How to Magnify God

I will praise the name of God with a song; I will magnify him with thanksgiving. (Psalm 69:30)

There are two kinds of magnifying: microscope magnifying and telescope magnifying. The one makes a small thing look bigger than it is. The other makes a big thing begin to look as big as it really is.

When David says, “I will magnify God with thanksgiving,” he does not mean, “I will make a small God look bigger than he is.” He means, “I will make a big God begin to look as big as he really is.”

We are not called to be microscopes. We are called to be telescopes. Christians are not called to be con-men who magnify their product out of all proportion to reality, when they know the competitor’s product is far superior. There is nothing and nobody superior to God. And so the calling of those who love God is to make his greatness begin to look as great as it really is.

That’s why we exist, why we were saved, as Peter says in 1 Peter 2:9, “You are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for his own possession, that you may proclaim the excellencies of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light.”

The whole duty of the Christian can be summed up in this: feel, think, and act in a way that will make God look as great as he really is. Be a telescope for the world of the infinite starry wealth of the glory of God.

This is what it means for a Christian to magnify God. But you can’t magnify what you haven’t seen or what you quickly forget.

Therefore, our first task is to see and to remember the greatness and goodness of God. So we pray to God, “Open the eyes of my heart!” (Ephesians 1:18), and we preach to our souls, “Soul, forget not all his benefits!” (Psalm 103:2).

John Piper 

Are you wounded by sorrow? Or is it guilt?

BIBLE MEDITATION:

Heal me, O Lord, and I shall be healed; save me, and I shall be saved: for Thou art my praise. Jeremiah 17:14

DEVOTIONAL THOUGHT:

There are two kinds of wounds to the human psyche. One is sorrow; the other is guilt. Sorrow is a clean wound. Somehow your heart will heal as the Holy Spirit applies His healing balm. He will pour in “the oil of gladness.” Time and the grace of God will heal.

But guilt is dirty and will never heal until confessed and cleansed by the antiseptic of Calvary. Sin will destroy your testimony. King David learned that after he sinned by taking Uriah’s wife. He had sinned against Uriah, against Bathsheba, against his own family, against the kingdom of Israel—but primarily against God. When he realized the depth of what he had done, it broke David’s heart.

David wasn’t as concerned about what God might do to him as he was concerned that He had hurt his heavenly father. He cried out in Psalm 51,  “Oh God, I sinned against You and did this evil in Your sight.”

A true Christian realizes not only has he broken God’s law, he's broken God's heart. One way you can know you're truly saved is this: Does it break your heart that you've broken God's heart? A slave only fears his master’s whip, but a son fears his father’s displeasure. David said, “Oh my Redeemer, my Savior, my Lord, how could I do such a thing?"

When you cover up sin, it steals your joy. It takes your song. Praise withers and dies because sin destroys your testimony.

ACTION POINT:

What do you do? Like David, come to God. Are you suffering under a load of guilt? Allow the Holy Spirit to expose your sin. Without excuses, openly confess it and experience the joy of forgiveness in Christ.

LWF Dr. Adrian Rogers 

Jesus Prays for Us

He is able to save to the uttermost those who draw near to God through him, since he always lives to make intercession for them. (Hebrews 7:25)

It says that Christ is able to save to the uttermost — forever — since he always lives to make intercession for us. In other words, he would not be able to save us forever if he did not go on interceding for us forever.

This means our salvation is as secure as Christ’s priesthood is indestructible. This is why we needed a priest so much greater than any human priest. Christ’s deity and his resurrection from the dead secure his indestructible priesthood for us.

This means we should not talk about our salvation in static terms the way we often do — as if I did something once in an act of decision, and Christ did something once when he died and rose again, and that’s all there is to it. That’s not all there is to it.

This very day I am being saved by the eternal intercession of Jesus in heaven. Jesus is praying for us and that is essential to our salvation.

We are saved eternally by the eternal prayers (Romans 8:34) and advocacy (1 John 2:1) of Jesus in heaven as our High Priest. He prays for us and his prayers are answered because he prays perfectly on the basis of his perfect sacrifice.

John Piper 

So you don’t feel like praying….

BIBLE MEDITATION:

Likewise the Spirit also helpeth our infirmities: for we know not what we should pray for as we ought, but the Spirit itself maketh intercession for us with groanings which cannot be uttered. Romans 8:26

DEVOTIONAL THOUGHT:

There’s an old song with the refrain “Just keep on praying ‘til light breaks through.” When you don’t feel like praying, that’s when you need to. You need to pray until you do feel like praying. You see, you’re not praying by yourself. The Spirit is praying through you and for you, helping to present your petitions to the Father — petitions that perhaps you yourself are not even capable of expressing. Do not approach God with your hands full of the brass of your emotions. Rather, approach Him with hands and heart full of the sweet incense of His worth. Just keep praying.

ACTION POINT:

How is your prayer life? Do you say grace before meals and squeeze in a quick prayer before you drop off to sleep each night? Then you wonder why your prayers aren’t being answered and your walk with God is so anemic. Take some time today to talk to the Lord. Someone has wisely said, “The word ‘love’ is spelled t-i-m-e.” God does business with those who mean business.

