The Glory-Driven Life

Ernest N. Prabhakar, Ph.D.

DrErnie@RadicalCentrism.org

Kingsway.us Sunday AM
San Jose, CA 2007-12-02

Part three of Trilogy; last yearʼs Prodigal Brother, Julyʼs “Pervasive Kingdom”

Emotional narrative, Intellectual Overview, Motivational Challenge

Copyright 2007 Dr.Ernest.N.Prabhakar@RadicalCentrism.org

May be copied and modified freely under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License 3.0 <http://
creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/>
 ERNEST PRABHAKAR

GLORY

DOING?

Your first thought is the Rick Warren book...

Not quite; not the original motivation, but the idea of Purpose is quite relevant.
 Why Do We Sin?

Question Iʼve been asking for several months.

similar to the question Time Magazine was asking last week!
not concerned with what makes Gandhi different than Hitler, but the Hitler inside all of us.

Deep theological question, so ask the wisest men I know.

Most of you know Barney as Johnʼs pastor and shepherd of our movement.
We had dinner a few months ago, so I asked him.

“Thatʼs easy. We have a rear end and we need some place to put it”
(few moments to realize he thought Iʼd said “why do we sit”)

Ironically, though, it gave me a clue...

 Systems Theory

• Weare made of
many Systems

• EverySystem
has a Purpose

• Sinis when our

Purposes don’t
align with God’s

This is one the one tricky concept.

- legs to run
- digestive system to eat (and excrete)
- reproductive urge
- brain to work puzzles
- etc.
Sin the broad sense is “missing the mark”
When our we fail to achieve the purpose God has for us
because our subsystems are mis-aligned
 Perspectives on Purpose

• Historical
• Philosophical
• Theological
• Personal

So, what exactly is that purpose, and how can we achieve it?

The answer is actually quite simple, but the question is rather complex, so Iʼll approach it from four different
aspects.
 What Is Our Purpose?

Start with the Historical

 Modern

Happiness

Suffering

“Want”

As moderns, we believe in “the pursuit of happiness” [Declaration] and the elimination of suffering. “What do
I want” “The Me generation” “Have it your way.”
 Traditional

Honor

Shame

“Must”

Contrast with traditional societies, which are build on family obligation. Example: Sandhya when relatives
visited. Not a question of choice or desire, but expectation.
 Clerical

Holiness

Sin

“Ought”

third, less-common situation, communities led by priests or monks.

focus is not on personal pleasure or social approval, but religious purity.
Think of the Puritans in Plymouth Rock, or Christian Hermits in Medieval Europe.
 Conflict!

ess

Ho
lin

n
or
Ho

Happiness

Not just different eras, all of us feel the tug of all three

We all want to be happy, honored, and holy. Unfortunately, I believe it is the conflict between those three
that leads us to missing Godʼs purpose.

In fact, I find a lot of my anxiety comes from the tug of war between the desire to please myself, others, and
God. Can anyone else relate to that?
 Which is God’s
Purpose for Us?

If thatʼs the case, then the question becomes: which of these three is *really* Godʼs purpose for us?

As before, though, weʼll see that different groups answer the question differently. Even among Christians!
 Self

Happiness

Shame Sin

SUFFERING

Hope

Them: John 10:10 “ The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy; I have come that they may have life,
and have it to the full.”
God dislikes Shame and Sin because they destory Happiness.
Loving Parent.
Virtue -> Hope
“He will wipe every tear from their eyes. There will be no more death or mourning or crying or pain, for the
old order of things has passed away.” Revelation 21:4.

Self (personal happiness) => Suffering the enemy.

Yet the Bible says to embrace.
Apostle Paul Philippians 3:10-11
“I want to know Christ and the power of his resurrection and the fellowship of sharing in his sufferings,
becoming like him in his death, and so, somehow, to attain to the resurrection from the dead.”

