Transcription downloaded from https://sermons.watermarkchurch.hk/sermons/15349/gods-glory/.

Disclaimer: this is an automatically generated machine transcription - there may be small errors or mistranscriptions.
Please refer to the original audio if you are in any doubt.


[0:00] Good morning. It is good morning. Great. That was a good response. It's great to be back with us this morning, and it's a wonderful privilege to look at God's Word. Just to remind us, we are doing a mini-series called The Church That Jesus Is Building, and we are re-examining some of the key foundational stones upon which the church is built. And so two weeks ago, we looked at Psalm 127, unless the Lord builds the house, those that build it labor in vain, unless Christ is at work in His church through the power of His Spirit, the elders and the staff and the leaders labor in vain.

[0:39] And then last week, we looked at Isaiah 66, in which God says, the heavens are my throne, the earth is my footstool. What is the house that you would build for me? All these things my hand has made, says the Lord, and so they came to be. But this is the one to whom I will look, those who are humble and contrite and tremble before my Word. And so we looked at the fact last week that how passionate God feels about His Word and about a church like ours that takes God's Word seriously. And so that's where we've been the last two weeks. Now this morning, we're going to look at a psalm, the psalm that was read to us, and it's a difficult psalm to understand, but it's a very important one. And it's a psalm which in many ways has been a guiding scripture for my life. It has been a scripture which has shaped so much of how I've tried to think about life and especially ministry. And my hope and prayer is that for us as a church, Watermark Church, that this scripture will become a guiding principle, a guiding scripture that shapes us for many years to come. Okay? And so we're looking at Psalm 115 verse 1 to 11. So let me pray for us. Let's ask God to speak to us this morning and bless His Word, and then we'll dive in. So why don't you join me? Heavenly Fathers, we come to

[2:03] Your Word this morning. We want to hear from You. God, we don't come to church to hear the opinions of men or women. We don't come to be told how to make our lives more comfortable or convenient. We come to meet with the living God. And so living God, won't You speak to us from Your living Word. Won't You open our eyes? Won't You prepare our hearts? Holy Spirit, won't You take the words on these pages and make them real to our souls? We ask You, God, to speak to us as a family this morning. Come and have Your way. In Your name we pray. Amen. Amen. Okay. So Psalm 115 verse 1, we sang it. Starts off like this.

[2:52] Not to us, O God, not to us, but to Your name give the glory. Now, quick question. What does the Bible mean when it talks about glory? What is the glory of God? Throughout the Bible, we hear this phrase, the glory of God, or do things to the glory of His name. What does that actually mean? When the Bible uses the word glory, it uses it in two ways. The first is the glory of God is the intrinsic reality as to who God is. It's the worthiness of God. So God's glory is not just one of His characteristics, like God's wisdom or God's knowledge, God's glory. It's not one of many characteristics. The glory of God is the totality or the sum totals of all of God's divine attributes and characteristics together. So the glory of God is everything that makes God God. It's that which makes God infinitely worthy and infinitely perfect. Okay?

[3:56] So maybe one way of thinking about it is to think like this. Think of a ginormous, multifaceted diamond. A diamond has many facets, many sides to it. And each one of God's characteristics or attributes is another aspect of this diamond. So His holiness and His mercy, His justice and His kindness, His patience and His sovereignty. Every one of God's characteristics is one facet of this multifaceted diamond. And together, all these facets together make up God's glory. The togetherness of God's characteristics shows or displays His infinite worthiness and His infinite beauty and perfection.

[4:41] That's the glory of God. Or maybe another way of thinking about it is to say God's glory, the totality of God's attributes is what makes God distinct from the rest of all creation, from every other creature.

[4:57] There's nothing and nobody in the whole world that comes close to possessing God's glory because there's nobody and nothing that comes close to possessing anything near to His divine attributes. Okay?

[5:12] Does that make sense? And so when the Bible talks about us seeing God's glory or beholding God's glory, it talks about seeing or having a revelation of the infinite awesomeness, the infinite perfection and the beauty of who God is. So for instance, in Isaiah chapter 6, Isaiah gets a revelation of the glory of God.

