can't be
God.
This can't be the Christ that went to
a cross.
Matthew 4, verse 8, the devil took Him
into an exceeding high mountain and showed Him
the kingdoms of the world and the glory
of them.
You see, he knew that God is not
glorified by those who lust for position and
power.
You see, Satan had first-hand knowledge of
this.
He was one of the original lusters for
position and power in heaven.
And because he couldn't obtain it, he was
cast out and took a third of heaven
with him in a rebellion.
And I think of the myriads of those
who profess to be Christians today and who
lust in their hearts for position and power.
All of the ladder climbers in every denomination
that calls itself by the name of Jesus
Christ.
Lusting for position and power.
Lusting to scoop in other organizations.
Lusting to be called by some title that's
a foot long and have theology a quarter
of an inch deep.
And the devil knew this type of ministry
cannot glorify God.
He took Him in chapter 4, verses 5
and 6 to the pinnacle of a temple.
And he set Him on the pinnacle of
the temple and told Him, cast Yourself down.
It is written, He shall give His angels
charge concerning Thee, and in their hands they
shall bear Thee up lest at any time
Thou dash Thy foot against a stone.
Now Satan knew that God is not glorified
by those who proceed on their journey led
by their own impulsiveness and presumption.
You see, you can head out to do
something.
You can even have Scripture to back it,
but it's not God's leading.
It's not the way that God has chosen
to be glorified in your life.
You can be a pastor and you can
be quoting every Scripture in the book that
talks about build, build, build.
And you head out to build something and
to build this magnificent edifice and leave the
congregation with hundreds of thousands or millions of
dollars in debt.
And then walk away because there is no
provision.
And in one sense, it's that casting themselves
off the pinnacle of the temple and saying,
God, if I do this, if I find
a Scripture and I just hold to this
and I cast myself off, You are obliged
to catch me before I hit the bottom.
Not so.
The Lord is not glorified by impulsive Christianity.
He is glorified by those who follow His
voice, by those who follow His leading.
When Jesus cried out in John chapter 17,
His inner cry for the Father's glory came
from the knowledge that to glorify God in
the manner that was in His Father's heart,
that which was in His Father's heart before
the foundation of the world, now to do
this, He had to die.
And His Father had to raise Him again.
You see, this is the glory He was
talking about.
Let me show you this in Luke chapter
9.
Go there please with me.
Luke chapter 9, verse 28.
It says, It came to pass about eight
days after these things, He took Peter and
James and John, or John and James rather,
and went up into a mountain to pray.
And as He prayed, the fashion of His
countenance was altered and His raiment was white
and glistering.
And behold, there talked with Him two men,
who were Moses and Elias, who appeared in
glory.
And glory is the same word that Jesus
used when He said, Father, glorify Yourself in
me.
Doksha.
And spoke of His decease, which He should
accomplish at Jerusalem.
But Peter and they that were with Him
were heavy with sleep.
You see, they appeared.
Moses and Elijah appeared.
And they appeared in the manner that glorified
God.
And then they were speaking to Him about
this coming time when He would glorify His
Father.
And they spoke of His death, which He
should accomplish at Jerusalem.
You know, a lot of people don't want
to hear this.
The Scripture says in verse 32 that Peter
and they that were with Him were heavy
with sleep.
They were not ready to hear it.
Everything in their fallen nature and natural mind
would be against it.
We all want to glorify God on our
own terms.
But the Lord spoke to His only Son
and said, this is how you're going to
glorify Me.
You're going to die.
And I'm going to raise you again from
the dead.
Now, Peter was the only later ready to
hear this.
In John chapter 21, Jesus, after being raised
from the dead, appeared to Peter after Peter
had terribly failed in his attempts to live
for the Lord.
And He said, Peter, when you were young,
you girded yourself and you walked wherever you
wanted to go.
But when you're old, He said, you're going
to stretch forth your hands and another is
going to gird you and going to take
you into a place that you don't desire
to go.
And the Scripture says, this He spoke signifying
by what death He should glorify God.
And then He said to Peter, follow Me.