LWF Dr. Adrian Rogers 

Unashamed

Power of Baptism

What is baptism?

An act of obedience and the indwelling of the Holy Spirit in You.

1. Baptism pictures salvation and transformation.

1 What shall we say then? Are we to continue in sin that grace may abound?

2 By no means! How can we who died to sin still live in it?

3 Do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death?

4 We were buried therefore with him by baptism into death, in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might walk in newness of life. - Romans 6:1-4

Death 

Burial 

Resurrection 

Dead to sin

Washing sin in blood of Christ

Regeneration 

2. Baptism reminds me I'm free of sin

5 For if we have been united with him in a death like his, we shall certainly be united with him in a resurrection like his.

6 We know that our old self was crucified with him in order that the body of sin might be brought to nothing, so that we would no longer be enslaved to sin.

7 For one who has died has been set free from sin. - Romans 6:5-7

We should not sin because we have been delivered and set free.

3. Baptism empowers me to live for Jesus.

8 Now if we have died with Christ, we believe that we will also live with him.

9 We know that Christ, being raised from the dead, will never die again; death no longer has dominion over him.

10 For the death he died he died to sin, once for all, but the life he lives he lives to God.

11 So you also must consider yourselves dead to sin and alive to God in Christ Jesus. - Romans 6:8-11

16 And when Jesus was baptized, immediately he went up from the water, and behold, the heavens were opened to him, and he saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove and coming to rest on him;

17 and behold, a voice from heaven said, "This is my beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased." - Matthew 3:16-17

But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you, and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth." - Acts 1:8

You are identified with Christ.

4. Baptism celebrates my victory over death.

From death to eternal life

Celebrate victory 

The war is won

13 Do not present your members to sin as instruments for unrighteousness, but present yourselves to God as those who have been brought from death to life, and your members to God as instruments for righteousness.

14 For sin will have no dominion over you, since you are not under law but under grace. - Romans 6:13-14

Insure your place in Heaven

A. Admit sin and turn from it

10 as it is written: "None is righteous, no, not one; 

11 no one understands; no one seeks for God. 

12 All have turned aside; together they have become worthless; no one does good, not even one."  - Romans 3:10-12

B. Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ

For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord. - Romans 6:23

but God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. - Romans 5:8

C. Commit your life to Jesus

9 because, if you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.

10 For with the heart one believes and is justified, and with the mouth one confesses and is saved. - Romans 10:9-10

Thanks Pastor Kevin!

Glorify God by Giving Thanks

It is all for your sake, so that as grace extends to more and more people it may increase thanksgiving, to the glory of God. (2 Corinthians 4:15)

Gratitude to God is a joyful emotion. We have a sense of joyful indebtedness for his grace. So in a sense in the very emotion of gratitude, we are still the beneficiaries. But by its very nature, gratitude glorifies the giver. When we feel thankful, we acknowledge our need and God’s beneficence, God’s fullness, the riches of his glory.

Just like I humble myself and exalt the server in the restaurant when I say, “Thank you,” so I humble myself and exalt God when I feel gratitude to him. The difference, of course, is that I really am infinitely in debt to God for his grace, and everything he does for me is free and undeserved.

But the point is that gratitude glorifies the giver. It glorifies God. And this is Paul’s final goal in all his labors. Yes, his labors are for the sake of the church — the good of the church. But the church is not the highest goal. Listen again: “It is all for your sake, so that as grace extends to more and more people it may increase thanksgiving, to the glory of God.” All for your sake — for the glory of God!

The wonderful thing about the gospel is that the response it requires from us for God’s glory is also the response that is most natural and joyful; namely, thankfulness for grace. God’s all-supplying glory in giving and our humble gladness in receiving are not in competition. Joyful thankfulness glorifies God.

A life that gives glory to God for his grace and a life of deepest gladness are the same life. And what makes them one is thankfulness.

John Piper 

Have you found that God is enough?

BIBLE MEDITATION:

Thou wilt keep him in perfect peace, whose mind is stayed on Thee: because he trusteth in Thee. Isaiah 26:3

DEVOTIONAL THOUGHT:

You may admit that God is necessary, but do you honestly know that God is enough and that He is, in fact, more than enough? Friend, it may be that you’ll never know  He is enough until He is all you have.

This is what God allowed to happen to Job. Everything was taken away: his health, his wealth, his family—all of it. Yet, Job still had the Lord, saying, “Though He slay me, yet will I trust him.” He saw the Lord Jesus by the eye of faith.

God sometimes brings us to the place where he brought Job to show us not only is God necessary, but God is enough.

The answer is not in reason but relationship.  Not in explanation but in His promises. We come to the place where we’re like Jacob, who said, “I will not let Thee go except Thou bless me” (Genesis 32:26b)

Many a believer has lost his health, his business, his family, his reputation, but has still maintained his joy because the source of genuine contentment and peace is in God. Indeed, one may not know that God is enough until God is all one has.

ACTION POINT:

In the darkness, Jesus is there. Standing somewhere in the shadows, you’ll find Him. Come to know Him, understand Him and trust Him. Look to the Lord; trust in Him. Lean on the Lord. Leave it with the Lord.

LWF Dr. Adrian Rogers