Sermon Tone Analysis

What if I stood up here and told you all about how awesome I am, and then I did my best to show you how awesome I am, and I did all of this for the purpose of you then telling me how awesome I am?

JOB OPENING!!!!!

G.O.A.T.s

Peyton Manning

Michael Jordan

Elvis

Ray Charles

Nicholas Cage

Celine Dion

John Wayne

Michael Bolton

Harrison Ford

Chris Farley

Billy Ray Cyrus

Napoleon Dynamite

Dr. Pepper

Ron Burgundy

Einstein

Abraham Lincoln

Van Gogh

Benjamin Franklin

Jackie Robinson

Ella Fitzgerald

Now what about some of the GOATs?

What if they stood up here and told you how awesome they are for the purpose of us then telling them how awesome they are?

It’s not gonna go well because it would be so arrogant, pompous, self-absorbed, pride, etc.

There is only one that can self-proclaim their awesomeness and expect us to acknowledge and proclaim it back and that is God.

And we can see across all of time that God does proclaim who He is.

He reveals His glory so that he would receive glory in return.

The Story of HIS Glory

So for the next several hours I’m gonna tell you the story of His glory.

Can’t be done.

Not in hours, days, years, decades, centuries, etc.

The story of His glory has been, is and will forever be told.

So today we’re gonna dabble in the story.

First, let’s look at what glory is.

Glory

Definition of Glory

“intrinsic worth, substance, brilliance and beauty” - Steven Hawthorne, Perspectives

“magnificence or great beauty” - Oxford Languages

“fame, renown, awesomeness” - Brandon

Last week Kelly talked about God’s mission, to bless his people so they will be a blessing to all the nations.

But what is God’s ultimate purpose behind this?

Why is he doing this?

To understand this, the story of His glory, we must start with the end.

God’s Ultimate Purpose

Revelation 5:9-13 which was our call to worship, gives us a vision of God’s ultimate purpose.

John is given a vision of God receiving worship from:

“every tribe and language and people and nation”

“ the living creatures and the elders, the voice of many angels, numbering myriads of myriads and thousands of thousands”

“every creature in heaven and on earth and under the earth and in the sea, and all that is in them”

All of creation is giving Him glory as He makes His glory is known.

Our Perspectives class defined God’s ultimate purpose this way:

“God’s ultimate purpose is that the nations would glorify Him in open recognition of two things: His redemptive, life-giving blessing and the supremacy of His kingship.”

Basically, that He is both Savior and Lord.

So let’s dive in to the Story of His Glory.

We’re going to go through a whirlwind of texts from Genesis to Revelation and I want us to see and hear through the lens of God’s Ultimate Purpose.

Creation

God created the heavens, earth, plants, animals, sun, moon, and stars.

Now man and woman are the crown jewel of God’s creation because we are made in His image.

We are to reflect who He is and bring glory to Him.

God’s glory is revealed through His “handiwork.”

However, creation is fractured because of rebellion.

The kingdom is fractured when Satan rebels and seeks his own glory and he and a third of the angels are cast out.

The relationship with God and mankind is fractured when mankind rebels beginning with Adam and Eve’s sin.

So the stage is set for God to reveal His glory as He restores the kingdom and redeems people through His salvation.

This process is messy because sinful people are involved.

We see people rebelling against God and we see people in cooperation with God.

Either way the result is the same.

God’s glory is made known.

Let’s take a quick look at the passage Kelly talked about last week, when God spoke to Abram.

Five times in this passage God says “I will.”

God makes it clear that HE will do the nation building, the name making, and the blessing.

All for the purpose of blessing all families of the earth.

God’s glory and fame will be made known through Abraham and His descendants.

Abram becomes Abraham -> Isaac -> Jacob, becomes Israel

12 Tribes Israel

Joseph

One of Israel’s sons is Joseph.

It’s a crazy story and you can see God’s hand throughout, but Joseph gets sold into slavery by his brothers, ends up in Egypt as a servant in Potiphar’s house, goes to jail for a crime he didn’t commit, interprets some dreams of prisoners, and eventually ends up interpreting dreams for Pharaoh.

After all of that, Joseph still points to God and brings Him glory when Pharaoh asks him to interpret the dreams.

Long story short, God puts Joseph in a position of power and influence and God works through him to preserve not just God’s people in Joseph and his father and brothers, but God also preserves Egypt.

And we know what ends up happening with God’s people and Egypt.

God protected, preserved and built up Israel

God protected, preserved and built up Egypt

His purpose His glory

Egypt

God brought Moses to lead the people out of slavery in Egypt.

God speaks through Moses to tell Pharaoh what’s gonna happen.

Over and over, God makes clear why He is doing this.

Pharaoh will not listen, and God hardens Pharaoh’s heart for the purpose of making God famous not only in Egypt, but Israel and the world!

Word will get around!

And long story short, plagues, passover, people were finally let go, parting of the Red Sea, Pharaoh’s army drowned, people were rescued, and God gets the glory.

Moses and the Israelites

And story of God’s people marches on out into the desert.

The people are all in on following God until things get hard.

After receiving reports of giants in the Promised Land from the 12 spies, the people are overcome with fear and start complaining and wishing they were back in Egypt.

Caleb and Joshua try to encourage the people to trust God and proceed, but the people aren’t having it and they want to stone them.

At this point God is fed up and wants to start over with Moses.

But Moses intercedes on his behalf.