I found this interesting.
The question arises, by what death are you
and I called to glorify God?
Now, I'll explain this to you in just
a minute.
Now, Jesus said, if any man will come
after Me, let him deny himself and take
up his cross and follow Me.
For whosoever will save his life, and the
context of this means his old nature.
Whosoever will try to preserve his old ways
of thinking and doing things.
He wants Christ, but he wants what he
was outside of the kingdom of God.
He wants the old nature still to live
in him and govern him.
If he tries to save this, he will
lose his life.
He will lose what I have for him.
He will lose the destiny that I have
ordained for him before the foundation of the
world.
He will end up, perhaps at the end
of his days, with a testimony of the
name of Jesus on his or her lips,
but his life will not have glorified God.
At the end of his days, his life
will be just a mixture that people will
look at with some measure of confusion.
And it was partly truth and partly fiction.
There was a measure, as it is of
God in it, but not what God destined
it to be.
You see, we fail to glorify Christ when
in some times of difficulty we seek to
survive and not die.
This is how we fail to glorify Him.
When difficulty comes our way and we try
to live, we try to survive, we reason
with our own minds which is the best
way out of this situation.
Instead of drawing back and saying, Jesus, be
glorified in this.
I think of Paul as the Lord has
got him on a journey.
The end of this journey is a prison
cell.
And God Almighty Himself is going to put
paper and a pen in Paul's hand and
He's going to write a significant portion of
the New Testament Scriptures that we have today.
God had determined to glorify Himself through a
man who was being led to prison.
But I think of Agabus and some other
well-meaning Christians along the journey who went
through the whole rigmarole of taking their belts
and tying their hands and saying to Paul,
this is what's going to happen to you.
Think of the good that can come from
your life if you could just circumvent.
Why do you have to do this?
You're doing so much good here.
But you see, Paul had this inward knowledge
that to die is gain.
To die, not just to physical death necessarily,
but to die to the things that I
think are right and to follow the voice
of God within me.
To move to what it is that God
has for my life.
To not try to survive in every situation,
but to say, Lord, if I have to
die in this situation, it's better that I
die here that You may live in me
and be glorified through me.
Now, let me explain.
Let me bring it home for you.
For example, in a situation of conflict.
Now, Proverbs 13, 10 says that only by
pride comes contention.
So when there's contention in a home, in
a marriage, in a family, between two Christians
even, that means there are two people who
are still very much alive, still very much
want their own way, still very much are
right in their own sight.
The end result is a contention where Jesus
Christ is not glorified.
Young Christians come in.
They see older Christians fighting, holding grudges one
with another, bitter, speaking angry words.
Children at home, mom and dad at the
table after raising their hands in search, won't
speak to each other at the supper table.
And children are sitting there and Jesus Christ
is not glorified.
Not only is He not glorified, He's virtually
hidden from their view.
And the problem is that somebody is refusing
to die.
Somebody is refusing to die to their pride.
Somebody is wanting to stay alive.
It takes two people to fight.
If one of them is dead, there's no
longer a fight.
I don't have to be the victor in
every situation.
I am truly the victor if I die
with Christ.
If I die to my right to be
right.
If I understand in my heart there's a
higher law than winning every conflict.
The higher law is that Jesus be glorified
and nobody ever stumble over my life on
the way to finding Him as Lord and
Savior.
When we see another person more gifted, being
more promoted, more appreciated, and we say in
our hearts, Lord, let me die to the
envy.
Let me die to the desire in me
for preeminence.
Let me be content to be where I
am.
Paul said, I have learned.
That didn't happen overnight.
You don't get that in New Testament theology
101.
You've got to walk a while with God
to say, I have learned.
I've learned to be content to sing in
the choir and give my all to God.
And if that's all I ever have, I've
learned to be content there.
I've learned to be content in the marriage
that I met.
I've learned to be content to have the
children that I have.
I've learned to be content to work on
the job where God has placed me in
this world.
I've learned to be content with the talents
I have.
I've learned to be content with the voice
He's given me.
The sight He's put in my eyes.
