4-23-06

How to Love God More: Part 7 
Seeing God’s Glory

Summary: God must be seen (experienced and enjoyed) for the heart to be transformed.  The invisible God can be seen by looking at the creation in such a way as to see His attributes reflected as in a mirror.

Review

Everything in the Christian life comes out of knowing God personally. And there is a huge difference between knowing about someone and knowing him. Satan knows more about God than you do, but he doesn’t have a personal, love relationship with God. 
In this study we have been learning how to develop a deeper, more intense love for God. So far we have covered one thing you can do – develop an appetite for God (hunger and thirst for Him). We learned 4 ways to do that – Beg, Wait, Remember and Taste. 
Another thing that helps is fasting.  When you fast, each time you feel the hunger that reminds you that your soul hungers like that for fellowship with God. If you can’t go a whole day without eating, go a shorter time. Everyone can go some time without eating. For me, Monday is the day when I focus on hungering and thirsting for God. And so I’ve decided that’s going to be a fast day for me. You can fast by just skipping one meal – or by skipping part of a meal. You could decide that every Monday you will skip desert. Or each time you eat on a Monday you will leave some part of the meal that you would normally have enjoyed eating.
Now, today we finally get to the part of this study that I am the most excited about. What I’m going to teach today is what I’ve found to be the most helpful in actually gaining more desire for God and more love for Him. Today we will learn about seeing God – beholding the glory of Christ. His glory is what changes you, but only if you see it.

Seeing God
Mat.5:8 Blessed are the Pure in heart, for they will see God.

2 Cor.3:18 And we, who with unveiled faces all behold as in a mirror the Lord's glory, are being transformed into his likeness with ever-increasing glory, which comes from the Lord, who is the Spirit.

If you are a Christian than you are a person who really, really wants to change. You see the sin in your life and you want to change, right? You see that you don’t desire God anywhere near as much as you should, and you want to change. You see that you love dumb things like music or friends or the mall more than you love eternal riches in Christ and fellowship with God, and you want to change. You desire the pleasure of sin more than the pleasure of closeness with God and you want to change. You find yourself falling into the same sin over and over and over and you want to change. 
So how do you change? Most people just use the “try harder” method of changing. How many of you have tried that? Has it worked? Sometimes it works for a little while, but never for very long. What has the power to really transform you into His image? This verse tells us.

2 Cor.3:18 And we, who with unveiled faces all behold as in a mirror the Lord's glory, are being transformed into his likeness with ever-increasing glory

What has power to change you? Seeing the glory of Christ as in a mirror. Now, there’s a huge problem with that. There is a huge problem with seeing God.

John 1:18 No one has ever seen God.
1 John 4:12 No one has ever seen God.

So in one place in the Bible it says the way to change and be more like Him is to see God, and another verse says no one has ever seen God.

Psalm 63:2 I have seen you in the sanctuary and beheld your power and your glory

David said he saw God, but in 1 Tim.1:17 Paul said that God is invisible. 

1 Timothy 1:17 Now to the King eternal, immortal, invisible, the only God, be honor and glory for ever and ever. Amen.

So which is it? No one has ever seen God, but we see Him with unveiled faces. And David saw God, yet God is invisible. How do we make sense out of this? You can’t see something that’s invisible, right? Wrong. 

Hebrews 11:27 By faith Moses left Egypt, not fearing the king's anger; he persevered because he saw him who is invisible.

Moses saw Him who is invisible. How? 

Romans 1:20 From the creation of the world His invisible attributes, that is, His eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly seen, being understood through what He has made. As a result, people are without excuse.

The invisible things about God are clearly seen in the creation. When you look at the things your eyes can see – things like mountains and houses and bikes and chairs and TVs and stars - if you look at them the right way you can actually see the glory of the invisible God. And if you want to know how that works you can go right back to where we started – 2 Cor.3:18, which talks about seeing God as in a mirror. 
Paul also said that in 1 Cor.13.

1 Cor 13:12  Now we see but a poor reflection as in a mirror; then we shall see face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I am fully known.

