Episode Transcript
[00:00:02] Welcome to the Karma Church podcast.
[00:00:07] Now, I know you guys love to stand up when the reading of the Bible, but I think I have 20 verses, and it would be more like a workout today than it would be honoring. So if anybody wants to, they're welcome to join with me. And when Steve. I spoke to Steve yesterday, and he said, can you speak on glory? And to be perfectly honest, I thought, well, that's really easy. I wrote a book on glory. I've got a message I can pull out of my iPad on glory, so that's easy. And then I. I kind of got an emerging message, so I'm gonna. I'm gonna try and deliver it. I actually feel really excited about it, which I. Which is kind of good, really. I guess when you're preaching, you should feel excited about what you have to say, and I really do feel excited about it. And I. So let me start with this verse and what happened to me. I don't know if this happens to other people in, you know, in ministry or even just reading the Bible for yourself and you're not thinking that you may be sharing something, but, you know, we so often read verses out of context, and then you suddenly read it in context. You go, oh, and I was reading Psalm 46, and I'll just read it to you. Verse 2. Therefore we will not fear, though the earth should change.
[00:01:23] Have you noticed any change in our world lately? Feels like one or two of you, a few more of you. Am I gonna have to wake you up? My wife told me I was very loud in first service, so I'm gonna try and be quieter. But if you're quiet, I might get louder. That's the only thing I mean. And I'm not sure I can control it anyway. Though the earth should change, Though the mountains slip into the heart of the sea Though its waters roar and foam Though the mountains quake at its swelling pride.
[00:01:52] There is a river.
[00:01:56] I missed that context.
[00:01:58] There's a river in the midst of a changing, shaking world, A world of chaos and change and questions and challenges. There is a river whose streams make glad the city of God.
[00:02:15] And we'll come back to that. Initially, it might seem. Why are you using that verse? Hopefully it will make sense to you. And I'm going to.
[00:02:25] I'm going to give you a kind of a preparation with about 10 or 12 verses, and then I'm going to talk about something and hopefully show you at the end that you are a part of creating and being that river.
[00:02:41] That's the goal. And I also want to Try and just maybe demystify a little bit, because I think we very often use words and we'll use different words, and it seems like we're using different words for the same thing. And I just want to show you the interchangeability of glory, the Spirit, the Presence, and a river. They're not all the same, but there's an interchangeability about them. And I kind of just want us to stop worrying about it, you know, and if we say glory, the Spirit's involved, and if we say the Presence, the Spirit's involved. And we say a river, the Holy Spirit's involved. Let's just stop worrying about it, because they all seem very interchangeable, and I hope I'll prove it to you. So there is a river whose streams make glad the city of God.
[00:03:30] And so if you're going to try and run with me on the Bible, go to Isaiah 43:7.
[00:03:37] And if I know your name, I might test some of you out and say, do you know that verse before you turn to it, just for fun? I did with Ralph earlier, and he didn't know it. I was shocked.
[00:03:48] I'm sure he'll get me back sometime. Anyway, he's friends, so it's all right. I can have fun with friends.
[00:03:56] Isaiah 43:7. Everyone who is called by my name. Are you called by his name and whom I have created for my glory? You were created for glory.
[00:04:12] You were created for glory. In fact, you are created as an expression of his glory because the glory of God is his expression. When God expresses himself, that is his glory. And you happened when he expressed Himself. And this whole earth happened when he expressed himself. God's glory is the result of God expressing Himself. Nothing more complex than that. And everything we see is the result of his expression and your glory. If I was teaching the message that's on my iPad that I didn't, you know, that I would have just gone to lazily if I'd done that.
[00:04:51] I give the definition for your glory and my glory.
[00:04:54] And that is your eternal value, because you reveal, reflect, and point to the nature, the power, the attributes of God. In other words, God's glory is that God expresses himself, and you reveal, reflect, or point to it.
[00:05:12] And in doing that, you accumulate your glory.