I've learned to be content.
Hallelujah.
And even if for a season it looks
like I have no life.
Even if for a season everybody looks at
me and says, he's in a grave, he's
dead, roll the stone over him.
It's your choice, Lord, to leave me there
or to raise me up into the person
that you have destined me to be.
But I have learned to be content.
Oh, Jesus, thank you!
I've seen more Christians destroyed by ambition than
any other sin.
Discontent in the heart, always pushing and jockeying
and moving for some new thing, some new
position.
Hallelujah.
Thank God for the privilege of being dead.
You see, it's the dead person that will
glorify God.
The Bible says that preached on a couple
of weeks ago that people wanted to even
kill Lazarus because he had been raised from
the dead.
And because of him, many people were believing
in Jesus Christ.
There's something very attractive about a contented person.
Would you agree?
I find it very attractive to come in
the church and I just see some guys
here every week and they've got a bottle
of Windex and they're just polishing this thing.
It's their ministry.
They don't ever get to preach behind it,
but they get to polish it.
And they're content.
Hi, Pastor, how are you?
They bring me under conviction quite often because
they say, God, please, let me be as
contented as that man in everything that I
am and called to do.
You see, this is level ground.
It's not what we do.
It's that we do what we're called to
do.
And that in it, we glorify God.
Hallelujah.
It's incredible when the revelation finally hits that
this is how we glorify God.
We rest in Him.
We let Him be who He is in
us.
He begins to radiate through us everywhere we
go.
And that's the type of person that truly
glorifies God.
In John 16, I'm going to close with
this tonight, and I'm going to show you.
In John 16, verse 7, Jesus said, Nevertheless,
I tell you the truth.
It is expedient for you that I go
away, for if I go not away, the
Comforter will not come to you.
But if I depart, I will send Him
to you.
When He has come, He will reprove the
world of sin and of righteousness and of
judgment.
Now, stop right there.
Now, we think that the Holy Spirit is
just going to do that all by Himself.
The Holy Spirit is going to come down
just like a cloud.
He's going to hover over New York, and
He's going to convince everybody of sin and
righteousness and judgment.
Well, He does.
But how does He do it?
You see, He does it through a church.
He does it through a people that gather,
they corporately worship, but then they're dispersed throughout
the city.
And the Holy Spirit in you, the Holy
Spirit in me should be leaving in our
wake everywhere we go a saver.
It's like a perfume.
You ever had anybody walk by you in
the lobby of an apartment building and they
have a very strong aftershave or some kind
of perfume and it just catches you as
they go by?
And you think, oh, that smells nice.
And we as Christians are to be like
that.
Walk in a room and the saver, it's
like the saver of the Savior just follows
us.
And everywhere we go, as we interact with
people all day, and there is a convicting
of sin because in us, the power of
the sin nature is broken.
People look at your life, they look at
mine, they say, well, there's a person that
seems to be very happy with what they
are and who they are.
Not looking to be somebody else, not striving,
not discontent.
It's so hard dealing with discontented Christians.
I'm talking from the perspective sometimes of somebody
who's not saved and they're looking to find
God and they're looking in my life and
I have to wonder is the Holy Spirit
in me?
Is Jesus being glorified in me?
When they look, are they convinced that they
are under the power of sin because they
see somebody who is free from its power?
Free from the grip of the envious heart.
Free from the slanderous tongue.
Free from the lust of the things of
this life.
Whose conversation in mind seems to be in
another place.
Who is more concerned as it is about
people than things.
The Holy Spirit, Jesus said, will convince this
world of righteousness.
Now the word in the Greek New Testament
means, here's the definition, the realization of God's
claim upon him by the miraculous regenerating action
of the Holy Spirit.
And here's really what it means.
An inward radiance of Christ is beginning to
attract attention.
People are looking at you and they see
that you are supernaturally becoming the very person
that God in Christ destined you to be
before the world began.
Did you know when Jesus was raised from
the dead and you were brought into Christ,
it was God's plan to remake you into
the very person that he had in his
mind before sin ever even entered the world.
