It was nearly 10 years ago since I met the most famous person that I've ever met.
And when I say met them, they waved at me.
And when I say me, it was potentially the guy beside me, but most likely me.
I was in Sacramento, California, for the National Youth Work Convention.
And at the end of a small group, I decided to go and grab some lunch before catching a flight home.
As we walked out of the convention center and down into the mall, I noticed just to my left,
a couple of black cars parked in the mall, SUVs with blacked out windows and all that.
And it was at that point that I noticed that one had a submachine gun and the other one had a shotgun poking up just above the dash.
Each car had a couple of guys in them wearing black suits, wearing white shirts with black ties and black sunglasses.
And so it was either a remake of Men in Black or potentially, my hope was that it was the Secret Service.
Given that the shotgun was a Remington 870 12 gauge and the machine gun was a Heckler-Kosh MP5 9mm, chosen weapons of the Secret Service,
I figured it was in fact the Secret Service.
And the fact that they also had an earpiece and were talking into their hands kind of gave it away as well.
I noticed in that moment, quickly looking around, that there were various Secret Service guys in the mall.
So, it's either they're on protection duty or something pretty crazy is about to go down.
So, either way, I figured I'm going to get a front row seat to see what happens.
And so, grabbed a spot right near this barricade and started chomping on a burger.
And what I'd been hoping for the whole time that I was in Sacramento was to run into the governor of California,
one of the greatest actors and philosophical thinkers of all time, Arnold Schwarzenegger.
And I wasn't disappointed.
I was chomping on my burger when all of a sudden, he appeared from a restaurant about 50 metres from where I was seated.
And a friend and I, in that moment, who were both chomping and almost choking at this point,
we both jumped up onto our chairs and over the tops of the screams of the adoring fans,
we called out like a couple of teenagers at a Bieber concert,
Hey, Arnie!
Arnie!
And he turned and he waved at me.
As did the Secret Service, turn and not wave but look at us.
And in that moment, you've got his attention.
Arnold Schwarzenegger, you know, have you watched Kindergarten Cop?
I mean, come on!
The guy's a comedy actor as well.
And there he is.
And he's looking at me and we're waving.
And the only thing that I could think of in that moment was,
We'll be back!
He looked as if he'd heard it before.
Now, to mark this personal milestone, I quickly took a couple of shots,
which I'm hoping to pass on to my children.
So up here, that's him right there.
The next one's a bit clearer.
Next one, Tim.
That's his nose!
That's him just appearing from behind there, the pole.
Well, they are treasured memories of mine, those two photos,
of the moment that I met Arnold Schwarzenegger, kind of.
Now, if you could be famous for one thing, what would it be?
You see, there's a weird fascination in our world with celebrity.
A recent study in the United States revealed that 54% of teenagers want to be famous.
Of those that crave fame, 68% said they weren't sure how on earth it was ever going to happen.
But 21% of them said that they would audition for reality TV shows in hope to become famous.
Things like Britain's Got Talent and The X Factor in order to reach the masses.
You see, reality TV has become enormously popular.
It drives me nuts.
I hate any form of reality TV.
Except for maybe Escape to the Country, if that's reality TV.
I'm not really sure.
You see, what it does, what reality TV does,
it holds out the promise that any average smuck might be able to become famous for some ridiculous talent.
They might have that one shot at fame.
Now, fame is a major goal in life.
Apparently, Alexander the Great was the first person to have a celebrity culture in the modern sense of the word.
That's according to an English professor who authored a book called The Frenzy of Renown.
And he wrote, not only did he want to be unique, but he wanted to tell everyone about it.
And he had an apparatus for telling everyone about it.
He had techniques for doing famous things.
He had historians, painters, sculptors, and gem carvers, bringing him along as entourage for every one of his battles.
He wanted them to record that Alexander was famous.
Now, we don't need historians and painters and sculptors and gem carvers.
We've got Instagram and Facebook and selfie sticks,
recording every meal that we eat, every place that we visit.
Self-obsession.
We want to leave our mark.
We want to be known for something significant or to be regarded highly as an expert in a field.
We want to be, may not necessarily to be worldwide fame.
If we could get that, that would be awesome.
It may be just famous in Australia or even in a country or in a city or have a street named after you.
Someone in Nat's family has had a park named after them.
They've got an album this thick of all the photos, of all the articles about them, about this park.
Maybe it's just want to be the best in your family or something or even to have a park on the wall at church
or just simply ensuring that I am remembered.
We live life to make our name great, to make it remembered.