[5:34] And what does he do? It means that he's seen something of who God is. He's seen the intrinsic awesomeness of who God is and he falls down on his knees and he worships. Okay? So that's the first way the Bible speaks about it. But then the Bible also speaks about glory as a verb. To do something to the glory of God or to glorify God's name or something being done to the praise of His name. Which means to do something in such a way that reveals or pulls back anything that covers God's glory. So to do something to glorify God is to like shine a spotlight on the glory of God. To do something in such a way that reveals the awesomeness and the infinite perfection of God. To glorify God means to uncover or obscure God's glory. To make it visible or recognizable. So for instance, Psalm 19 says, The heavens above declare the glory of God. The skies above proclaim His handiwork. In other words, when you look at creation, when you go out on the night sky and you look at the stars and you see the planets, this should elicit something inside of us that says, God, you are glorious.

[6:51] The creation declares how God is so distinct from us and not like us. Or another example, 1 Corinthians 6, Paul writes and says, If you belong to Jesus, you are not your own, for you were bought with a price. So glorify God with your body. In other words, the way you handle your body and particularly your sexuality and your relationships, let the way that you handle your body say something. Shine a spotlight on the infinite awesomeness of God. The perfection of God.

[7:22] Let it be a statement about how grand and majestic God is. That God is unlike anyone else. And so this is the glory of God. To glorify God is to do something which makes visible the fact that God is God and we are not. That God is distinct from us and worthy of our worship. Okay, did that make any sense?

[7:44] Okay, that's the theological part. Now let's dive in and see what the scripture says. So our psalm starts off like this. Not to us, O God, not to us, but to your name give the glory.

[7:57] In other words, the psalmist is saying, God, may you be the object of our affection. May you, God, be the object of our devotion and our worship. Don't let us as a church get confused and think that we are somehow awesome or we are somehow infinitely special or we are somehow distinct from everyone else. Don't let us get confused and think that we are somebody special. Not to us, God. To your name may we give the glory. You see, as a church in this series, the church that Jesus is building, we ask him the question, if Jesus is at work in his church, if Jesus is the one that's building his church, how does he go about building it? And last week we saw the way that God builds his church is he builds it on the authority of his word. He builds it with those who take his word seriously. But this week, the Psalms tell us the way God builds his church is with those who the internal motivation of their hearts, the driving motivation of their hearts is God, not to us, but to your name, give the glory. And so, Watermark, I want to ask us and I want to urge us and I want to urge the elders of this church that whatever the future holds, whatever direction God takes us, whatever decisions we make into the future, may this frame every decision we make. May this be the guiding principle that shapes how we approach our church and our community. May this be the verse that shapes how we relate to God and one another and to our city, Hong Kong. Not to us, O God, not to us, but to your name, give the glory.

[9:45] A hundred and fifty years ago or so, there was a British parliamentarian by the name of William Wilberforce. And he was one of the most famous and one of the greatest British parliamentarians.

[9:57] And his driving passion in life was to eradicate slavery. And so, for twenty years, he campaigned in the British parliament for the abolition of the slave trade. For twenty years, he tried every means to outlaw trading of slaves in the British Commonwealth. And eventually, after twenty-five years, the British parliament on, when was it, March 1807, the British parliament, so two hundred years ago, passed a law outlawing the trading of slavery anywhere in the British Commonwealth. But William Wilberforce was not satisfied because the law didn't say anything to slaves that had previously been bought or sold.

[10:40] It only said that you couldn't trade them any further. And so, millions of people were still in slavery. And so, for another twenty-five years, William Wilberforce gave his life to trying to eradicate slavery altogether. And so, just a few days before he died, in August 1833, slavery was eventually outlawed in the British Empire. But William Wilberforce wasn't just a good man who was involved in social justice. He was a man who loved the scriptures. And this psalm was one of his favorite psalms. And so, the night after the bill has passed, William Wilberforce, he's now an old man, he goes back to his study. He's meditating on the psalm. And he pulls out his journal, and he writes there, Psalm 115, not to us, O God, not to us. To your name, give the glory. And so, Watermark, I want to say, I hope and I pray that as a church, I pray we will be blessed. I pray the next few years will be fruitful.

[11:43] I pray that when things are going well, and the church is growing, and new ministries are starting, and babies are born, and people are getting married, and worship is wonderful, and everything is going well, that as a church, the cry of our heart may be, not to us, O God. Glorify your name, King Jesus, in this church. And Watermark, I pray that as things go well for you at work, and you get promoted, or you get that new job that you've really been looking for, and hoping for, or maybe you fall in love with someone, and you get married, and everything is wonderful, in the quiet place of our lives, when we put our head on the pillow at night, may the cry of our heart be, God, not to me, but to your name, give the glory.

