Win the game, get pizza. Have award ceremony, get a great meal and give gifts. Have a wedding and the grand reception to honor the bride and groom.

“²⁹Why then to you scorn my sacrifices and my offerings that I commanded, and honor your sons above me by fattening yourselves on the choicest parts of every offering of my people Israel?” – 1 Samuel 2:29 (ESV)

Hold on, I want to be clear that celebration is not wrong. What I study here is that putting the celebration and honor of the event or people is wrong as we should be honoring God.

We should be looking at things from the context of how does this play out as we honor God. I know I have found myself in the position of not focusing on God and His will carried out in my life. Obedience to God and His commandments is where our focus should be.

“³⁰Therefore the Lord, the God of Israel, declares: ‘I promised that your house and the house of your father should go in and out before me forever,’ but now the Lord declares; ‘Far be it from me, for those who honor me I will honor, and those who despise me shall be lightly esteemed.’” – 1 Samuel 2:30 (ESV)

God can rescind His promises just as He did to the house of Eli. Does He want to take away His promises, NO, but we are so disobedient at times, it is the discipline needed to get us back on the path to Him.

Our path is riddled with difficulty and adversity and joy and greatness. We have to be careful to honor God in all of those times and not just when it suits us.

Have you caught yourself honoring the event or the people when you should be honoring God? How can you turn that honor to God? Will you be careful to honor God instead of yourself as you move forward?

“³⁵…It is more blessed to give than receive” – Acts 20:35 (ESV)

Are we living it?

A verse that we probably have heard many times (probably attributed to monetary or tangible gifts). I want to discuss the giving of all as our reward is greater than the gift we give.

“¹²Honor your father and your mother, that your days may be long in the land that the Lord your God is giving you.” – Exodus 20:12 (ESV)

Notice the reward for giving honor to our parents? This verse, one of the Ten Commandments, is the only one of which that has, as my commentary puts it, a promise attached to it. When we are giving of what we have, we are given great reward.

Giving honor and respect go a long way to demonstrating Christ’s Love. And our reward, honor and respect for us as we grow older. Isn’t this the much greater reward for the work we have done?

God gave us commandments to follow him by, and it is our duty to do so. Giving of honor is one that may not come easy, but God has spelled out the great reward we reward we receive for obeying that commandment.

Do you have honor to give? Will you give honor and respect (it is free you know)? Are you prepared to give honor in order to receive?

I was asked recently by one of our pastors, “What do you think about God?” This question was more complicated for me that I ever thought would have been. The first thing I wrote down was “Difficult to understand”. My thoughts were around the idea that one day for me all is grand and then another moment I am encountering adversity. There is a sense of inconsistency that I get when I think this way and that drives my thinking around my attempt to “understand” God.

“¹Ascribe to the Lord, O heavenly beings, ascribe to the Lord glory and strength. ²Ascribe to the Lord the glory due his name; worship the Lord in the splendor of holiness.” – Psalm 29:1-2 (ESV)

Why do I make it “difficult to understand” God?

Ascribe: to refer to a supposed cause, source, or author: to say or think that (something) is caused by, comes from, or is associated with a particular person or thing – Merriam-Webster Online

Synonyms: accredit, attribute, chalk-up

This morning, God sent me what I needed to “understand”. When thinking about God, I should be ascribing to what He is. I should be accrediting, attributing, and chalking-up to Him “glory and strength”. I am making God “difficult to understand” by trying too hard.

When I simply stick to the basics of God, which is love, the complexity is taken out. My nature is to “understand” and sometimes I have a difficult time accepting without more information, especially when I believe something is too good to be true.

Well, Trevor, God is glory, love, truth, consistency, and truly easy to understand.

What do you think about God? Where are you looking to for the answer to that question? God equals glory, do you think that could be easy to understand?

We talk of glory and I have written to declare God’s glory, that we are crowned with glory, and the glory of the Lord gets our attention. We can do and are all of these things, but ultimately we give way to the King of glory.

“⁷Lift up your heads, O gates! And be lifted up, O ancient doors, that the King of glory may come in. ⁸Who is this King of glory? The Lord, strong and mighty, the Lord, mighty in battle! ⁹Lift up your heads, O gates! And be lifted up, O ancient doors, that the King of glory may come in. ¹⁰Who is this King of glory? The Lord of hosts, he is the King of glory!” – Psalm 24:7-10 (ESV)

Our Lord is the King of glory! What a wonderful thing that is. He is not just some being that we look at or throw things at, he is “strong and mighty” and “mighty in battle” and “the Lord of hosts”.

Where are you in the search for the King of glory? Are you looking to our Lord and savior? Do you accept Him as our King of glory?

“¹The heavens declare the glory of God, and the sky above proclaims his handiwork. ²Day to day pours out speech, and night to night reveals knowledge.” – Psalm 19:1-2 (ESV)

Well there you have it. The glory of God is declared all around us. From the heavens and in the day and night.

If seeing is believing, how can you not see that the universe was created by God? It has to be. The beauty of it all is awe inspiring. The complexity, yet detail is astounding. When viewed, we should be amazed and declare the glory of God.