Hence the problem “theodicy” -- why does God allow suffering, if He wants Happiness

The obvious answer is Godʼs purpose for us includes Suffering; must be other!
 Society

Honor

Suffer Sin

SHAME

Love

Because of this, many Christians reject the Self-centered view above. Instead, their marching orders come
from Matthew 23:11-12 “The greatest among you will be your servant. For whoever exalts himself will be
humbled, and whoever humbles himself will be exalted.” Their favorite virtue is Love, for they believe that as
they serve society -- by eliminating suffering and sin -- that God will honor them.

While that may at times be true, it overlooks the fact that sometimes God calls us to act contrary to what
Society esteems. In fact in the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus explictily states “Blessed are those who are
persecuted because of righteousness,
for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Blessed are you when people insult you, persecute you and falsely say
all kinds of evil against you because of me. Rejoice and be glad, because great is your reward in heaven, for
in the same way they persecuted the prophets who were before you.”

Godʼs purpose canʼt quite be a simple as “honor”, or else He wouldnʼt want us to be happy at being shamed!
 Spirit

Holiness

Suffer Shame

SIN

Faith

This has led many Christians to eschew attempting to find any sort of purpose on earth. For them, the only
thing that matter is having a pure heart towards God, and that both Suffering and Shame are useful tools to
free us from Sin. Their motto is from I Peter 1:16, echoing the words of Leviticus “Be Holy Because I Am
Holy.” They have Faith that as long as they resist all the temptations of this world and obey Godʼs Law, He
will cleanse their spirits. Surely there could be no higher purpose. Who could argue with that?

Shockingly, Jesus Himself did. You wouldnʼt believe me if I told you what He did, so Iʼll let you hear it in his
own words.
Luke 6:1-5
One Sabbath Jesus was going
through the grainfields, and his
disciples began to pick some
heads of grain, rub them in their
hands and eat the kernels.

Some of the Pharisees asked, "Why

are you doing what is unlawful on
the Sabbath?"
 Jesus answered them, "Have you
never read what David did when
he and his companions were
hungry? He entered the house of
God, and taking the consecrated
bread, he ate what is lawful only
for priests to eat. And he also gave
some to his companions."
Then Jesus said to them, "The Son
of Man is Lord of the Sabbath."

Amazing, Jesus condoned breaking one of Moses very own commandments simply because he didnʼt want
his disciples to go hungry. Why would he do that, if Godʼs primary purpose for our lives was to teach us
holiness?

Some of you are probably thinking, “The problem isnʼt with Holiness *per se*, but that the Pharisees didnʼt
understand the kind of Holiness God was interested in.” Yes, exactly -- but the same could be said about
our understanding of Happiness and Honor!
 Going Beyond
(our understanding of)

•Happiness

•Honor

•Holiness

The answer, I believe, is that we need to go beyond Happiness, Honor, and even Holiness -- or at least our
imperfect understanding thereof -- to understand Godʼs true purpose for us. We need a deeper perspective
that incorporates all three.
 What is God’s
Purpose For Himself?

In fact, I believe we actually need to go one step further and ask: what is Godʼs purpose for Himself?
 Three Persons
One System
Father Son

One
God

Spirit

When faced with tensions like these, I always go back to the Trinity. Specifically, even though we
experience God as three distinct persons, He is ultimately only one God, and thus a single System.
What does that mean? It means that when we look at the world through human eyes, we “see through a
glass dimly.” It is like a photograph, where we only have the green (or red, or blue) negative. While all of
those give us _some_ idea of what weʼre looking at, the true nature isnʼt revealed until we look at all three
simultaneously.
 One Purpose

Father Son

red

Ho
no

ly
Ho Glory

Happy

Spirit

In this case, it means that if God is one System, then He must have one Purpose for Himself. Specifically, I
believe Godʼs purpose includes -- but transcends -- our human understandings of purpose. And I canʼt think
of a better word to describe that purpose than Glory.
See this in Jesus
“Father, I want those you have given me to be with me where I am, so that they may
always see my glory which you have given me because you loved me before the
foundation of the world” -- John 17:24
 Always His Glory