[00:05:16] And it's not about you, but it is about Him. So there is the glory of God and there is our glory. And we were created for glory.
[00:05:27] And then Habakkuk 2:14, many of you will know this verse.
[00:05:31] Habakkuk 2:14 says, the whole earth is being filled with the knowledge, the glory of God as the waters cover the sea.
[00:05:44] Now Isaiah 6:2 actually says, the whole earth is full of his glory.
[00:05:49] And you might go, that contradicts no, the whole earth is full of his glory, but the whole earth is being filled with the knowledge of his glory as the waters cover the sea. Because not everyone knows what his glory looks like yet. So they don't have knowledge of it. They haven't experienced it. So the whole earth is full of his glory, but the whole earth is being filled with the knowledge of his glory as the waters cover the sea. Take note of that. The waters cover the sea. We'll come back to it.
[00:06:18] So the whole earth is being filled with the knowledge of the glory of God. And then we go to 2nd Chronicles 5:14 and we could go to a number of verses at this point, but we've got a 16 year old grandson's birthday party to get back to, so I won't use all the verses. It is shocking, I know that we have a 16 year old grandson. You are saying, how young were you when you got married? I know all of those questions are running through your heads right now. Don't be distracted by them.
[00:06:51] 2 Chronicles 5:14 well, the build up to it is they're basically getting the temple ready. The priests have gone in, the worship team have gone in and they've got the temple that has been built. The temple of Solomon has been built. And there's all the symbols, the instruments, the praising of God. They're declaring he indeed is good, for his loving kindness is everlasting. Then the house, the house of the Lord was filled with a cloud so that the priests could not stand to minister because of the cloud for the glory of the Lord had filled the house.
[00:07:33] Now I'm going to try and keep the sequence going so that you stay with me. There's a river, we'll come back to that.
[00:07:41] The whole earth is. You were created for glory.
[00:07:45] The whole earth is being filled with the knowledge of the glory. And when we look at a temple in the Old Testament, the temple, the completion of that temple is marked by the filling of that house with the presence of God. So much so that the priest could not stand.
[00:08:06] And then go with me to Haggai29, which is really hard to find.
[00:08:15] So small it gets lost in my Bible.
[00:08:19] And this is. It's funny you're here. This is your verse. Shake the nations is in there. That's funny. I just noticed that Phil Shaw is a. He's a friend and he says the so I'll read from verse seven just for you, Phil. I will shake all the nations, and they will come with the wealth of all nations, and I will fill this house with glory, says the LORD of hosts. The silver is mine, the gold is mine, declares the Lord of hosts. And then it says this, the latter glory. The latter glory will be greater than the former glory, says the LORD of hosts. And in this place, I will give peace.
[00:08:57] Take note of that. The latter glory will be greater than the former glory.
[00:09:02] Well, the former glory is the Temple of Solomon that was filled and the priest could not stand.
[00:09:09] Keep the context in mind because it's a stunning sequence. And then we. Then we go to Second Corinth. Well, let me go to where? Where do I want to go? John 2:19.
[00:09:24] I told you it'd be a workout.
[00:09:27] I said in first service, if anyone wants to criticize Bethel for not using the word of God, you can send them a video of this message.
[00:09:36] John 2:19.
[00:09:40] What we have there is the Jews. They said to him, verse 18, what sign do you show us as your authority for doing these things? And Jesus answered them, destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up.
[00:09:56] Okay, and then we go to 2nd Corinthians 5:1, where what we see there is that there is the prophetic, or the statement that there is a temple not made with hands. For we know if the earthly tent, which is our house, is torn down, we have a building from God, a house not made with hands.
[00:10:23] Are you still tracking with me? So we've got. There's a river.
[00:10:29] You were created for glory.
