I invite you this morning to open to Romans chapter 11. That'll be the first passage that we look at today, but we are going to look at a number of passages. And again, this is another one of those messages that if you're a note taker, you might want to take notes today. I have a lot that we're going to be covering and a lot of passages that we'll be visiting because it is a topical message. Today we're going to conclude our five-part series in honor of the 500th anniversary of the Reformation. And in this series we've been focusing on five very important doctrinal declarations that really emerged from the Reformation. These are commonly referred to as the five solas. And we've talked about sola scriptura. The principle of this is that the scriptures alone are our authority on what we're to believe and how we're to live. We've talked about sola gratia, the fact that we are saved by grace alone. Salvation is a free gift of God. Eternal life is a free gift from God. That's the very essence of grace. It's free. And we've talked about sola fide, that we are saved through faith alone. This is our part in our salvation. It's not faith plus works. It's not faith plus anything. It's faith plus nothing. Faith alone. Sola Fide. And then last week we talked about Solus Christus, Christ alone. Christ alone is our atoning sacrifice for sin. Christ alone is our Savior and our Redeemer and our Intercessor and our Mediator. And so we focus on Christ and Christ alone. And today we come to the final of the five solas. We consider today Soli Deo Gloria, the glory of God alone. As we look at this passage here in Romans chapter 11, the Apostle Paul is reflecting on God's marvelous plan of redemption. He's thinking about just how broad God's offer of redemption is through Christ. And really, in essence, if you look at this entire passage and the whole section of Romans that leads up to this, Paul, in essence, is reflecting on salvation by grace alone through faith alone in Christ alone. And so that is what he's reflecting upon as we come to these verses at the end of Romans chapter 11. I'll begin reading in verse 33. all the depth of the riches, both of the wisdom and knowledge of God. How unsearchable are His judgments and His ways past finding out. For who hath known the mind of the Lord, or who hath been His counselor? Or who hath first given to Him, and it shall be recompensed unto Him again? For of Him, and through Him, and to Him are all things, to whom be glory forever. Amen. Our Father, as we look at this passage and as we consider this very important topic of bringing glory to You, I pray that You will help us to focus our attention on this message today, to put aside all distractions. that our minds might be alert to the very vital truth that we're considering today. I pray you'll speak to us, not only for our learning and edification, but that we might put into practice the very things we're talking about. We pray in Jesus' name. Amen. Soli Deo Gloria really is the capstone of the Reformation doctrines. R.C. Sproul Jr. writes this, quote, the five solas are truly one, and by that he means an indivisible one. But if we were forced to pick one that best subsumes all the others, it would no doubt be the last one, he writes, soli deo gloria, to God alone the glory. If we began here rather than ending here, we would surely still end here, he writes. So this is a supremely vital doctrine for us to grab a hold of. The fact is, if you know Jesus as your Savior, your salvation is to the glory of God. Your life in Christ is to the glory of God. Your hope of eternal life is to the glory of God. In fact, your entire Christian life ought to be lived to the glory of God alone. And so this then is the primary exhortation that emanates from this doctrine of soli deo gloria. Live your life to the glory of God alone. That is what we ought to be compelled to do in response to how God has shown his love and grace to us. Live your life to the glory of God alone. Now my message this morning has just two main points, but I'm still going to fill the hour, okay? Two main points. We're going to talk first about the whys of Soli Deo Gloria, and then we're going to talk about the hows, the whys, the reasons, and then the hows, kind of what we are to do. So let's first focus on the whys. Why is Soli Deo Gloria so important? And although I think many reasons could be put forth, many valid reasons, really I suggest that there are fundamentally just two primary reasons why it's so important. And the number one reason is because God is worthy of all glory. The God that we worship in heaven is worthy of all glory. As you look at this passage here in Romans 11, we come to the very end. It says, for of Him and through Him and to Him are all things. You know, God is the creator and the sustainer of all creation. He is the beginning and the end. We could put it this way. All things in creation revolve around Him. He is the center of all things and everything exists for the purpose of bringing glory to Him. Now, maybe you haven't really stopped to think about what the word glory means. The word itself carries the idea of some brightly shining radiance. Something so bright that you would have to kind of cover and shield your eyes from it. For example, if you look at the sun, you're seeing the glory of the sun. It is shining bright. It's radiant. And this