My kids won't give a rip about those photos or the moment that I, Arnold Schwarzenegger,
they won't even know who he is by the time they grow up.
Our mission statement says that we exist for a different purpose than making ourselves great and famous.
St. Paul's exists to know Jesus, to treasure Jesus, to represent Jesus for God's glory,
to make his name great and for the joy of all people.
We exist to make much of Jesus in order that we might make much of God.
And that's what I want to look at today.
What it means to exist for God's glory.
In Isaiah 6, which Wendy just read out to us, if you've got your Bibles, I'd love you to open up there, Isaiah 6.
What we notice, first of all, is that God is not like us.
He is, in fact, worthy of fame.
He is, in fact, worthy of glory and honor and praise.
There are at least seven glimpses of God in these first four verses of Isaiah 6.
Firstly, we notice that God is alive.
In the year, it says,
That is, King Uzziah, the most powerful man in the world at that time, has just died, but God lives on.
Psalm 90, verse 2 says,
God was the living God when this universe banged into existence.
He was the living God when the Great Wall of China was built.
He was the living God in 1966 when Time magazine put on its title page,
God is dead.
He will be living 10 trillion ages from now.
There is not a single head of state currently ruling in the world who will still be doing that in 90 years' time.
In a brief 120 years, this planet will be populated by more than 10 billion brand new people who currently do not exist.
All of us alive today will vanish and be gone, just like Uzziah, but not God.
He never had a beginning and therefore depends on nothing for his existence.
He always has and always will be alive.
Secondly, we notice that God is authoritative.
Verse 2,
When he saw the law, he saw him seated on a throne.
You see, no vision of heaven, goes throughout the Bible, will ever,
you ever catch a glimpse of God plowing a field or cutting the grass or shining shoes or loading a truck
or filling out papers and reports.
He sits and he sits on a throne.
All is at peace and all is in control.
The throne is his right to rule that which he has made.
You see, we do not give God authority over our lives.
He has it whether we like it or not.
Few things are more humbling.
Few things give us that sense of raw majesty
as the truth that God is utterly, totally authoritative.
After him, there is no other court of appeal.
Thirdly, we see that God is all-powerful.
The throne of his authority is not just one amongst many.
He doesn't hold the bench with a bunch of other like-minded people.
His throne is high and exalted.
The throne that is God's throne is higher than every other throne
and it signifies God's superior power to exercise his authority.
That means that no opposing authority can nullify the decrees of God.
What he purposes, he always accomplishes.
As God says a little bit further in Isaiah 46, verse 10, he says,
I make known the end from the beginning, from ancient times, what is still to come.
I say, my purpose will stand and I will do all that I please.
Or again, in Daniel chapter 4, speaking about God, says,
he does as he pleases with the powers of heaven and the peoples of the earth.
You see, to be gripped by the all-powerful sovereignty of God
is either marvelous because he is for you
or it is terrifying because he is against you.
Indifference, to sit here and to be indifferent
to his all-encompassing power and sovereignty
simply means that you just have not seen it.
The sovereign authority, the living God,
is a refuge full of joy and power for those who are his
and it's terrifying for those who are not.
Fourthly, we see that God is magnificent.
I saw the Lord seated on the throne, highly exalted,
and the train of his robe filled the temple.
The best image I have of this one is back in 1981
when Diana, Princess of Wales, married,
or Diana married Prince Charles, became the Princess of Wales.
And I remember as a little kid,
I might have been 11 or something like that,
staying up to the wee hours to see this on TV.
I had no idea what we were doing.
And when it came on, I remember the women in the room going,
as she got out of the carriage and walked up
and the train of her wedding dress just kept coming
and coming and coming and it was like eight metres long
and then going,
what?
You know, for me it was no big deal,
but it seemed to cover,
and you look at the images of it,
it seemed to cover the steps of St Paul's Cathedral.
What would it mean if the train of her robe just kept coming
and it filled the aisles and it covered the seats
and the choir loft and the pulpit
and it was all made out of one fabric,
woven together into one piece?
What would that mean?
It would mean a little bit more than...
That God's robe fills the entire heavenly temple
means that God is incomparable in splendour.
The fullness of God's splendour shows itself in millions of ways.
The magnificence spills over in excessive beauty
as God the creator expresses himself in what he has made.
We see it in the wonder of creation all through this universe,
from the tiniest of atoms to the depths of the oceans
to the furthest reaches of the universe.
It all displays his splendour, his character.
Fifthly, God is revered.