Someday we will see God clearly – face to face. We can’t see Him like that now, but we can see Him as in a mirror. See, the creation works like a mirror. But for it to work you have to look at it the right way. You know how you can look at some glass and if you focus your eyes on the glass, you just see the glass, but if you focus on the reflection you can see that. It’s the same way with a computer screen. Suppose you are working on your computer and behind you is a glorious sunset.  
And you have a choice – you can either focus your eyes on the words on your screen, or you can focus on the reflection of the sunset. If you’re focusing on the words, you can’t really pay attention to the sunset. And if you focus on the sunset you can’t really pay attention to the words. 
Everything God made in this world is like that computer screen. The words on the screen are like the things in this world. And the sunset is like the glory of God. The world can only see the words on the screen. But a Christian, if he focuses the right way, can see the glory of Christ. You can look at a tree and if all you see is a tree, it’s because you’re focusing on the glass or on the words on the screen. But if you look at what the tree reflects, you can see God’s glory. It’s the same way with the sun and moon, or clouds, or a pencil or a piece of dirt. That’s the whole reason God gave you eyes – so you could see His glory. That’s what will start to change you so you love Him more – you have to see His glory.
Why is it important to see God’s glory?
Why isn’t it enough to just learn about God’s glory? Why do we have to see it? Because to see something means to experience it. If you are out at night and there is a shooting star or spectacular lightning, you aren’t happy to have someone describe it – you want to see it for yourself.  If you don’t see it, you missed it (even if someone describes it to you). You can’t really enjoy the shooting star unless you see it. So to experience and enjoy something you have to see it.

Ps 16:10  you will not…let your Holy One see decay.

That means he will not experience decay.

John 3:3  In reply Jesus declared, "I tell you the truth, no one can see the kingdom of God unless he is born again."
John 3:36 whoever rejects the Son will not see life

So to see something is to experience it. What does it mean to see a person?  Seeing someone implies more than just looking at him. If I say “Tracy is going to MN to see her parents” what does that mean – that she’s just going to go stare at them? No, it means she’s going to go be with them and enjoy them. That’s how it is with God too. Just learning about God without actually seeing His glory isn’t enough to make you love Him. 
If you get good at seeing God’s attributes in the reflection of the creation, you will enjoy that so much you will eventually be like David, who said:

Ps 27:4 One thing I ask of the LORD, this is what I seek: that I may dwell in the house of the LORD all the days of my life, to gaze upon the beauty of the LORD and to seek him in his temple.

There was nothing more satisfying to him than seeing God’s glory. Next week we will learn more about the connection between seeing God’s glory and being totally satisfied in life.

Ps 17:15  And I-- in righteousness I will see your face; when I awake, I will be satisfied with seeing your likeness.

And seeing Him is not only enjoyable, but it changes you. Just seeing His glory makes you more like him. In fact, when you go to heaven and your first day in heaven God makes you perfect, you know how He’ll do it? Here’s how God will make you instantly perfect:

1 John 3:2 Dear friends, now we are children of God, and what we will be has not yet been made known. But we know that when he appears, we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is.

He will let us see His full glory, and that sight will instantly transform us and make us perfect. You can’t see him that clearly now, but you can see enough of His glory by faith, as in a mirror, that it can change you in great ways. If you have sin you want to get rid of, this is the way to do it.
But for it to work, you have to do it all day long.

Ps 25:5 my hope is in you all day long. 
Ps 119:97 Oh, how I love your law! I meditate on it all day long. 
Ps 89:15-16 Blessed are those who have learned the praise shout, who walk in the light of your presence, O LORD. 16 They rejoice in your name all day long 
Ps 71:8 My mouth is filled with your praise, declaring your splendor all day long. 