Why would we want to fall short of
the glory of God?
Why would we want to be captivated by
the things of this world?
Supernaturally changing.
Do you know how attractive that is?
That's what attracted me to Christ.
I had a man come to my house
and told me he was a womanizer and
a drunk and a card player and the
man I'm looking at looks like he was
raised in a church singing Amazing Grace all
of his life.
I remember thinking, the man who's speaking to
me is not the man he's telling me
about.
And it wasn't even so much the Scripture
he was quoting.
It was the supernatural change.
The supernatural love that he had for me
even when I was rude to him.
Never lost his focus.
Never lost the course that it seemed in
God.
And the whole focus was me.
My heart.
The saving of my soul.
He was a very attractive Christian.
And the Holy Spirit, Jesus said, when he
comes, will reprove the world of judgment.
Judgment in the believer that glorifies Christ.
That the devil, the devil's world and all
of its fallen ways have been judged and
taken to the cross.
Judged to be unworthy of the child of
God.
Envy has been judged.
Slander has been judged.
It's been taken to the cross.
Ambition judged.
You see, the prince of this world is
judged.
His way of thinking, his way of doing
things, his reasonings, even the subtle infusions he
tries to put into the life of Christ
and the believers.
Judged.
No, I can say like Paul now.
I live for Christ.
To die is gain.
No other life to live but the life
of God within me.
It's amazing to live a life where you're
walking through this world and you're not snickering
at dirty jokes in the lunchroom.
You're not getting paid under the table.
You're not cheating on your income tax.
The sleep is sweet, I have to tell
you right now.
Sweet.
To put your head on your pillow at
night and not have to worry about what
you said the day before.
Hoping it matches up with the day after.
Because you've spoken the truth.
Judged.
Not living under the power of sin.
A supernatural working of God's righteousness producing the
life of Christ that you and I were
destined to have before the foundation of this
world.
Walking through the midst of a crooked and
dark generation.
Our lives and evidence that the prince of
this world is judged.
Judged.
Defeated.
Triumphed over.
Christ rose from the dead.
He showered his own bride with gifts.
And our lives become a testimony.
This is what I want my life to
be.
It's what you as a Christian, what we
as Christians in this house tonight, it should
be the cry of our heart.
And because it's not been the cry of
much of the church of Jesus Christ, there's
a lot of gospel, but very little that
glorifies Jesus Christ.
To walk with Him means that you and
I are always stretching our hands out.
Like Peter.
And we are always moving to some form
of personal death that will glorify God.
Some giving up, a releasing of things that
can only kill us if we hold on
to them.
That God might be glorified through us.
I'm thinking as I was preparing this, this
week, of a question.
By what death might you glorify God tonight?
Now Jesus said to Peter, you're going to
stretch out your hands and you're going to
be led where you don't want to go
and you can't go, but you're going to
be led there anyway.
And he said this signified by what death
he would glorify God.
So the question begs itself, by what death
may we glorify God tonight?
What quarrel is God asking you to lay
down?
We heard about it this morning.
What quarrel?
What bitterness?
What thing is going on that God says
you want out of this thing?
Well, here's the way out.
Die.
Stretch out your hands and die.
Be led by the Spirit of God where
you don't want to go.
And die there.
And glorify God.
What ambition.
What unfulfilled sense of self or destiny.
That doesn't come from God.
It comes from the human reasoning.
It comes from your own fallen nature.
Now you've latched on to Jesus Christ and
say, well, but you see, Christ is going
to help me to fulfill my destiny.
But the problem with this is the destiny
is of your own making.
It's in your own mind.
Your destiny might be Africa.
You think you're going to be the head
of some company on Wall Street.
Your destiny might be to die on the
mission field in five years.
That might be your destiny.
I'm not joking about that.
It very well might be your destiny.
That might be what God really has for
your life.
And here you are channeling the whole and
fighting the whole way.
Saying of sorts, God be glorified.
God be glorified.
God, why are you not being glorified?
Because you're refusing to stretch your hands out.