Will you just take in the wonder of God’s creations? Will you accept the declaration of God’s glory? Will you declare His glory yourself?

This morning I am reminded of just how precious I am to God.

“³When I look at your heavens, the work of your fingers, the moon and the stars, which you have se in place, ⁴what is man that you are mindful of him, and the son of man that you care for him? ⁵Yet you have made him a little lower than the heavenly beings and crowned him with glory and honor.” – Psalm 8:3-5 (ESV)

God created this world, the moon, the stars, and me. When He created me, He did so with glory. God made me, His representative on this earth.

Why would I doubt my place here? I have been given glory, and the key word there is “given”. I have not had to earn it, or sacrifice for it, God crowned me with His glory freely.

This glory does not come without responsibility, as we were given also the task of caring for the earth, which God also created. I should be conscientious with what responsibility I have and therefore look to please the Lord with all of my actions, and praise the Lord as the psalmist does in Psalm 8:1 & 9.

Are you aware of the crown of glory God has given? Are you grateful and responsible for God’s glory bestowed? Are you working to wear the crown of glory God gave to us?

How often do we really declare His glory?

“²³Sing to the Lord, all the earth! Tell of his salvation from day to day. ²⁴Declare his glory among the nations, his marvelous works among all the peoples!” – 1 Chronicles 16:23-24 (ESV)

David was always declaring the glory of the Lord. He was public with his praise. He was overt in his approach and did not hide his emotion.

Why am I not the same?

I am a different person than David of course, but shouldn’t my approach be similar. Look at the verses above and see the exclamation points. I can see the emotion in the words and can imagine the energy transfer as though at a concert with thousands of other people.

I should embrace the energy and emotion and use the same approach in my declarations of the glory of the Lord. Displaying my appreciation for our Lord and the glory He provides. And all of this done as often as possible. Even place time in my calendar to declare His glory.

I wonder, are you in a similar place that I am? Will you accept the energy and emotion from others? Will you work to find opportunities to declare His glory?

There is not much celebration when glory has disappeared. I have watched athletes compete after experiencing the loss of a loved one. They won the competition, and then wept for the loss, more that celebrating the victory.

“²¹And she named the child Ichabod, saying, ‘The glory has departed from Israel!’ because the ark of God has been capture and because of her father-in-law and her husband. ²²And she said, ‘The glory has departed from Israel, for the ark of God has been captured.” – 1 Samuel 4:21-22 (ESV)

As I have watched the athletes weep for the loss of a loved one, and compare that to the loss of the ark of God, there is no comparison. Look at the daughter-in-law of Eli as she is not even concerned at all with the birth of her son. The ark of God is so much more of a concern that the name she gives her son, Ichabod, according to my ESV commentary, means “where is the glory?”

What a perspective for us to view. Nothing is as glorious as the glory of the Lord. This world and all in it does not measure up to God. If that was noted before, why is it not noted today?

Where are we in our walk with Christ? Is the glory of the Lord as precious to us now as in Biblical Time? How much are we celebrating and is it worth it without the glory of the Lord?

Imagine you are in an assembly and the fire alarm goes off.

“’⁹Only do not rebel against the Lord. And do not fear the people of the land, for they are bread for us. Their protection is removed from them, and the Lord is with us; do not fear them.’ ¹⁰Then all the congregations said to stone them with stones. But the glory of the Lord appeared at the tent of meeting to all the people of Israel.” – Numbers 14:9-10 (ESV)

That fire alarm, was designed to get your attention that something needs to be dealt with. God sounds the alarm for the people of Israel. This issue needs to be dealt with and frankly, God is not pleased with his people.

We have opportunities to follow, and we should, but not blindly. Clarification is needed and we should seek that to a degree. The people of Israel, were not seeking clarification, they were complaining and refusing to follow. God needed to get their attention and therefor raised the alarm.

Are we hearing the alarm from God? Are we in need of being snapped to attention to follow Him? Would we notice the glory of the Lord getting our attention?

“¹⁷And the Lord said to Moses, ‘This very thing that you have spoken I will do, for you have found favor in my sight, and I know you by name.’ ¹⁸Moses said, ‘Please show me your glory.’ ¹⁹And he said, ‘I will make all my goodness pass before you and will proclaim before you my name “The Lord”. And I will be gracious to whom I will be gracious, and will show mercy on whom I will show mercy. ²⁰But,’ he said, ‘you cannot see my face, for man shall not see me and live.’” – Exodus 33:17-20 (ESV)

There is a good amount going on here in the above verses. I am really looking at the goodness of God and he glory.

The glory of God is for us to behold, but only after. God gives and provides, graciousness and mercy. We have to be looking for it, for He does not let us know when it is coming. We are to continue doing as God commands and as He says in verse 17, “I will do…”

Our provision of God’s glory is due to our belief and following of Him. When doing God’s work, we are to simply do out of obedience and He will be gracious and merciful with us as a part of His plan for us. We are simply to do His work for as His children, we have already found favor with Him.

Are we seeking favor with God, or continuing to do His will? Are we looking to see the face of God, or the grace and mercy He has for us? Are we seeking God’s glory, or will we be content to see the results of His glory?