[12:25] And Watermark, when things are going tough, and we're in a season of transition, and people leave, and we have to say goodbye to friends, maybe the elders are stretched, maybe the elders don't look after our church, our community as well as we should.

[12:40] When things aren't at their best, may we still say, God, not to our comfort and our convenience, but to your name, give the glory. And friends, when you're overlooked at work, and you don't get that promotion, or you're hoping for that job, and it doesn't come through, or when you're out of community, and you feel confused, may the cry of our heart be, Father, not to me, but to your name, give the glory.

[13:03] Watermark, may this be the refrain, may this be the song that we as a church sing, the foundation upon which we are built. God, glorify your name. May the infinite worthiness, and beauty, and majesty of God be put on display in our lives and in our church.

[13:21] Okay, great. I'm glad you're as excited about that as I am. Now, the question is, why? Why should we do this?

[13:31] Why should this be the refrain of our church? I want to give us three reasons. The first reason is because this is the motivation of God himself. This is God's primary passion, the glory of his own name.

[13:44] Secondly, because it will keep us honest, and thirdly, it will set us free. Okay, so first reason. This is the motivation of God himself. When you have children, young children, they love to ask a question, right?

[13:58] What is the question children love to ask? Why? Okay, you've also been there, right? This is a universal phenomenon. Children love to ask the question, why? Why do I have to eat my broccoli?

[14:09] Why is it taking so long? Why do I have to share with my sister, right? And you give them an answer, and then what happens after that? They ask why, right?

[14:20] Okay, you've got it. And they keep on asking why, and eventually, you get frustrated, and you say something like, because I'm your father, or because I said so, right?

[14:32] It's not a very good parenting moment. But as human beings, we actually do the same thing. We are constantly asking the question, why? Why is the world the way it is?

[14:44] Why is there so much evil? God, why don't you just eradicate suffering right now? God, why is the universe so big and ever-expanding if there only seems to be life on our planet?

[14:55] Why, why, why, why? And when we find an answer, the next question is, okay, but why? And Jonathan Edwards wrote 200 years ago.

[15:06] He said, the end for which the world is made, the end answer for every why question is for the praise of his glory, for the display of his glory. Now, we may not always understand the answer, but somehow in the wisdom of God, everything God does is for the display of his glory.

[15:25] Isaiah 43 says this, the reason why every human being was made is for the display of his glory. The reason why that egg and that sperm met together to create that human being is for the praise of his name, for the display of God's glory.

[15:41] That something of the infinite majesty and wonder of God will be put on display, made visible in your life and my life. In Isaiah 48, it says, God is so slow to anger, so patient, so long-suffering.

[15:56] Why is God so patient with his people? For the praise of his name. Everything God does is for the praise of his own name, to display his glory. But what about the cross?

[16:09] What about Jesus dying on the cross? The most horrendous day in the history of the world. How is that a display of God's glory? Sometimes we think the reason Jesus died on the cross is because God was so enamored with us, so in love with us, that he couldn't possibly bear the idea of not being with us, right?

[16:31] As if God didn't want to be in heaven without us, so he left heaven to come and be with us. But friends, that's not what the Bible says. The Bible tells us again and again the reason Jesus died on the cross was that he might put on display the infinite justice and the holiness of God and at the exact same time the infinite mercy and kindness and grace of God.

[16:55] That on the cross, Jesus might glorify God by revealing the infinite awesomeness of the one true God. Now, of course, Jesus did die on the cross because he loves us.

[17:06] John 3.16, For God so loved the world that he sent his only son. But friends, the cross is a statement not about how lovely we are, but how glorious God is that despite our sin, God loves us still for the praise of his own name.

[17:23] Friends, if we took the time to listen to creation, to every majestic view, every bird that sings, every newborn baby, every piece of music that's played, every bit of creation, every star in every galaxy, we would hear that each one of them are singing from the same hymn sheet.

[17:43] They're singing, Not to us, O God, not to us, but to your name, give the glory. Colossians 1 says this, For by this God all things were created, in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or rulers, dominions or authorities, all things were created through him, and all things were created for him, for the praise of his name.

