Good Morning Friends,
Today we listen as Jesus opens His heart to His Father. The disciples overhear this prayer offered on holy ground. Jesus speaks of glory, not applause or achievement, but the radiance of God’s character revealed through His obedience. The hour has come, the center point of history. Nothing matters more. And we have been invited to join in. So, Do You Know The Truth Of What It Means To Glorify God?
Scripture Summary:
Ephesians 1:1–14 — The Father planned salvation, the Son accomplished it, the Spirit secures it—all “to the praise of His glory.”
John 1:14, 17 — Jesus is truth embodied and truth revealed.
John 4:24 — True worship aligns with God’s nature.
John 8:32 — Truth sets us free.
John 14:6, 17 — Jesus is the Truth; the Spirit of truth dwells in us.
John 16:13 — The Spirit guides us into all truth.
John 17:1–5, 17 — Jesus prays for the Father’s glory through the cross and declares eternal life as knowing God.
John 18:37–38 — Jesus bears witness to the truth; Pilate’s blindness is exposed.
Colossians 2:13–15 — We were dead, but God made us alive; Christ forgave our sins, canceled our debt, and disarmed the powers and authorities through the cross.
Message: Jesus prays, “I glorified You on earth… now glorify Me with the glory I had with You before the world existed.” This is not self‑promotion but the eternal Son returning to the eternal communion of love. The cross is the doorway into that glory and the doorway through which we are invited. And it is about Truth. Pilate asked, “What is truth?” Yet Truth stood before him. John 14–16 shows Jesus preparing His disciples to grasp what this glory and truth is all about. Jesus says He is the Way, the Truth, and the Life. He says the Holy Spirit leads to all truth. But Jesus doesn’t just teach truth, He is truth. He doesn’t just reveal glory; He shares glory with the Father. He doesn’t just show the way; He is the way. Friends, without Christ, we are spiritually dead and unable to hear, see, or understand ourselves. God’s Word reveals our condition. Ephesians 1 dismantles our self‑glory: we are chosen, redeemed, forgiven, and sealed for His glory, not ours. The cross confronts our pride, heals our blindness, and raises us from death.
The gospel is not advice or inspiration about this, it is news: When we were dead, God made us alive. When we were deaf, He spoke His Word. When we were lost, He found us. When we chased our own glory, He gave us His. Christ has already triumphed. The victory is accomplished. The glory was revealed. The truth embodied. The biblical word for glory, kavod, means weight, significance, the visible presence of God. Friends, glory is what happens when God becomes perceptible, when His character shows up in a way humans can see. This is Theophany breaking forth into our lives. And here’s the stunning part: Humans were created to make God’s kavod visible. We are image‑bearers, living “statues” meant to reflect God’s justice, mercy, generosity, and love into the world. To glorify God is not to perform religious tasks; it is to embody His character so that others can “see” what God is like through us. Jesus is the true image-bearer, the walking, breathing temple where God’s glory dwells. And through the Spirit, the church becomes the temple, the place where God’s presence is made visible on earth.
And So, glorifying God is our purpose and it is not about spotlighting ourselves. It is about becoming the kind of humans whose lives make God’s beauty tangible, whose forgiveness, compassion, and cruciform love reveal the God who gave Himself at the cross. Glory is God’s presence made visible, and our calling is to live as people who carry that presence into the world with radiant generosity. To glorify God is to: See His worth. Savor His beauty. Submit to His truth. Reflect His character. Rejoice in His grace. Point away from ourselves and toward Him so we might truly enjoy life in abundance. It is to live as people raised from death, awakened from deafness, and welcomed into the eternal love of Father and Son. It is to say: “Father, glorify Your name.” “To the praise of His glory.” “Not to us, O Lord, but to Your name be the glory.” To glorify God is to become the renewed, grace-shaped human you were created to be.
Pray our Heavenly Father, open our ears to hear Your Son. Pray You open our eyes to see Your glory. Pray You open our hearts to receive Your truth. Pray You deliver us from the desire for our own fame. Pray we repent of having big thoughts about ourselves and small thoughts about You. Pray You let the cross silence our pride and awaken our praise. Pray You make us alive in Christ, rooted in Him, built up in Him, so that our lives, every thought, every word, every act, may be to the praise of Your glorious grace. Pray we realize that to glorify God is to make His presence and character visible in the world by living as His image‑bearing people, shaped by Jesus, empowered by the Spirit and one with the generosity of the Father. Amen.
Blessings,
John Lawson