applies to God, of course, in a figurative sense. And so let's turn back to the book of Ezekiel. I'd like you to see how the book of Ezekiel gives us a glimpse of the brightly shining radiance of God's glory. Ezekiel chapter 1, and I'll begin looking at verse 4. The prophet Ezekiel is given the privilege of catching a glimpse of the glory of God. We won't have time to look at this entire passage, but let's begin looking at verse 4 and then we're going to skip down to verse 26. He says, And I looked, and behold, a whirlwind came out of the north, a great cloud and a fire enfolding itself, and a brightness was about it. and out of the midst thereof as the color of amber, out of the midst of the fire." And then skip down to verse 26. Oh, by the way, in the intermediate verses, he sees these four living creatures and he describes them in interesting detail. We won't have time to look at that today. But then verse 26, and above the firmament that was over their heads, over the creatures' heads, was the likeness of a throne, as the appearance of a sapphire stone. And upon the likeness of the throne was the likeness as the appearance of a man above upon it. And I saw as the color of amber, as the appearance of fire round about within it, from the appearance of his loins even upward and from the appearance of his loins even downward, I saw as it were the appearance of fire and it had the brightness round about. And as the appearance of the bow, that would be like a rainbow that is in the cloud in the day of rain, so was the appearance of the brightness round about. This was the appearance of the likeness of the glory of the Lord. And when I saw it, I fell upon my face and I heard a voice of one that spake. What a privilege that Ezekiel had and what a blessing that we have today to be able to read about what he saw when he saw the glory of the Lord. And it's widely thought that he was actually seeing a pre-incarnate image of Christ here. And so it is that we see the glory of the Lord. And what should be our response? It's the same response that Ezekiel had. He fell on his face before God. in awe and reverence of the intense glory that He beheld. And so God is glorious. Everything about God is glorious. Ezekiel saw the radiant glory of the Lord, so bright and so radiant that he had to fall on his face. Everything about God is glorious. Ephesians 117 refers to God as the Father of glory. The abode of God is called the throne of glory. And those who dwell in the presence of God are said to be in glory. Everything about God is glorious. He is glorious in all of His divine perfections. For example, with respect to His grace, Ephesians 1.5 says, having predestined us, according to the adoption of children by Jesus Christ, to Himself. according to the good pleasure of his will, for what purpose? To the praise of the glory of his grace, wherein he hath made us accepted in the beloved." So God's grace, that divine perfection that we call grace, is glorious. It's intensely bright and radiant as we behold it. It shines to the very ends of the earth. His grace is glorious and His holiness is also glorious. Turn over to Isaiah chapter 6. Isaiah chapter 6 here, we see God's holiness and God's glory related together. Isaiah 6 and verse 1. Prophet Isaiah writes, in the year that King Uzziah died, I saw also the Lord sitting upon a throne high and lifted up, and His train filled the temple. Above it stood the seraphim. Each one had six wings. With twain he covered his face, and with twain he covered his feet, and with twain he did fly. And one cried unto another and said, Holy, holy, holy is the Lord of hosts. The whole earth is full of His glory." So God is glorious in grace and God is glorious in His holiness. 2 Thessalonians 1.9 says that He's glorious in His power. God is glorious in His goodness. God is glorious in His love. God is glorious in His mercy. God is really glorious in all of His manifold perfections, in every aspect, every facet of God is glorious. In fact, if God's perfections were compared to the facets of a flawless diamond, the sparkle and fire of that diamond would be compared to the glory of God's perfections. But there's one major difference. A diamond reflects light. It doesn't produce its own light. But God produces his own glory. It radiates outward from him. So God radiates his own glory. And because of the brilliant radiance of all of God's divine perfections, he is worthy to receive all glory. That is to say, to ascribe to him glory. God is glorious. Behold the God of heaven. Behold the glory of the Lord. And so why must we give glory to God alone? Because God alone is worthy of all glory. And the second primary reason I would suggest that we are to give glory to God alone is because this is the chief end of man. Perhaps you recognize that phrase The Westminster Shorter Catechism asks this question at the very beginning of the catechism, what is the chief end of man? And the answer given in the catechism is man's chief end is to glorify God and to enjoy Him forever. This is the chief end of man, to glorify God. Giving glory to God is our chief end. It's our highest privilege. We are commanded throughout the scriptures to give glory to God. It's a duty, but it's also a privilege that we do so. We see the command reiterated time after time. In Psalm 34.3 it says, O magnify, the word there means glorify