[18:07] Lord Mark, may we join in the song of all creation. May this be the anthem of our church forever. Not to us, O God, not to us, but to your name, give the glory.

[18:19] First reason, this is the primary motivation of God himself. Second thing is this, it'll keep us honest. Now, what I mean by that is, if we as a church, and if as individuals, the motivation of our hearts is, God, may you glorify your name.

[18:36] God, may you put your infinite beauty on display, it will stop us from getting distracted, either by pain, and problems, and difficulty, but it'll also stop us from getting distracted by pleasure, and abundance, and great success.

[18:53] You see, Psalm 115, this refrain, is a song that has often been sung when Christians have enjoyed great success. There's a story about one of the, there's an old hymn, it's actually in Latin, this phrase, not to us, O God, not to us, but to your name, give the glory.

[19:12] And about four or five hundred years ago, the British army was engaged in battle, they won the battle, and the commander made the entire army kneel down on the battlefield in one knee and sing this psalm in Latin, not to us, O God, not to us, to your name, give the glory.

[19:29] So Christians have often sung this, or spoken about this psalm in times of great success. But verse two tells us what's actually going on here.

[19:40] You see, the psalm isn't written because the people of God are in a good place, actually things are going wrong for them. The nation of Israel is in a spot of bother. Look at what happens in verse two.

[19:51] It says, why should the nation say, where is your God? You see, what's going on here is Israel in a tough situation. Things aren't going well for them. And so their enemies, the nations around them, are laughing at them.

[20:05] They're mocking them. They're saying, Israel, where is your God? Just look at where your faith in God has got you. It hasn't got you very far. Maybe your God has abandoned you.

[20:15] Where is your God now? And so what's going on is things in Israel aren't going so well and the nations are mocking them. They're laughing at them, saying, where has God got you?

[20:27] And friends, I can almost guarantee you that every one of us will come to a time in our lives when things aren't going well. Every one of us will experience a situation in life where we'll face hardship or suffering.

[20:42] There'll come a time when you'll wonder, God, where are you? Have you abandoned me? There'll come a time when those who don't like the gospel will say, where is your God? And friends, you may be tempted to agree with them.

[20:54] You may say, God, where is you? Where are you? Where have you gone now? And watermark, what will keep us on the straight and narrow? What will keep us in times like that from losing our faith?

[21:06] What will keep us alive and our faith alive and real? What will get us through those times in one piece? Or what will determine whether we stop trusting God will depend on our vision of God.

[21:18] Because if you've got a small God who's not glorious, not majestic, a God who just exists to make your life comfortable or convenient, when difficulty comes or hardship comes your way, you'll be irritated by God, you'll throw your hands in the air, and you'll say, where are you, God?

[21:36] I thought you were supposed to be good. A couple of years ago, a Christian psychologist by the name of Christian Smith and a colleague, Melinda Denton, they researched what do American teenage Christians think about the Bible and the God of the Bible.

[21:57] And they did a whole lot of research and they wrote a book in the end called Soul Searching. And in this book, they said that the God that American Christian teenagers worship is very different from the God of the Bible.

[22:11] And they called this new American faith moral therapeutic deism. Have you heard that phrase before? Moral therapeutic deism. In other words, they said, the God of contemporary American Christianity is a God who is moral and He wants us to be moral.

[22:26] A God who is therapeutic. In other words, He exists for your own comfort and your convenience to make you happy. And He's a deity which means that He should use His power and His strength to make your life work together.

[22:39] And in the end of the book, the summary statement these psychologists wrote is this, this God does not need to be particularly involved in one's life except maybe when God is needed to fix a problem.

[22:53] You see, Watermark, if we haven't seen the glory of God and the majesty of God, if we haven't seen the infinite worthiness of God, that's exactly what we'll think God is like.

[23:03] God is moral and He wants us to be moral. God exists to make our lives comfortable and convenient and God should use His power in our lives when we're in trouble. Friends, if we haven't been gripped by the majesty of who God is when things go wrong or pain comes or difficulty comes or inconveniences arrive, we'll be deeply confused.

[23:22] We'll throw our hands in the air and say, where are you God? But look at what the psalmist says. This psalmist, this community, it starts off saying, not to us, O God, not to us, but to your name give the glory.

[23:35] When things go wrong and the enemies mock them and say, where is your God now? Look at how they respond. Look at verse 3. What is their response? They say, our God is in the heavens and He does all that He pleases.

