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Would you pray with me as we begin this part of our worship time.

Father, I pray that you would awaken now wherever it's not awake our heart to treasure Christ as our supreme value.

I pray that the Holy Spirit would be poured out on us to grant love, joy, peace, patience, goodness, kindness, meekness, faithfulness, self-control.

I pray that the devil would be restrained, that light would shine into our hearts and that Christ would be seen and savored for who he really is.

I pray that our ministries would be strengthened

from the smallest church to the largest church to the nearest church to the farthest church.

Oh, make your shepherds mighty in the word, I pray.

I ask this in Jesus' name,

Amen.

So the point this morning was that God is passionate for his glory and that he is not an

egot maniac in being self-exalting and among the reasons why he's not is that he is seeking

our praise not because he won't be fully God until he gets it but we

won't be fully glad until we give it. Which means that his pursuit of our praise is love. It's the definition of divine love that God does whatever it takes, including the death of his son to enable us to make much of him forever by

enjoying him forever. So you don't ever have to choose between glorifying God

and being happy if your happiness is in God.

I'm going to go a step farther now tonight and say that God isn't just loving in exulting himself for our enjoyment so that our joys rises as his glory is lifted up. he's also set up the universe in a way that his glory rises and is manifest and magnified in my delighting in it.

So my delight is not just a response to his glory, seeing his glory, but my delight in his glory is an

essential way that his glory is magnified, that he is glorified. So the banner that

flies over my life. Church ministry is God is most glorified in you when you are

most satisfied in him. If that's true and I have to defend it biblically, the

implications are simply staggering for your people and for your ministry.

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