To See His Glory
9/10/2017
John 17:24 says, "Father, I desire that they also, whom you have given me, may be with me where I am, to see my glory."
I was caught off-guard this week in reading a devotional by John Piper, where he basically made the point the greatest version of joy we can experience is NOT in celebrating the fact the Jesus Loves Me. At first glance, that seems crazy. Shouldn't I be so overwhelmed with the truth that God loves me...that He proved his love by sending his Son to lovingly, sacrificially, die to bring me back into a relationship with Him... that nothing else compares?
Almost.
See, while God wants us to celebrate how much His love for us is proved in the Gospel, and to be amazed at this grace forevermore, He has an even higher purpose for rescuing us...an even higher privilege to call is into. He wants our greatest joy to be found in celebrating HIM. He wants our greatest energy to be spent studying and declaring and extolling HIS glory.
As Jesus prayed in John 17:24, He wants us to be with Him TO (so that we might) see His glory. That's what we come each week to do...to extoll the glories of God, to thank Him for his bountiful goodness and greatness and power and glory. Of course, we thank Him for saving us as part of this, but it's not the ultimate end...it's a part of how we can take our joy in glorifying Him.
This Sunday, we're singing songs that hopefully help us to set our mind on, and find our joy in declaring, "God, you are Great! You are Holy! You are King! You are Worthy of all Praise! We are here to Praise your Glorious Name!
We'll be singing:
Holy Holy Holy
Holy
Here For You
Glorious Day
Crown Him With Many Crowns