[00:10:32] The whole earth is being filled with the knowledge of the glory of God, that the Old Testament temple, when it got filled with the glory of God, the priest could not stand. We've got a prophetic declaration that the latter house will be greater than the former house. Then we've got Jesus saying, I'm going to tear down the temple. If you tear down the temple, I'll raise it up in three days. And then we have Paul saying that the temple, that the eternal temple, will be built not by hands, but has an eternal value.
[00:11:03] And then we've got a number of places I could go.
[00:11:09] But Jesus says, abide in me, and I will abide in you. We are to abide in him.
[00:11:17] And then if we keep going, we see that Paul, if you want references, Paul says in 1 Corinthians 3:16, you are a temple.
[00:11:27] You're a temple.
[00:11:29] And Paul writes to the Colossians 1:27, Christ in you, the hope of glory.
[00:11:35] Paul also writes to the Corinthians and says, what had a glory now no longer has a glory on account of the glory that has come.
[00:11:45] What's my point? My point is this sequence. You were created for glory.
[00:11:51] You were created for glory.
[00:11:54] The temple that Solomon built, when it was filled with glory, the priest could not stand.
[00:12:01] Haggai prophesies that there'll be a latter, the latter temple. The glory of the latter temple will be greater than the former.
[00:12:09] And we are the temples of the Holy Spirit. And we have Christ in us, the hope of glory.
[00:12:15] And Paul says that what had a glory, talking of the face of Moses, no longer has the greater glory. We have a greater glory than was on the face of Moses.
[00:12:27] His glory was external and decreasing. Ours is internal and increasing.
[00:12:34] And that's the place that we. That we land at.
[00:12:39] And so what I'm trying to get to is this. We're glory carriers and that we are the New Testament temples of, of the Holy Spirit.
[00:12:52] And it's extraordinary really, if you just stop and think of it, that what happened in the Old Testament is being eclipsed by the New Testament, that the Old Testament temple filled with the glory, that our glory is a greater glory than was that glory.
[00:13:14] I just heard Bill teach this, and I'm sure he said it many, many times, but he said, if, if something new comes, it's not that we throw away the old. It's that the old will often become the setting of the ring that you put the new diamond in.
[00:13:30] You see, the Old Testament model of temples and glory is really the setting for the new New Testament diamond that sits in the old setting. The old setting kind of enhances the diamond.
[00:13:44] So that's this incredible picture of where we are. And then Paul, of course, writes to the Romans and he says this. He says, all have sinned and fallen short of the glory.
[00:13:56] You see, we are the temples of the Holy Spirit. We have Christ in us, the hope of glory.
[00:14:04] But in many respects, what Paul's recognizing is whilst we might repent if that door is sin, we repent from sin. Romans 3, 23. All have sinned, and we repent from sin.
[00:14:17] Which means that we probably repent as far as that way, which means I can still see my sin.
[00:14:23] Paul writes elsewhere, there is a repentance without regret.
[00:14:28] You see, if I can still see that door, I can regret it. I meant to repent from sin unto glory so that I can't see what was behind me, so that I can't be in regret. You see, all have Sinned and fallen short of the glory.
[00:14:45] We've got to learn to repent unto glory, not just from sin.
[00:14:51] And that's kind of like the position that I want to now shift us into really basically where I want to go. All of that was just the build up. Just to try and show you this incredible, I mean, it's incredible sequence.
[00:15:08] It's utterly stunning. You were created for glory. The earth is being filled with the knowledge of the glory of God as the waters cover the sea. It's part of your assignment to be a part of the filling of the earth with the knowledge of the glory of God. You're a temple of the Holy Spirit. You have a greater glory than was on the face of Moses. You are the latter temple, not the former temple. The glory of the latter temple is greater than the former temple. That's us.
[00:15:37] I'm sorry if I get excited about. I feel excited about it and I'm not really apologetic at all.
[00:15:43] But then I noticed something. I just, I put a couple of things together and so some of there's pieces of this message that I've shared before, but most of it I didn't. Hadn't seen what I'm about to share.