[23:49] In other words, they've seen something of the majesty and the bigness of God. They may not always understand why He does what He does, but they've seen that God is God and that they are not and that they exist for His glory.

[24:02] He doesn't exist for their glory. Friends, I want to ask you this morning, is your God small? Is your God that just exists just to make you happy and comfortable and convenient?

[24:14] A God whose chief reason for His existence is to make your life work? Because if it is, it's a God of our imagination. That God doesn't exist. But the one true God of the Bible is the God that says, our God is in the heavens.

[24:28] He does what He pleases and therefore, not to us, O God, not to us, but to your name give the glory. Now, the other side of the coin, that's one side of the coin, the other side of the coin, is that if we as a church will see the glory of God and love the glory of God and if the song of our heart is God, not to us, but to your name give the glory, it will not only keep us faithful and following God when difficulty comes, it will also keep us faithful and following God when great success comes or abundance comes.

[25:02] The church that I, we were involved in, in Cape Town, was started by a businessman by the name of Christo, Christo Breedenkamp. And Christo, when he first became a follower of Jesus 20 years ago, he was out of work or actually soon after he became a follower of Jesus, he lost his job.

[25:21] He used to work for De Beers, a mining company. He lost his job and for two years he was without work. He went for almost 30 interviews, good interviews, couldn't find any work.

[25:32] And at one stage he was selling candles out of the boot of his car, the trunk of his car to try and pay the bills. And he started a bakery with his wife and that went badly and so they lost whatever money they did have or borrowed, they lost that.

[25:47] And eventually somebody in the church offered him a job as a junior salesman. And so he started at the very bottom. And 12 years later when Christo and I helped start this new church, he was now CEO of the business.

[26:01] But they didn't own the business, he was working for other shareholders. And at some point he felt God put in his heart that maybe the management team should have a management buyer. They should buy the business from the shareholders.

[26:12] So they went to the shareholders and said, look, we want to buy this business. And the shareholders said, we don't want to sell it. And so they negotiated and eventually they named their price, a very high price.

[26:24] And Christo and his team had to work very hard to make the money and they borrowed and they made the targets and eventually they owned the business. But one of the things that Christo often said to me in that time, he said, I will be far more tested in my success than I ever was in my failure.

[26:43] When I had nothing it was easy to trust God because I didn't have much to trust him with. But if I have a lot it will be harder to trust God with that. And one of the things I most respect about my friend Christo is I've seen him when he's had very little and I've seen him when he's had a lot.

[27:00] And at both times he's exactly the same man. Nothing has changed about him because the internal driving motivation of his heart is not to me, oh God, not to me, but to your name give the glory.

[27:12] God glorify your name in my poverty. God glorify your name in my abundance. Not to me, oh God, not to me, but to your name give the glory.

[27:24] And friends, maybe you'll never be tempted to throw your hands in the air in exasperation. Maybe you'll never say, God, where are you? Because your life will be comfortable and convenient. Maybe you'll make a lot of money, you'll have a wonderful family, your loved ones will always be close, you'll never experience much difficulty.

[27:41] What's going to keep you from becoming dull and ineffective? What's going to stop you from becoming proud and self-sufficient? What's going to stop you from becoming self-reliant rather than God-reliant? This needs to be the refrain of our heart.

[27:54] God, not to me, but to your name give the glory. Friends, if we, as a church, want to stay true and honest, if we want to be a church which is faithful to the gospel and walking with God and experiencing the power of God and the Holy Spirit to change lives, if we want to see people coming to faith and salvation and having a, we need to have a revelation of the bigness of God, that our God is in the heavens.

[28:18] He does all that He pleases. He is majestic and sovereign and therefore, not to us, O God, but to your name give the glory. Why should this be the motivation of our church?

[28:30] Because this is the motivation of God Himself. Because this will keep us honest. Third thing, because this will set us free. Now, look in your bulletins or your Bible.

[28:40] Look at what happens when we get distracted by the false gods of comfort and convenience. Look at what happens in verse 4. Or rather, verse 2 says, Why should the nations say where is their God?

[28:51] Now, verse 4 says, The gods of the nations, the gods of our culture are like this. Their idols are silver and gold, the work of human hands. They have mouths, but they do not speak.