Some people try to look at the glory of God for one hour a week on Sunday morning and they think that will change them. I want you to imagine something for a moment. 
Imagine that you had cancer, and the doctor told you that you were going to die a slow, horrible, painful death, and you should plan on lying in bed in terrible pain for the next two years until you finally die. And you find out there is only one cure for this kind of cancer. The more time you spend gazing at the stars, the more you will be healed.
But here’s the catch – you can’t just look up at the stars. In order for it to work you have to be amazed by them. You have to see so many of them that you are truly amazed. If you look at them and aren’t amazed it won’t work. 
Now imagine you live in a big city where there are bright lights all the time and lots of pollution in the air. So when you are in the city, if you look up to the stars you only see about 5 stars. You won’t me amazed unless you can see thousands and thousands of stars, but the only way to do that is to get out into the desert 100 miles away from the city. So every night you take a 10 minute drive toward the desert, and you look up. And you see 8 or 10 stars instead of 5 or 6, but you still aren’t really amazed. You try to be amazed, but you just aren’t. After the 10 minutes are up you turn around and drive back into the city, where you spend the next 24 hours until you take your little 10 minute drive the next night. 
The only way you will ever be amazed is if you keep traveling away from the city for long enough so that you can see millions of stars. And then you gaze at them and think about them – think about how big they are and how far away they are.
So here’s what I suggest – this is what I’ve been doing, and it works great for me. Each week on Sunday you pick one attribute of God to look at that week. Then you think of something in the creation that will help remind you of that attribute. 
Then whenever you see that reminder, don’t just think about the attribute, but think about the fact that God is doing that thing for you right at that moment, and just sit back and enjoy it. That’s how you can cause your love for Him to grow more and more.
So, for example, suppose one week you are focusing on seeing God’s gentleness. You need to think through which things in the creation are designed by God to show us what His gentleness is like. And say one of the things you think of to remind you of it is a breeze. You realize that God made gentle things to show us what His gentleness is like, and a gentle breeze is something gentle. So each time you step outside and you feel a little breeze against your face, you realize, “That is God actually touching my face! He is in total control of the breeze, and He’s using it to gently touch my face!” And you can enjoy being treated gently by Your Father in heaven. 
The guy right next to you might also be enjoying the breeze, but he’s not enjoying God. For him it’s just air. But for you it’s the Almighty Creator stooping down and gently touching your face.
Suppose the next week you are focusing on Ps.33:11, which talks about God always carrying out the plans of His heart. And so that attribute is God’s heartfelt planning – everything that happens in life is part of a plan that came right from the very heart of God. That means it’s something he really loves.
And so the reminder you have for yourself is any time you see something happen that seems weird or unexpected, you remember that you are witnessing the unfolding of the very plans of the heart of God! So you see some guy walk by with a parrot sitting on his shoulder and you are reminded – “I don’t know how that fits in, but I know that’s part of the perfect plan of God’s heart. It’s all unfolding right in front of me. I get to watch God at work.” And then you just sit back and enjoy being in a world that is under the full control of a God who is controlling everything in such a way as to end up with the most glorious possible outcome! They guy next to you just sees the parrot and thinks, “That’s weird” and is on his way. But you are enjoying the glory of God – because the carrying out of His plan is a piece of His glory.
This week the attribute I’m focusing on is God’s steadfast love. The Hebrew word is “hesed” and it refers to a special kind of love God has only for us – not for the world. And the verse I’m studying says, “By Your hesed I will come into Your house.” So from that I learned that it’s by this special kind of love for me that I can come into his presence. The verses right before that talk about the people who don’t get that kind of love from God, and they are totally shut out of his presence. It says God hates them and won’t let them anywhere near His presence because of their sin.
Now, I’m a sinner too, yet God will open the door for me and let me into His house. Why? Because of His hesed – that special love He has for His people. So hesed is like a special key that is the only thing that can unlock the door of God’s wrath that shuts sinners out of His presence. So what do you think I used for a reminder? Whenever I saw a door, I tried to look not at the door, but at the reflection of God’s glory. 
So while I was delivering pizzas that night, whenever I was standing there in front of a door, I imagined that was the door of God’s wrath, that was designed specifically just to keep people like me out - and then all of the sudden the door would open! And that showed me how God’s special hesed love works!
The door would open and I couldn’t believe it. I was concentrating so much on thinking about that door as the door of God’s wrath that kept sinners like me out of His presence, and that it could never possibly be opened from my side, and then all of the sudden the door opened! And the guy is standing there with his money wanting his pizza, and I can barely talk to him because I’m so amazed at God’s hesed love for me!
Can you see how when I was doing that I wasn’t just thinking about God – I was enjoying one of His attributes? That’s the goal. You can have a wonderful prayer time and devotions in the morning, but if you don’t spend the rest of the day enjoying seeing some attribute of God, you won’t learn to love Him.
But you can’t just make up your own illustration. The attributes of God are revealed to us in the Bible. You can’t just think of them on your own – the Bible is the only place where we can see them. So you have to start with Scripture – find an attribute of God in the Bible, and then think of how you can see that. 
So this week, let’s do Psalm 34:1 Of David. When he pretended to be insane before Abimelech, who drove him away, and he left. I will extol the LORD at all times; his praise will always be on my lips.
To understand thing you have to know the story of Abimelech.  That story is in 1 Sam.21. David has been anointed by Samuel as the next king of Israel, but he’s not king yet. Saul is still king, and Saul is trying to kill David. He already threw a spear at him twice in the palace while David was playing music for him, and barely missed him. So David escaped, and now he’s on the run. 
So then David goes to a place called Nob, where Goliath’s sword was. After David killed Goliath he had left Goliath’s sword with the priest in Nob. So he got that sword  and then took off to Gath. Now that’s a little surprising. You know where Gath was? That was a major Philistine city! The Philistines were the enemies of Israel. In fact, guess what famous Philistine was from Gath - Goliath! 
So here’s David – the man who had killed tens of thousands of Philistines, including Goliath, and he goes to Gath.

1 Samuel 21:10 That day David fled from Saul and went to Achish king of Gath.  11 But the servants of Achish said to him, "Isn't this David, the king of the land? Isn't he the one they sing about in their dances: "'Saul has slain his thousands, and David his tens of thousands'?"  12 David took these words to heart and was very much afraid of Achish king of Gath. 