Above him were seraphs, each with six wings,
with two wings they covered their faces,
with two they covered their feet,
with two they were flying.
Now no one actually knows what these strange six-winged creatures are
with feet and eyes and they've obviously got intelligence.
One thing is for sure, given the grandeur of the scene
and the power of the angelic hosts,
we had best not picture fat little babies
with wings fluttering around the head of God.
That's not the picture of angels in the Bible.
According to verse 4,
when one of these creatures speaks,
the foundations of the temple shake.
And Jason could not turn this microphone up enough right now
in order for me to shake this building.
There are no puny or silly creatures in heaven,
only magnificent ones.
And the point is this,
even these creatures,
as magnificent as they are,
not even they look upon the Lord,
nor do they feel worthy
even to leave their feet exposed in his presence.
As good and as great as they are,
as untainted by human sin as they are,
they revere their maker with great humility.
So just think of that
in terms of escalation of scale.
See, one of these creatures appeared to us.
What they generally do,
according to the Bible,
is one of the first things they say is fear not
when they appear to a human being.
Because that's exactly what you do
if one of these things appeared to you.
You would fear.
You would think you were going to be dead.
And yet even they hide in holy fear and reverence
before this God.
The sixth thing we find is that God is holy.
And they were calling to one another,
holy, holy, holy is the Lord Almighty.
The whole earth is full of his glory.
The possibilities of language
to carry the meaning of God actually run out.
The word holy carries us to the brink.
And from there on,
the experience of God is beyond articulation.
And the reason I say that
is that every effort to define
what the holiness of God actually means
just winds up with you saying that
God is holy means that God is God.
The meaning of the word holy is to cut or separate.
A holy thing is cut off or separated from common use.
Earthly things and persons are holy
as they are distinct from the world
and they are devoted to God.
But what happens if this definition is applied to God himself?
From what can you separate God
in order to make him holy?
The very godness of God means that he is in fact
already separated from all that is not God.
He exists.
He exists in a different way than we exist.
We, his creatures, exist in dependent,
derived, finite, fragile ways.
But our creator exists in an eternal,
self-sustaining, necessary way.
Necessary in the sense that God does not have it in him
to go out of existence.
In the same way that we do not have it in us
to keep living on forever.
We necessarily age and die
because it is our present nature in order to do that.
And God necessarily continues forever
unchanged in his being.
The God of the Bible needs no support system.
God is one of a kind.
In that sense, he is utterly holy.
But then you have said no more than he is God.
God has life in himself
and he draws his unending energy from himself.
He is the absolute reality beyond which
there is only just simply more of God.
God is not holy.
He is not holy because he keeps the rules.
He wrote the rules.
He is not holy because he keeps the law.
The law is holy because it reveals him.
God is absolute.
Everything else is derived from him.
In the end, God is holy in that he is God
and he's not us.
He is incomparable.
His holiness determines all that he is and that he does
and is determined by no one.
You can call it his majesty.
You can call it his divinity.
You can call it his greatness.
You can call it his value.
In the end, language runs out.
There may be yet to know, more to know of God,
but it is beyond words.
And so as Habakkuk chapter 2 verse 20 says,
There is a seventh and a final thing about God
and that is that God is glorious.
Holy, holy, holy is the Lord God Almighty.
The whole earth is full of his glory.
And I've been wrestling with this bit all week
and Sam communicates it in 30 seconds.
Thank you for that.
I'll take a little bit longer.
God's glory is the revealing of his holiness.
God is glorious means that God's holiness
has gone public.
That is, his divine being, his character,
who he is, has gone public.
Unless he reveals who he is,
unless he reveals himself,
we cannot see him for who he is.
But when he does,
we see glory.
And there's only one response to glory.
Leviticus 10 verse 3,
God says,
Among those who approach me,
I will show myself holy.
That is, I will reveal my character, my being.
I will go public.
In the sight of all people,
I will be honored.
Or another word for honored is glorified.
When God reveals his glory to his creatures,
the response of his creatures is to glorify God.
To give glory to God.
That is what we were created and redeemed for.
What it means to glorify God
is in fact to respond to his glory.
We cannot glorify God without engaging with his glory.
You see, God wants to be praised for his praiseworthiness
and exalted for his greatness and his goodness.
He wants to be appreciated for who and what he is.
But the glory that is his goal is in fact a two-sided thing,
a two-stage relationship.
It is this process of to-ing and fro-ing
where God reveals his glory to people and to angels
in a free and radically generous way.