[29:04] They have eyes, but they cannot see. They have ears, but they do not hear. Noses, but they cannot smell. They have hands, but they don't feel anything. They have feet, but they cannot go anywhere.

[29:15] They do not make a sound in their throat. Those who make them become like them. And so do all who trust in them. Now, in Hong Kong, one of the things that we know is shrines are ubiquitous, right?

[29:30] Everywhere you go, you see these little shrines of burning incense, and sometimes there's fruit there that's been left out to the spirits or to the gods. And this is ubiquitous.

[29:42] And I don't imagine many of us have those in our houses. Maybe some of us, there's a shrine in your house, and they put out fruit often for the spirits, but most of us might not have that in our house.

[29:55] And yet still, every one of us are tempted to follow the contemporary gods of our culture, right? What are the gods? Our cell phones, social media, our work, our careers, our paycheck, our bonuses.

[30:09] These things that we trust in and hope in to give us hope and meaning, to give us security and comfort and convenience, right? These things that we trust in. And the reason why we do this is because these things promise us glory.

[30:23] They promise to put our name in light. They promise to make us feel better about ourselves, right? But look at the tragedy of these gods. In ancient times, they were maybe carved statues in your living room or in your lounge or in your office place, but these days, they're in our pockets.

[30:40] They're in our bank accounts. They're on the computer screen. But look at the tragedy of these gods. Look at what happens in verse 8. It says, those who make them become like them and so do all who trust in them.

[30:54] Friends, the problem with trusting with these gods and these idols to save and to satisfy us, to give our lives meaning and hope, is not just that they are powerless and they are insipid and they can't do what they promise.

[31:05] The problem is that they actually change us and ultimately they enslave us. See, Watermark, this is why I want to ask, can we be gripped by the bigness of God? Can we get a revelation of the majesty of God?

[31:19] This is why I want to implore us as a church that whatever happens in the future, we don't get distracted by small man-made gods that cannot save because ultimately those gods enslave us.

[31:32] They trap us. Tim Keller, a wonderful pastor from the States, he's in New York City and he is writing about how so many men and women in his city give their lives to trying to make a success of their career and their whole lives revolve around making a success of their career and this is what he writes.

[31:53] He says, these men and women have sacrificed everything to the God of success but it wasn't enough. In ancient times, the deities were bloodthirsty and hard to appease.

[32:06] Even still today, they are exactly the same. Isn't that profound? In ancient times, the deities were bloodthirsty and hard to appease. You had to work very hard to appease the gods, offer them great sacrifices.

[32:20] Friends, even still today, the gods that we serve are exactly the same. They demand a lot from us and this is true of everything we worship. Everything that we give ourselves to as worship ultimately owns us.

[32:33] I want to ask the youth here, if you're a teenager here, one of the gods of our culture is social media. Friends, you don't feel like social media owns you. Your social media controls how you feel about yourself, how you feel about others, whether you have a good day or a bad day.

[32:50] The gods of our cultures, they own us. What about our careers while working for that bonus or that paycheck? Our careers own us. When we give ourselves to these gods, they ultimately, they enslave us and they own us.

[33:03] And you know, Jesus Christ says something very interesting. Jesus is unapologetic about the fact that if you come to him, he also owns you. Jesus says, you can't come to me and give me your life and still maintain the right to be your own lord.

[33:18] If you come to me, I own you. Either I have all of you or I have none of you. Jesus comes to us and says the same thing. Now, I'm not sure if this is true in Hong Kong culture, but in many other cultures, people say, don't become a follower of Jesus, you'll lose your freedom.

[33:35] If you follow Jesus, you'll lose your independence, you'll lose your freedom. Friends, Jesus Christ says the only way to truly be free is to come and give him your all. The only way to be free from the idols that enslave us is to come to the one true God and say, not to us, a God, not to us, but to your name, give the glory.

[33:55] You see, in ancient times, the deities were bloodthirsty and hard to appease. Even today, they still are. But therein lies our hope because in Jesus Christ is the one God who claims nothing less than being divine.

[34:08] Nothing less than being God. Nothing less than saying, I own you. But Jesus Christ is the one God that didn't demand our blood, but he gave his blood instead. And there's the irony.

[34:19] Jesus is the one God who says, if you come to me, I'll demand everything. But he's the one God who gave everything of himself for us to set us free. That's the counterintuitive thing.