the Lord with me, and let us exalt His name together. Isaiah 24.15 commands everyone from the east to the west, all mankind, to respond to God by giving Him glory. Romans 15.5 says, And now the God of patience and consolation grants you to be like-minded one toward another according to Christ Jesus. Why? That you may with one mind and one mouth glorify God. I mean, that's the ultimate goal here as we unite together as believers and we are a body in Christ, a local assembly of believers that meet together to worship the Lord. Why do we do that? To bring glory to God. That's why we're here. And furthermore, God is very serious about receiving the glory that is due unto Him from His people. Turn over to Jeremiah chapter 13. I'd like you to see this particular warning that is issued from God to His people. At the time this prophecy is being given, God's people were not walking with God. And God not only calls them out, but He calls their leaders out for not leading the people in the right way. Jeremiah 13, verse 15, it says, Hear ye and give ear. Be not proud, for the Lord has spoken. Here's the command. Give glory to the Lord your God. Here's the warning. Before He caused darkness and before your feet stumble upon the dark mountains, And while ye look for light, he turn it into the shadow of death and make it gross darkness." So we see here that God is very serious about receiving the glory that is due unto him from his people. And it angers him when that's not happening. And so he issues the warning here in this passage, you better do this. You better start giving me glory or I'm going to just fill your life with darkness even to the point of death. You see, to fail to give God glory is to rob Him of the honor that is due unto Him. It's due unto Him. We owe it to Him. Malachi 1.6 says, A son honoreth his father, and a servant his master. If I then be a father, where is mine honor, says the Lord? If I be a master, where is my fear, says the Lord of hosts unto you, O priest that despise my name? And ye say, wherein have we despised thy name? I mean, we get about our busy lives, and we're just too busy to give God glory. You know, we're all about living for ourselves. We're ignorant in our bliss, and we don't realize that we're robbing God of the honor that is due unto Him, and He's serious about this. So why is soli deo gloria so important? Two primary reasons. because God alone is worthy of all glory, and because it is the chief end of man to give God glory. These are all the reasons we need to get busy giving glory to God. And so that brings us to the second point. How do we do this? Let's talk about the hows of soli deo gloria, the ways that we can bring glory to God. Practically speaking, how do we do this? How do we put this into practice? Well, the scriptures give us a lot of help on this. In fact, if you go through the scriptures and you look for mentions of God's glory and then you see where certain activities are associated with giving God glory, you can get a pretty long list. I've come up with a list of at least a dozen ways. Now we won't have time to expound all of those today, so I'm gonna just highlight a few and I'll give you the full list, but we'll be going pretty quickly through some of them. But first and foremost, first and foremost, and this, if you don't get any of the other 11 ways, make sure you get away with this one. First and foremost, we bring glory to God by worshiping Him. This is the clear emphasis of the scriptures. We bring glory to God by worshiping Him. Psalm 96, verse 7. Part of this sounds familiar to what David read this morning. Given to the Lord all ye kindreds of the people, given to the Lord glory and strength, given to the Lord the glory due unto his name, Those are commands. We're told to do this. We're told to give God glory through our worship. And I think it's interesting that part of that, it mentions bringing an offering. Yes, when we are putting our offerings in the offering plate as it goes by, we are worshiping God. with our offerings. And so we worship the Lord in the beauty of holiness. That's one reason I'm not up here in tattered jeans, because I want to make sure that I'm giving God the respect and reverence that He deserves as we worship Him. Worship the Lord in the beauty of holiness. It says, fear before Him, show reverence to Him, all the earth. So first and foremost, we bring glory to God by worshiping Him. And as we worship Him, we show that He is worthy of all glory and worthy of our highest praise. And so as we sing our praises to God, as those words come out of our mouth, as we're singing those hymns, we are in fact giving glory to God. Psalm 50, verse 23. Whoso offereth praise glorifieth me. and to him that ordereth his conversation aright will I show the salvation of God. Whoso offereth praise, did you sing some praises to God today? Then you brought him glory." Praising God brings him glory as part of our worship. Another aspect of our worship is the thanksgiving that we show to God, that we express to God in worship. Often this is done during our prayer times together. The thanksgiving that we express in worship also brings glory to God. The Apostle Paul writes and talks about the purpose of his own ministry to the Gentiles in 2 Corinthians 4.15. He says this, For all things are for your sakes. Why? That the abundant grace might through the