And at the same time,
there is a response of adoration on the part of people and of angels
where they give glory to God out of gratitude for what they have seen
and what they have received from him.
The glory of God is received by us.
And so the way to glorify God is to be engaging with God.
You cannot glorify him without engaging with his glory.
God's glory showing requires glory giving.
And this is the heart of the true fulfillment of God's creatures.
It brings joy to people as it does to God.
Notice Isaiah's response in seeing God's glory in verse 5.
Woe to me!
I cried, I am ruined,
for I am a man of unclean lips
and I live among a people of unclean lips.
And my eyes have seen the King,
the Lord Almighty.
You see, Isaiah responds appropriately
to seeing the magnificence and the perfection
and the splendor of God.
He understands himself.
He understands that he is not God.
He sees his limitation,
his finiteness,
his unworthiness,
his failure,
his lack of praiseworthiness.
He understands his true self,
that he in fact is not worthy
of the praise and the honor
and the fame of the nations.
In seeing God,
he sees himself.
He is humbled
and he confesses his sin.
And what's God's reaction?
One of the seraphs comes to Isaiah
and says,
he places a colon,
he's from the altar in the temple,
places a colon in his lips
and he says,
your guilt is taken away
and your sin is atoned for.
At least one major purpose
in God revealing his glory
is for us to experience
his compassion and his mercy
and his forgiveness.
Now, the New Testament writers
proclaim that the public display
of God's nature and character
and power and purpose
is now open to view
in the person and the role
of the Lord Jesus Christ.
In fact,
John chapter 12, verse 41
is pretty explicit.
John chapter 12, verse 41 says this,
Isaiah said this
because he saw Jesus' glory
and spoke about him.
What John 12 is saying
is that what Isaiah saw
in Isaiah 6
was in fact the enthroned Jesus Christ.
Jesus is the one who radiates,
reflects, mirrors, displays
the character and purpose
and power of God
and the magnificence
of what went public in Jesus
was the plan and the work
and grace whereby he saved sinners.
And so as a church,
we want to make much,
much of Jesus.
To know Jesus,
to treasure Jesus,
to represent Jesus
is in fact to bring glory to God.
Now it probably shocks us
to think
that God's goal
is in fact
his glory.
His goal
is to make much
of himself.
Probably shocks us
to that
because if I stood up here
and I said,
well my goal in life
is to make much
of Steve Jeffery.
In fact,
your goal
is to make much
of Steve Jeffery.
At that point,
you would go,
right,
time to look
for another church.
Because it's
just pure
ego driven.
No one
can say
you exist
for my glory
except God.
But
unlike God
where I would say
you exist
for my glory,
it's about my ego.
To exist
for God's glory
and for God
to exist
for his glory
does not
point to
divine ego
but is the
very foundation
of his love
for us.
God
doing
everything
for his glory
is the
foundation
of his
love for us.
Listen to what
the Bible says.
Let me just ask
a few questions
and I'll look at
some Bible passages.
Why did God
forgive our sins
and make us
his children
through Jesus?
According to
Ephesians 1
that the glory
of his grace
might be praised.
Why did God
create a people
for himself?
According to God
in Isaiah 43
I created them
for my glory.
Why did God
spare
rebellious Israel
in the wilderness
and finally
bring them
into the promised land?
According to God
in Ezekiel 20
I acted
for the sake
of my name
that it
should not
be profaned
in the sight
of the nations.
And according
to Isaiah 66
the reason
why God
sends messengers
out to tell
the far reaches
of the world
about his fame
and his glory
is that those
people might
be gathered
to him
and verse
22 says
as the new
heavens
and the new
earth
that I make
will endure
before me
so will
your name
and your
descendants
endure
forever
go to the
far reach
of the earth
declare
my name
declare
my fame
declare
my glory
that you
might be
gathered to
me
so that I
will make
your name
great
forever.
His glory
his pursuit
of his glory
is the very
foundation
of his love
for us.
Live for
the glory
of God
live for
his glory
for his
fame
and he
will make
your name
endure
forever.
God's
commitment
to his
glory
means love
and life
and forgiveness
and eternal
fame for those
who live for
his glory.
His commitment
to his glory
is the
foundation of
his love
for us.
It's not
about divine
ego.
And that's
why you
read passages
that Wendy
read out to
us in 1
Corinthians 10
where the
apostle Paul
says do
everything
for the
glory of
God.
And whatever
you, so
whether you
eat or
drink,
whatever you
do, do
it all
for the
glory of
God.
Do
everything
for the
glory of
God.