What secret desire needs to be taken to
the cross?
What sense of self-image?
What unfulfilled longing?
What excused sin is robbing you of the
glory of God?
What excused sin?
Well, God knows I'm just human.
God says no.
I know you're just human.
But I am God.
Stretch out your hands.
Let me take you out of this thing.
Let me give you the victory.
The Lord is not letting me go on
this in my own life.
Calling me constantly to stretch out my hands
and die.
Just certain things you're not even aware of
just pops up in your heart.
God says just stretch out your hands.
And give me glory.
Let me be glorified in you.
Let me take this away from you.
Yield this to me.
Give it up as it is.
And let me be glorified in you.
I believe this is the cry of the
Christian.
I don't know of any other cry that
comes from the heart of God.
But Jesus, be glorified in me.
And tonight, I want to give you an
invitation to an altar here in the main
sanctuary and the education annex.
I want to give you an invitation to
stretch your hands out and die.
To whatever the Holy Spirit has been speaking
to you about this evening.
I promise you that you will walk away
from this altar with a renewed sense of
God's purposes and glory.
And a renewed sense of freedom and strength.
If you'll have the courage to say, God,
help me to die to this.
This thing in my life that is robbing
my life of the testimony of your glory
within me.
Would you please stand?
The Holy Spirit is drawing you.
I'm going to ask you to slip out
now on the balcony.
You can go to either exit in the
main sanctuary.
Just slip out right where you are.
Please make your way here.
There are relationships tonight that have to go.
There are habits that have to go.
There are besetting sins that need to be
laid down.
Ambitions.
There are so many that are just full
of ambition, but yet claiming to belong to
Christ.
Come and lay this down.
Come.
Those that are always trying to turn hard
places into bread, turn it.
Come.
Just lay it down.
Stretch your hands out to God.
And you're going to know joy that is
really unspeakable and full of glory.
There's a peace that passes understanding when you
know like you know that everything in your
life is in the hands of God.
There's a peace.
Hallelujah.
Jesus.
God, that's the cry of our heart tonight.
Pray with me.
Lord Jesus.
Guide me.
Lead me.
Where you want me to go.
Show me.
What you want me to see.
Make me.
Into the person.
That you had in your mind.
Before.
The world was created.
Jesus, you have bought for me.
Everything that I lost.
Because of sin.
You have broken its power.
And the life of God.
Is now my life.
And the plan of God.
Is now my plan.
And the destiny of God.
Is now my destiny.
I have a cry in my heart.
Jesus.
Be glorified.
In me.
As I go throughout my day.
Be glorified.
In me.
Lead me.
Where I can't go.
Give me strength.
That can only come from you.
Judge in me.
All thinking.
That comes from the Prince.
Of this world.
I want to say like Paul.
This world has nothing in me.
And I have nothing in this world.
Jesus be glorified.
Now I thank you.
From the depths of my heart.
That you hear my cry.
And just as you led Peter.
You will lead me.
And my life.
Will bring honor.
And glory.
To your name.
In my home.
Among my family.
Where I work.
Where I live.
Where I travel.
Where I serve.
Jesus.
Now thank you.
Praise you.
He will do it for you.
He will be glorified in you.
He will be glorified.
Now Father I pray.
As a pastor.
In this church.
God.
Shake New York City.
With all of these.
Lives that will glorify Christ.
Shake the foundations of hell.
Shake the lust for money.
And the lust for fame.
And false leadings.
And all of the trappings of the devil.
Shake it to it's core oh God.
Lord we ask you to infuse.
The life of Jesus.
Into this decaying dying city.
And let a shout of glory come into
this place oh God.
As you are revealed through your church.
Be glorified in your church.
Be glorified through your people oh God.
Where we go.
Where we travel.
Where we work.
Where we live.
When we speak.
Be glorified.
Convince this world.
This city of its sin.
The righteousness of God.
In Christ Jesus.
And the judgment of the prince of this
world.
Oh God.
Be glorified.
In these last hours of time father.
We thank you for it.
In Jesus mighty name.
This is the conclusion of the message.