thanksgiving of many redound, abound to the glory of God. Paul's saying that this ought to be the outcome of our ministry. We ought to see people that are giving thanks to God. And as we together come together corporately and we give thanks to God, we're bringing Him glory. Of course, next month is Thanksgiving and we have a special Thanksgiving prayer service, a praise service that we do on the Wednesday before Thanksgiving. I'd encourage you to come to that even if you're not normally able to be here on a Wednesday night, come to that Wednesday night praise service. There's a lot of sharing of testimonies, a lot of expressions of thanksgiving for what God has done and the blessings that He's brought. You ought to have some thanksgiving in your heart toward God. If you're not at all a thankful person toward God, there is something wrong in your Christian life. You ought to be able to sing praises to God and you ought to be able to thank him for his blessings. And then just another aspect of our worship, and that is I've already mentioned this idea of reverence, but specifically reverence for his holy name. In the passage that David read this morning, Psalm 29, verse 2, given to the Lord the glory due unto his name. The very name of God is worthy of our reverence and our respect. And we show God glory. We bring God glory as we respect his name. We use his name carefully, never carelessly. Show reverence to God, to the Lord, to the God of heaven. And so we bring glory to God by showing reverence for His name. Psalm 105 verse 3 says, glory ye in His holy name. Let the heart of them rejoice that seek the Lord. And so let us come before God in reverence and worship Him, lift Him high and give Him glory in our worship. Because first and foremost, we bring glory to God by worshiping Him. He's glorified in our praise and in our thanksgiving. He's glorified in the reverence that we express in our worship. And so we can make application right here. Christians that are too busy for private worship and who neglect the regular assembling together for corporate worship are robbing God of the glory that is due unto Him. That's why it's so important for us to gather for worship. And that's why it's so important for you to have some private time when you bow before the Lord and worship Him. Don't rob Him of His glory. So we bring glory to God by worshiping Him. The second how, second way that we can bring glory to God. We bring glory to God by confessing Jesus as Lord. Turn over to Philippians chapter 2. We bring glory to God by confessing that Jesus is Lord. This is a familiar passage, but maybe you've never really thought about it in these terms and the fact that confessing Jesus as Lord brings glory to God. Philippians 2 and beginning in verse 9, speaking of the Lord Jesus, wherefore God also hath highly exalted Him, Jesus, and given Him a name which is above every name. that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow of things in heaven and things in earth and things under the earth, and that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord." Why? To the glory of God the Father. Confessing Jesus as Lord brings glory to God. So when a lost sinner comes to saving faith and confesses Jesus as his or her Lord, that brings glory to God. It puts God on display, God's mercy and God's grace toward lost sinners and sending His Son to die for them. And so it is when a person confesses Jesus as Lord for the first time in their life, that brings glory to God. But also, when a saved sinner, a Christian, openly and boldly confesses that Jesus Christ is Lord, that brings glory to God too. And I think this speaks of our witness, of the open testimony of our lives, that we are not a closet Christian, that we are out there and we say, I'm a Christian, I'm a follower of Christ, and He is Lord. And people around us should get that message. And when they do, that brings glory to God. Even if they don't honor the God of heaven, we are honoring Him by professing Jesus as our Lord. So this is also a way that we can bring glory to God. Third way that we bring glory to God, and that is by proclaiming His glory and the glory of His kingdom. Turn over to Psalm 145. We can go through this lost world as Christians as a light shining in darkness, And we can proclaim to the world that God is full of glory. We can proclaim the glory of the Lord. And we can also proclaim the glory of His kingdom. In fact, this really should be part of our gospel witness because we're all about telling people to consider Christ because He makes the difference in their eternal destiny. And when you consider the two options, the glory of the kingdom of God is far better than the other place. So Psalm 145 and verse 10 says, All thy works shall praise thee, O Lord, and thy saints shall bless thee. What shall they do? They shall speak of the glory of thy kingdom and talk of thy power to make known to the sons of men his mighty acts and the glorious majesty. of His kingdom. God is glorious and His kingdom is glorious. He is the God of heaven and earth. He is the supreme ruler of the universe. And what a kingdom He has. And we will serve with Him. We will bring glory to God for all of eternity as members of His kingdom, as heirs of the And so let us be proclaiming this to the world. There's a world out there who thinks that this is all there is. They're