This is a lightly edited transcript of what I actually said when I delivered this message on 1 Peter 4:11. It differs from what I planned to say; for the prepared text, see the manuscript.
Father, we’re thankful we can look into your Word this evening. We readily acknowledge that we are insufficient of ourselves to accomplish what needs to be accomplished this hour—I am insufficient to preach your Word, and these hearers need your grace to apply it. So meet with us in a special way; illumine our minds, convict us of sin, and give us the grace to change. Exalt yourself, we pray, in Jesus’ name, amen.
The title of my message is “God Glorified Through Human Dependence,” and our text is 1 Peter 4:11. Glorifying God is at the heart of biblical Christianity: the orthodox catechisms begin by asking, “What is the chief end of man?” and answer, “to glorify God and to enjoy him forever.” “Whether you eat or drink, or whatever you do, do all to the glory of God” (1 Corinthians 10:31). We were created and saved for this very purpose—God is central in creation, in his providence over the world, and in why he saves us; salvation is ultimately about God and the glory of his name, not about us. We all affirm this, so I don’t think that’s the central problem. The problem is turning it into practical application. Too often “living to the glory of God” stays a theological theory, superficial talk—what we’re supposed to say—without filtering down into daily life. So tonight I want to ask: What does it actually look like to glorify God? What must one think, feel, and do to bring him glory?
What Is God’s Glory, and How Is He Glorified?
Two basic things first. What is the glory of God? We often carry a vague concept, which is part of the problem. God’s glory is his unique excellence—that about God which sets him apart and above all else—the sum total of all his perfections: his love and mercy, wisdom, truth, justice, immutability, and infinitude. Where do I get this? From passages like Exodus 33–34: when Moses says, “Show me your glory,” God says, “I will make my glory pass before you,” and then proclaims his character—“The LORD, the LORD, a God merciful and gracious, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness…yet who will by no means clear the guilty.” In revealing his glory, God reveals who he is. So the glory of God is the manifestation of who God is—his character and perfections. And how is God glorified? Simply, as he displays those perfections: in creation, showing his wisdom and power in speaking all things into existence; in providence, in his sovereignty and wisdom over the events of the universe; and in redemption, showing how he can pour out his wrath and justice while also displaying his love, mercy, and grace. As God puts his character on display, he receives glory.
Serving in the Strength God Supplies
So how do we glorify God? There’s more than one answer, but let me focus on one, from 1 Peter 4:10–11. That passage is about spiritual gifts—using them to serve others as channels of God’s grace: “whoever serves, [let him serve] as one who serves by the strength that God supplies—in order that in everything God may be glorified through Jesus Christ.” The goal is God’s glory; the means is speaking God’s words and serving in God’s strength. Notice that there’s a kind of serving that glorifies God and a kind that does not. Just because you’re serving God doesn’t mean he’s glorified. The former leans on God for strength; the latter depends on one’s own. God is glorified as we rely on his strength, not as we serve independently, thinking we can do it on our own. What is this strength? Second Corinthians 12:9—Paul’s thorn in the flesh—is helpful: “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness…that the power of Christ may rest upon me.” Notice three words used almost interchangeably: grace, strength, and power. So to serve in the strength God supplies is to serve through the enablement of his grace.
Two Foundational Truths
Before we can serve in God’s strength, we must affirm two things. You might ask, why do we even need God’s strength? Don’t we, as Christians indwelt by the Spirit, have the ability to serve God on our own? The first foundational truth answers no: Christians are utterly incapable of independently serving God. “I am the vine; you are the branches…apart from me you can do nothing” (John 15:5)—and that’s just as true for the believer as for the unbeliever. We all grant that the unbeliever can do no true good (Romans 3), and apart from Christ’s strength the Christian likewise can do nothing; he must draw from the vine. “The desires of the flesh are against the Spirit…to keep you from doing the things you want to do” (Galatians 5:17)—left to himself, the believer will sin; he needs God’s enablement to serve in a way that glorifies him. The second foundational truth is the flip side: God is entirely capable and sufficient to supply all the grace and strength we need. “By the grace of God I am what I am…I worked harder than any of them, though it was not I, but the grace of God that is with me” (1 Corinthians 15:10)—Paul gives God full credit for every good in his life and ministry. “Not that we are sufficient in ourselves…but our sufficiency is from God” (2 Corinthians 3:5). “God is able to make all grace abound to you, so that…you may abound in every good work” (2 Corinthians 9:8). And in the thorn passage, God gave Paul weakness so that Christ’s power would rest on him and God would receive the glory (2 Corinthians 12:9). So: we are unable, and God is able.
How We Receive God’s Grace: Prayer and the Word
If glorifying God requires serving in his strength rather than our own, how do we partake of that strength? While God gives or withholds his grace as he sees fit, Scripture shows he has chosen specific means to impart it—chiefly two: prayer and the Word. First, God gives his grace at the throne of grace—that is, through prayer. Hebrews 4:16 is clearest: “Let us then with confidence draw near to the throne of grace, that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need.” It’s striking that God’s throne is called a throne of grace, and that a chief reason we approach it is to obtain grace to help in time of need—grace available anytime we need it. And notice the basis on which we come, found a couple of verses earlier: Jesus Christ and his work—which matches 1 Peter 4:11’s “that God may be glorified through Jesus Christ.” We enter God’s presence and receive grace not because we deserve it but because of what Christ has done in our place, opening the way for us to come with boldness. So part of what prayer is about is coming to God and acknowledging that we need him—that in ourselves we’re weak and insufficient, and that we need his grace for every need. God is glorified as we realize our insufficiency and his sufficiency, come to him, and seek grace to meet each day’s needs.