Evidently David thought he could just blend in there and no one would recognize him. He took a real gamble, but it didn’t work out. Now they know who he is. He doesn’t have his army with him, there’s no way to fight his way out of this one – he’s completely trapped. And he knows what the Philistines would do. The aren’t going to just kill him quickly. They will torture him and mock him and probably poke out his eyes with a hot iron or something, and make a big show that they captured Israel’s king. They would make David pay big time.
Have you ever been in a totally impossible situation? I’m assuming you’ve never been in a problem quite this bad, but still – we’ve all had problems that seem too big to ever get out of. You get so far behind in school it seems like you could never catch up. Or you have some problem with a relationship that seems like it could never be fixed. Or some news about you gets out, and there’s no way to control the damage. Or you did something really dumb, and now it seems like there is no way to avoid the consequences. We all know what it’s like to be in an impossible problem. The word for that is a “strait.” And David was really in a terrible strait here.
So, they bring him to the king of Gath – a guy by the name of Achish. David has to think fast. What’s he going to do? I’m sure he thought about fighting his way out, but there’s no way he’s going to survive if he tries that. Imagine yourself being hauled in before the king, and thinking about all the horrible things there are going to do to you. Se let’s look what he did.

 13 So he pretended to be insane in their presence; and while he was in their hands he acted like a madman, making marks on the doors of the gate and letting saliva run down his beard.

Now there’s an interesting plan (I don’t know if you’ve ever tried that one when you get behind in school). But David can’t think of anything better, so he gives it a shot. Do you think it worked?

14 Achish (that’s the king) said to his servants, "Look at the man! He is insane! Why bring him to me?  15 Am I so short of madmen that you have to bring this fellow here to carry on like this in front of me? Must this man come into my house?" 22:1 David left Gath and escaped to the cave of Adullam. 

They bring David to the king and say, “Hey, we caught the king of Israel – the one who killed tens of thousands of Philistines.” And as soon as they bring him in to the king he starts drooling and drawing on the wall. And the king says, “Do I not have enough nut cases around here that you have to bring me this kook? Get him out of here!” And so David escapes. 
As soon as he gets clear of the city, he starts running as fast as he can go – so he can get clear of there before they figure out what he did. And when he gets to this cave where he liked to hide, I’m sure he got in there and thought, “Whew – I’ll never try that again!” Then what do you think he did? As soon as he was in the cave and was safe, I can tell you exactly what he did. He got in there and said to himself, “I think I’ll write a psalm.” And he wrote Psalm 34.

Psalm 34:1 Of David. When he pretended to be insane before Abimelech, who drove him away, and he left. I will extol the LORD at all times; his praise will always be on my lips.

(Abimelech was his title – like Pharaoh or king – and Achish was his name.)

David had been in an impossible situation, and God delivered him. And so he wrote a psalm about how God is worthy to be praised every hour of every day. So the attribute is God’s ability and willingness to rescue you from impossible situations and straits. That’s the attribute of God that we are all going to try to enjoy this week. And we want to enjoy it by seeing it in the creation. So, how are we going to do that? 
What things will show us this attribute?
* Each time you see something impossible. Like if you see the mountains, if you focus on the reflection of God’s glory in them you might think, It would be impossible for me to walk over and lift those mountains up and thrown them into the ocean. That would be impossible – but I serve a God who could do that, and who will use that much power to deliver me out of my straits. And then you just sit back for a moment and enjoy being the child of a God like that!

* Each time you can’s see the solution to a problem, you could be reminded of this. And you can just sit back and enjoy being the child of a God who can solve any problem.

* When you can’t find something or can’t understand something or can’t fix a problem or can’t remember something, that can remind you of this attribute of God. You can remember that all the impossible problems you’ve had in the past God has always delivered you from (You never died once). And you can remember that he is a God who is worthy of praise 24/7, because He is a God who delights to deliver His people from impossible peril. And you can just sit back and enjoy being the child of a God like that.
Around our house we call this “checking your mirrors.” When you take driver’s ed they will tell you you need to check your mirrors every few seconds while you drive. You need to know what’s going on behind you at all times, and the only way to see back there is with your mirrors. So you have to check them every few seconds. 
Well, if it’s important to see what’s going on behind you while you drive, it’s even more important to see what’s going on in the spiritual world while you live. So every few seconds throughout the day you need to check your mirrors – look at the creation and realize what God is doing. That’s the only way to see the invisible God. And you need to see Him in order to learn to love Him and to get rid of the sin in your heart.