missing out on the glory of the kingdom of God. And so this is another way that we can bring glory to God by openly proclaiming, professing the glory of God and the glory of his kingdom. Fourth way that we can bring glory to God. And that is by proclaiming His Word. Turn over to 2 Thessalonians chapter 3. Now I want you to notice that the first way I mentioned is worshiping God and in that we often are vocalizing. We're using our vocal cords to sing praises to God. We're praying out loud. There's a speech act involved. And notice also that the second way, confessing Jesus as Lord, and the third way, proclaiming His glory and the glory of His kingdom, and even this way, proclaiming His word, all of these are speech acts. And so it is that by what we say and what we sing, what comes out of our mouth ought to bring glory to God. And here we have mention of the proclamation of the word, 2 Thessalonians chapter 3, verse 1. Apostle Paul writes, finally, brethren, pray for us that the word of the Lord may have free course and be glorified, even as it is with you. So we have the word of the Lord being glorified, and as the word of the Lord is being glorified, the Lord of the word is being glorified, you see. And so we can proclaim the word the Word of God, the truths of Scripture. And every time God's Word is proclaimed in an accurate way, it brings glory to God. That is certainly my goal this morning and every Sunday as I stand in this pulpit. I really, really want to bring glory to God in what I say. So we bring glory to God by proclaiming His Word. And then related to that, number five, we bring glory to God by heeding, heeding His Word. Turn over to Malachi, chapter two. We went through a series in Malachi a few years back, and it's an interesting little minor prophet of the Old Testament. And in Malachi's day, there were serious problems. And the Lord was addressing those problems through His prophet Malachi chapter 2. And God addresses the leaders, the spiritual leaders of the nation. Malachi 2 verse 1, And now, O ye priests, this commandment is for you. If you will not hear And if you will not lay it to heart and give glory unto my name, saith the Lord of hosts, I will even send a curse upon you, and I will curse your blessings. Yea, I have cursed them already, because ye do not lay it to heart." You see, the spiritual leaders in Malachi's day had ears that did not hear and listen to what God was saying through his prophet. And they had hearts that were hardened and cold and did not respond and did not pay heed to what the Lord had said. And verse 2 here makes this connection. Hearing and heeding God's Word gives God glory. And if we fail to hear and heed God's Word, we are robbing Him of His glory, the glory that is due unto His name. And so if we are living lives in direct disobedience to what the scriptures teach, we know the truth and we're disregarding it. We are robbing God of His glory, the glory that is due unto Him. And so the exhortation, the application for us is to make sure that when we hear the word of God, we're listening carefully. Our ears are open. Our hearts are receptive. We're paying heed to what's being said so that God gets the glory that He deserves. So we bring glory to God by heeding His Word. This is one way that we bring Him glory. Number six, we bring glory to God through our repentance and confession of sin. And I'll just give you a couple quick examples here. We have a negative example. In the book of Revelation, it talks about those who are rebellious to God during the great tribulational period. And though God sends all kinds of plagues and punishments to get their attention, they refuse to pay Him any heed. They stubbornly refuse to repent. And so in Revelation 16, 9, it says that despite all of these judgments that are poured out in those days, that these people did not repent and give Him His glory. So there's a connection here. Dwelling in sin and refusing to repent over our sin robs God of His glory. And when we repent, we're giving Him glory because we're agreeing with Him that He's right. And then in the Old Testament, we have another example, the example of Achan. Remember him? He took some of the forbidden spoils of war and buried them in his tent. And of course, God was not happy then with the nation because there was sin in the camp. and ultimately he is identified as the one who had done this. And Moses confronts him and in Joshua 7.19 it says, "...give glory to the Lord, the God of Israel, and make confession unto him, and tell me now what thou hast done, hide it not from me." I said Moses, I meant Joshua. So Joshua confronts him and he says, "...give God glory by making confession of your sin." Make confession. And so it brings God glory when we agree with Him concerning the nature of our sin, when we confess our sin and repent of it. Well, that's number six. I'm not going to have time to cover the rest, the other half of the dozen, but let me just give them to you quickly. Number seven, we bring glory to God through our prayers in Jesus' name. How does that glorify God? Well, because God hears those prayers and He answers them and He gets the glory. And you can just jot down John 14, 13 next to that one. Number eight, we bring glory to God through our good works, Matthew 5, 16. Let the world see your good works and bring glory to your Father who's in heaven. Number