This is how we serve in the strength God supplies—a continual dependence on him for the grace he gives in prayer. God-glorifying people are God-dependent people, and God-dependent people are praying people. If you say your life is about glorifying God, yet you’re not a person of prayer, those two don’t fit together—for to serve God in a way that brings him glory, we must be a people who say, “God, I need you; I cannot do this on my own.” If we serve in our own supposed strength, God is not glorified; but if we serve out of our weakness and ask for grace, God shows himself strong and receives the credit. I remember, a few months ago, being asked at the last minute to preach at an Alzheimer’s care unit where I minister on Wednesday evenings. I had about an hour and a half to prepare, felt sick, hadn’t slept enough, and truly did not feel ready or even physically able. I sat in my car for five minutes seeking the Lord—“God, I have nothing to give tonight”—then went in and preached. Afterward a dear lady said, “That was exactly what I needed to hear—God has been dealing with my heart about that very issue.” All I could say was, “Praise be to God,” because I knew I could take no credit. That’s the essence of it: when we see our own weakness, come to God in prayer, and he shows himself mighty, all the more glory goes to him.
Second, God gives his grace through the Word of his grace. “I commend you to God and to the word of his grace, which is able to build you up and to give you the inheritance among all those who are sanctified” (Acts 20:32). But how does the Bible impart grace—is it a mystical process where merely owning and opening it “zaps” us? Second Peter 1:2 unfolds the mechanics: “Grace and peace be multiplied to you through the knowledge of God and of Jesus our Lord.” Grace comes through the knowledge of God and Christ contained in Scripture—so it’s as we meditate on God, his character, and what he’s done for us in Christ that he imparts his enabling grace. Peter closes the same way: “Grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ” (3:18). Growing in grace and growing in knowledge aren’t two independent tasks—we don’t study theology merely to know theology; we grow in knowledge in order to grow in grace. So as you read, study, and meditate on who God is and what he’s done, especially in the person and work of Jesus, God imparts grace to you. God-glorifying people are God-dependent people, and God-dependent people are Word-saturated, praying people. Prayerlessness and “wordlessness” are, in the end, a life of gracelessness—and apart from God’s grace, our service will not glorify him.
We often look at our busy schedules and rationalize that we don’t have time to spend twenty or thirty minutes seeking God in prayer and the Word. Consider an illustration. Say you have a ten- or twelve-hour trip, you wake late, and think, “I don’t even have time to stop for gas; I’ll just go.” That’s foolish—without gas your car won’t run. Pardon the comparison of gasoline to God’s grace, but the point holds: a busy day means we need all the more grace to serve God in his strength that day. Busyness should drive us to the Word and prayer, not away. Martin Luther once said he had so much to do that day that he must spend the first three hours in prayer. When was that last your attitude? It hasn’t often been mine—too often our mentality is the exact opposite: “I’m so busy today, I’ll have to cut my prayer and Bible reading.” But that sets us up for a day in which we do not bring God glory. Consider, too, the feeding of the five thousand. When the disciples urged Jesus to send the crowds away, he said, “You give them something to eat”—an impossible task for twelve men with a few coins. Why? We tend to assume God won’t ask us to do what we can’t—but here he did exactly that. The disciples grasped the first foundational truth (we can’t meet this need) but missed the second (Jesus is entirely able to). He gave them something they couldn’t do so they’d see that he meets people’s needs by his own power and receives all the glory. Next time you face something too big for you—which should be often—let it drive you to God for the grace and strength to see him magnify himself.
Applications
A few applications. First, are you consciously seeking each day to live for God’s glory? When you wake, do you think, “I exist for the glory of God, and today my aim is to bring him glory in my activities”—or simply, “What do I want to do today?” When you eat, work, exercise, fellowship, relax, or sit in front of the TV, is God the center? If God and his glory are not central—if you are—that’s a sin to repent of; we must make him central in everything, from the smallest task to sharing the gospel. Second, perhaps you do seek to glorify God and pray about it—but you’ve been relying on your own strength: “God, watch how many people I’ll win, watch what I can do for you, watch me preach.” That’s boasting in your own strength while claiming to seek his glory, when in fact you’re the one receiving it. Your attitude is “I can do this” rather than “God can do this.” Acknowledge your inability and come to the place where you see that God alone can help you serve in a way that glorifies him.
In conclusion: life is about glorifying God, and one way we do that is by serving him—in the strength he supplies. We must acknowledge our weakness and his sufficiency, and then live lives of God-dependence, seeking his grace and enablement every single day through the Word and prayer. Let us together begin to live God-glorifying lives by living God-dependent lives. Amen.