Father Son

or

Sav
eat

iou
Cr Glory

r
Sustainer

Spirit

In fact, understanding Godʼs purpose as Glorifying Himself helps makes sense of difficult situations we face.
Consider someone who was diagnosed with cancer:
* If we discover a drug from yew trees that cures it, the Father gets Glory as Creator
* If the elders pray and the person is healed, the Spirit gets Glory as Sustainer
* If there is no cure, yet the person dies peacefully in the hope of heaven, Christ gets glory as Saviour

In other words, outcomes we see as very different are all to God equivalent, as they promote His Glory.
In fact, this brings us back to my initial question. If Godʼs purpose in all things is His glory, then anything that
fails to manifest his glory is Sin. Which of course is the message of Romans 3:23
“For all have sinned all fall short of the Glory of God”
 How Can We
Pursue Glory?

Having established that Godʼs purpose for Himself is glory, though, we still need to make it personal. What
is the analogue in our own lives of Godʼs pursuit of Self Glory?
 To Manifest
The Best Attributes
Thereof

To start with, let me define Glory.

The world glorify something simple means to make the best attributes of that thing visible or easily seen.
Think of the poets in the courts of Roman Emperors, whose job was to articulate and disseminate
knowledge of the rulerʼs achievements. Or a makeup artists (esthetician?) on the brideʼs wedding day.

The question is, whose attributes are we manifesting?

 Glorifying Self

red

Ho
no

ly
Ho
I
Happy

Well, at one level, I am making the provocative claim that we what as humans *really* want is not happiness,
honor, or even holiness. Rather, what we ultimately want -- what we pursue when we are “most ourselves”,
rather than slaves to our “lower desires” -- is our own glory.

One person who really helped me understand this was Ryan McKee [hiking example]. I donʼt have a picture
of that, but I found out that makes the same point.
Now, I wouldnʼt call this a “happy place”. In fact, he looks like someone who broke several important rules,
and many would consider an idiot. Yet, at the same time, there is something noble and majestic about him.
His whole being -- a lifetime of training, mind body and soul -- is concentrated on a single life-or-death
action, pulling himself to safety. He has placed himself (wittingly or not) in a situation where he will either
manifest His glory -- or die trying. In fact, I would argue that he is in many ways fully alive at this moment
(even if not for long long :-).

But thereʼs another way to think about glory...

 Glorifying Christ

red

Ho
no

ly
Ho
✝
Happy

That is take everything we have learned about glory, about aligning our lives and all the subsystems that
make up our selves, and sumit them to Christ.
In fact, this is exactly what Christ did for us. He embraced suffering, shame -- and yes, even sin -- in order
that all glory might go to God. I love this picture, as it emphasizes the weakness and vulnerabilty of Christʼs
submission to God, in direct contrast to the previous picture of self-glory.
 Two Different Roads

I ✝
Proverbs 14:12 Matthew 7:13-14

[Bring up worship team]

Because ultimately, you have to choose whom to glorify. If you choose to glorify yourself, to focus on
exalting your *own* best attributes, maximizing your own happiness, honor, and holiness life can seem
pretty wonderful -- at first. But thought it starts out bright, there is a black hole.

Proverbs 14:12 “There is a way that seems right to a man, but in the end it leads to death.”

The problem is that the pursuit of self-glory can never quite fulfill its promises. Conversely, the way of the
cross seems dark and painful, but ultimately provides true life.

Matthew 7:13-14 “Enter through the narrow gate. For wide is the gate and broad is the road that leads to
destruction, and many enter through it. But small is the gate and narrow the road that leads to life, and only
a few find it.”
 Two Questions

• WillI let go of “my” happiness,

honor, and holiness?
• So God can glorify me
• Will I let go of “my” glory?
• So Christ can be glorified in me

First of all, do you accept that Godʼs utlimate purpose is your glory? That He values your happiness, honor,
and holiness even more than you do? [Davey story] “Stop whining” and let God shape you?

But second of all, once you accept that glory is the highest human end, are you willing to die to all of it? Are
you willing to let God bring you do a place of suffering, shame, and even awareness of your utter sinfulness,
so that Christ can be glorified in you?

Meditate on those questions while the band plays and the prayer team comes forward.

[Then, ask people to stand...]

 The End

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