When you're
eating your
cheese and
bickies and
drinking your
diet coke,
do it all
for the
glory of
God.
Not for
personal
benefit, for
personal advancement,
for personal
promotion, for
personal glory,
personal satisfaction,
but for God's
glory.
And it does
actually come
down to the
nitty-gritty,
even to
eating and
drinking.
That is,
God's glory is
all-encompassing
of our lives.
Jesus is not
just for
Sundays.
Relationship
with him
touches
everything,
everything in
our life for
those whose
glory has been
revealed.
is, in
fact, a
God moment,
not a
Steve
Jeffrey
moment.
It's a
God moment.
Everything is
an opportunity
to engage
with God,
to worship
God, to
glorify God,
to honour
God.
24-7, every
decision is
either I'm
going to make
much of me,
or I'm
going to make
much of
God.
Now, I'm
convinced
convinced that
for us to
effectively bring
glory to
God, it
has to be
much more
about certain
external
behaviours.
That is, it's
possible for you
next week to
sign a pledge
card and not
glorify God.
It's possible
for you to not
sign a pledge
card and also
not glorify God.
to glorify God
is so much
more than
just external
behaviours.
Internal
motivations
are, in
order to
glorify God,
are absolutely
essential.
If we're not
careful, we
can get settled
into a pattern
of dutiful
behaviour,
where I read
the Bible,
I pray,
I attend
church, I'm
part of a
small group,
I give some
money to
church,
but I
don't give
praise to
God when I
go to bed at
night and
thank you for
the day I've
had, where I
can go and
purchase a
motor vehicle
and not even
pray about the
issue, ask
what God
might have in
that, where
I can build
a church
building for
my fame and
not for
God's.
That is, what
can happen is,
we can tick
certain boxes and
our relationship
with God is
all about duty,
obligation and
loyalty.
When we are
settled into
that position,
we may even
fulfil our
duty at great
personal cost.
We may even
give more and
sacrifice much.
What is
missing is
the affections.
Rather than
requiring dutiful
obedience in
doing everything
for his glory,
God is actually
interested in
us seeing
his glory and
being moved
by his glory
from our
hearts.
He wants us
to love him
according to
Deuteronomy 6.
He wants us to
light ourselves in
him according
to Psalm 37.
He wants us
to worship him
with gladness
according to
Psalm 100.
In fact, he
condemns
dutiful obedience
where there is
no gladness and
no joy in him
in Deuteronomy
28.
So picture a
husband bringing
flowers to his
wife on their
anniversary.
Must remember to
do that.
And she is
overjoyed and
she thanks him
for it.
And in that
moment, he
says, don't
mention it.
It's my duty.
Even though I
didn't really want
to do it, I
sacrificed my
money and my
time and I
bought these
flowers for you.
It's just what
I've got to do.
I think I know
how Nat would
respond.
It would be an
insult to her
honor and the
relationship.
She is honored
when the husband
sacrifices and
gives because it
is his delight to
do so.
And so here's
the thing.
If we are doing
everything for the
glory of God as
a church out of a
sense of duty and
because it is a
great personal
sacrifice for us to
do it, then it
reveals what we
really treasure.
And it's not
Jesus.
If it is a
great sacrifice
for us to do
everything for the
glory of God, it
shows us what we
truly value more
than God and it
tends to be us and
our fame, our
name.
God is
our greatest
treasure.
When he is our
greatest treasure, then
choosing him over
lesser things is not
even a sacrifice.
When we delight in
his power and his
perfection, his
beauty, his
mercy, our service
of him will glorify
him.
God is
dishonored when
all of our service
of him is but a
duty.
God desires that
we see him, that
we savor his
mercy, his
forgiveness, his
acceptance and
serve him with all
of our lives, with
joy and with
gladness.
And so I, if you
haven't connected
this, I have
deliberately connected
God's glory and the
joy of all people in
our mission statement.
They go together.
God's glory and
you and I were
made for the
express purpose to
glorify God at all
times, in all places,
in every circumstances.
Our deepest joy and
our most profound
happiness is that our
creator has revealed
himself to us in the
Lord Jesus Christ.
And what he has
revealed to us is that
he loves us, that he
wants to know us, that
he has given himself
for us, that he has
given us a name and a
status that will in
fact live on for all
eternity as he will
live on for all
eternity.
And that hope and
that revelation and
that status means that
we get to live for his
glory and we get to
participate in his
glory now that we're
finally able to do
the thing for what we
were made to make God
look great in
everything that we do.