nine, we bring glory to God through the use of our spiritual gifts. Are you using your spiritual gifts? Are you serving in some capacity here? If you are, then you're bringing glory to God, 1 Peter 4, 10 through 11. Number 10, we bring glory to God by bearing spiritual fruit, John 15, 8. In fact, we are to bear much fruit. And then when we do, we bring glory to God. And number 11, we bring glory to God in how we treat our bodies, 1 Corinthians 6, 20. And then I want to just close with this last one, take a little time here. Turn over to 1 Corinthians chapter 10 and verse 31. You may know this verse, a familiar verse to many people. Number 12 is this, we can bring glory to God in all that we do. We can bring glory to God in all that we do. Look at 1 Corinthians 10, 31. Whether therefore ye eat or drink, or whatsoever ye do, do all to the glory of God. So everything you do and the manner with which you do it has the potential of bringing glory to God. Everything you do ought to, in some ultimate way, be for the glory of God. I think this is sweeping. This is a good one to end on. It's comprehensive. It just embraces our whole life. There's simply no part of the believer's life that is exempt from this command to bring glory to God. When Johann Sebastian Bach was satisfied with the music that he had written as a composer He would write on the first sheet of that music, S-D-G. Guess what that stood for? Soli Deo Gloria. To the glory of God alone. And so if God has led you to write music, do it to the glory of God. Another example is by way of contrast. Spurgeon preached an entire sermon on 2 Kings 3, 16 through 18. You can look it up later. It's an interesting passage. This is where God told the Israelites, make this valley full of ditches. And God promised that he would fill those ditches with water. enough to satisfy the thirst of the whole nation. But then, the next morning, God used those ditches full of water in a very interesting way. As the morning sunlight reflected upon the surfaces of those waters, they looked red to the eyes of the enemies of Israel, the Moabites. And when the Moabites saw all of that red over there, they said, the Israelites have killed one another. Hurry, let's go to the spoil. And boy, were they surprised when they got there. And they were routed by Israel. And Israel had the victory that day and God got the glory that day. Now Spurgeon made some application. He said, if we are to have a blessing from God, we are every one of us to have our trench ready to receive it. Okay, that's a good application. And so he added this, these ditches were to be dug not because the water might come, but because they were sure that it would come. Amen to that. But I don't think Spurgeon would object if I make another application of this passage. If the Lord has told you to dig ditches, then dig those ditches to the glory of the Lord. Give Him the glory. Whether you compose music or dig ditches, whatever you do, whatever your calling in life, whatever your station in life right now or in the future, do all to the glory of God. soli Deo gloria, to the glory of God alone. Really every aspect of ministry here at Grace Baptist Church is to be done to the glory of God. If you take out your bulletin and you look at the cover of that bulletin, it has our mission statement on there. To proclaim Christ to the world through the ministry of His word to make and grow His disciples. Why? For the glory of God. That's what we're all about. The glory of God is the ultimate answer to the existential question, why am I here? Why is this church here? It's here to bring glory to God. Why are you here? You are here to bring glory to God. So let me ask. What are you doing with your life? What are you doing with your life? Let me ask that question another way. For whose glory are you living your life? Is it for your own glory? Or is it for the glory of God alone? That's what it ought to be. You ought to live your life soli deo gloria, to the glory of God alone. Bringing glory to God ought to be the supreme and ultimate purpose of your life. There is no greater purpose. There is no higher aim than bringing glory to God. It is the chief end of your life. It is the chief end of this church and of all the ministries here. That's why we're here. And it is the most satisfying and fulfilling thing that any human being can do. to bring glory to God. And so live your life so as to bring glory to Him. Our Father, we thank You for this very important doctrine. So many ways that we can make application. Lord, we know that ultimately our whole life ought to be lived in a way that brings glory to You. Everything we do, Lord, I pray that we would not live to give glory to anyone else, not to ourselves, not to our pastor, not to our church even. May you receive all the glory because it is due unto you. Lord, I pray that you would perhaps convict us in areas of our life where we are not bringing you glory, I pray, Lord, that we would jettison those things. That the focus of our life from the time we get up in the morning until we go to bed at night might be focused on bringing you glory in what we do today, this week, this month, this year, and indeed for the rest of our lives. We pray that You will help us in this and give us the grace that we need to live our lives in a way that brings glory to You, we pray in Jesus' name. Amen.