[34:30] When we as individuals or as a church family live for ourselves and our own glory, we end up losing our lives. And when we come to him and we're willing to lose our lives and say, Jesus, have your way in my life, that's where Jesus is.

[34:42] You'll find your life. That's when I'll truly set you free. Friends, what are you trusting in this morning? What are you hoping in? What are you hoping is going to set you free?

[34:53] What are you hoping in to give your life meaning and purpose and security and comfort and convenience? Whatever it is that you're trusting in will ultimately own you and enslave you.

[35:04] The one way to be free is to get to the place where in your heart of hearts you say, God, I'm not living for myself. I'm living for you. And when we do that, Jesus says he will set us free. He'll set us free from the idols that enslave us.

[35:17] He'll set us free from needing to live for ourselves. He'll set us free from the comparison of comparing ourselves to everyone else. In Hong Kong, we love to compare, right? Where do you live? What job you have?

[35:29] We love to compare. When we come to the place that Jesus, you have it all. He'll set us free from needing to compare ourselves to everyone else around us. But only if we can come to the place where we say, God, not to us, not to us, not to me, oh God, to your name, you have the glory.

[35:49] Look at what happens here in verse 9. Verse 9 says, O Israel, trust in the Lord. He is your help and your shield. O house of Aaron, trust in the Lord.

[36:02] He is your help and shield. O Watermark Church, trust in the Lord. He is your help and your shield. You who fear the Lord, trust in Him.

[36:13] He is your help and shield. Watermark, I hope and I pray and I want to ask us as a church, those of us who call this church home, that for as long as we do so, this will be the refrain, the anthem of our heart.

[36:27] This will be the song of our heart. God, not to us, not to us, but to your name, give the glory. I pray that we will so see the glory of God, the infinite worth of God, the majesty of God, the infinite perfection of God that will set us free, it will keep us honest and it will allow us to join God in making this the song of our heart.

[36:49] God, glorify your name. Amen. Let's stand together and let's pray as we worship. Let's take a minute or two to respond.

[37:08] Let's close our eyes and come before this majestic God. Heavenly Father, we confess God that we we need you, Lord.

[37:32] The natural disposition of our hearts is to live for our own glory. The tendency of our hearts is to want to make much of ourselves. Oh God, we need you to open the eyes of our heart to see you, to set us free.

[37:49] Holy Spirit, we need a work of your grace. And so Holy Spirit, won't you come? Come even now, Spirit of God, and come and open our eyes, open our hearts, and set us free.

[38:09] Holy Spirit, come and show us more of yourself. Show us your infinite worthiness. Show us your infinite beauty. Show us your majesty.

[38:24] Help us to fall in love with you and to trust you, God. Friends, I want to give us a few ways to respond. Let's maybe admit how naturally and easily we live for our own glory rather than God's glory.

[38:42] Let's admit that to God. Ask Him to forgive us. Ask Him to give us a revelation of His glory. Let's ask God to open our eyes and to see the bigness and the grandeur of God.

[38:58] And then for those of us who have become trapped or enslaved by secular thinking, the spirit of our age, let's confess and ask God to set us free to live for His glory.

[39:12] Let's live for His glory. Let's shiftMP olha to His glorious glory Father, I pray that as we go this week, tomorrow as we go to work, and some of us travel, some of us even today flying various places around the world, and some of us that are at home this week for our children as they go to school, God, as we make business deals, as we go about our work, may something of the majesty and the magnificence of God grip our hearts.

[40:13] God, I pray that we won't just go to work this week to earn a salary. We'll go to put on display the wonder of our God. God, give us a fresh vision for our lives.

[40:26] Give us a fresh purpose for everything we do. God, recalibrate, recenter our lives, recommission us, God, to live for your glory, we pray.

[40:41] We pray, God, that this will be the song of our church. Not to us, God. To your name, give the glory. God, öğ compar season, earth sanitaire, mangha.

[40:51] Bye for our life. Love, tacos,amingha. Love, city Alyx and family. Young man gets to be the song of his life. Left-line cinnamon, 금ine water, hasta third medications. Love after being recommended that love you are human being next on holiday. We pray for your journey to love you when you are in the same place, Act on holiday.

[41:03] losses are your dream. limiting them to befriend the 그게 that you're doing. It's the same challenge for your journey For the course of everything we will just you, to plan your other space instead for life this other day. The story is important to remind you of our焦 coming together. God, recovery.