[00:15:56] And that is this where you find glory, Expect a river.
[00:16:03] And I'm going to prove it to you, I hope.
[00:16:07] Where you find glory, expect a river. Is that okay?
[00:16:12] So what we've talked about is you are created for glory. The temple is filled with glory. The earth is being filled with the knowledge of the glory of God.
[00:16:22] The Holy Spirit is abiding in us. We have Christ in us, the hope of glory. We are the temple of the Holy Spirit. We're glory carriers.
[00:16:30] You'll realize where I'm going in a minute, but where you find glory in the Bible, expect a river. So let's start in the garden, as it were, the created glory.
[00:16:44] Now, it doesn't use the word in Genesis, but it does use the word good.
[00:16:49] And God saw that it was good. He created and he saw that it was good. If you go to Exodus 33 and verse.
[00:16:59] I haven't got the verse written down. It's in 33. I know. Moses says to God, show me your glory.
[00:17:06] And God says, I'll let all my goodness pass by.
[00:17:09] So if his goodness is the same as his glory, when he saw that the garden was good, it was full of glory.
[00:17:16] And the only thing that wasn't good was for man to dwell alone.
[00:17:19] Therefore, he created woman to restore the stand of his goodness.
[00:17:24] Ladies, you can thank me later. That's all right.
[00:17:27] He created you to restore the standard of his goodness. So in other words, what am I saying?
[00:17:32] The garden is full of the glory of God. It is the expression of God. And he saw that it was good. And God's goodness and his glory are the same thing.
[00:17:44] He saw that it was good, it was full of glory, it met his standards of expression, except in one thing. And he sorted it out.
[00:17:55] So what do we see next? What we see is that there are rivers that flow from the garden. There are four rivers that flow from the garden. And many theologians would suggest that they represent wisdom, they represent judgment and discipline, they represent seeking the will of God, and they represent culture.
[00:18:17] So we have the glory of the garden that creates rivers.
[00:18:24] Rivers flow from the glory of the garden to the rest of the earth. And we also know that where we see rivers in the Bible, it's about life. And so that life of the garden is being extended out to the whole earth. And so, as it were, if I can call it that, we have the kind of the temple of creation that is full of glory and there are rivers.
[00:18:49] Is everyone okay with that?
[00:18:51] Few of you are. I know there's a lot to take in, but hopefully you'll get the gist of it at the end. And if you get one line, I'll be happy. All right, so we start with the garden. Then let's move to another place in. In the Old Testament, which is Ezekiel.
[00:19:09] Now there, what we see in Ezekiel 43, verse 5, is that the glory returned to the house.
[00:19:21] Now, some time ago, I asked the Lord, literally, I was reading the Bible, I said, what kind of temple creates a river?
[00:19:28] And I preached on that. 43, 5. I'll go back to verse 4. And the glory of the Lord came into the house by the way of the gate facing toward the east. And the Spirit lifted me up and. And brought me into the inner court. And behold, the glory of the Lord filled the house.
[00:19:48] So we have a house filled with the glory of the Lord.
[00:19:52] Now, most of you will know Ezekiel chapter 47 is about a river.
[00:19:58] The river flows from under the doors of the temple, the house where there's glory. Expect to find a river. That river is the river that starts off with a trickle, gets deeper and deeper, people jump into it. It's symbolic of life. There's fish in there, there's nourishment.
[00:20:19] There's trees for healing down either side. You see, there's a temple full of the glory, and there's a river.
[00:20:27] Expect a river wherever you find Glory.
[00:20:32] And then thirdly, we go to Revelation.
[00:20:38] It's pretty rare book for me to go to because I kind of avoid eschatology, and this isn't eschatology, so I'm safe.
[00:20:48] But we go to Revelation 21 and verse 22, I saw no temple in it, for the Lord God, the Almighty, and the Lamb are its temple. And the city has no need of the sun or of the moon to shine on it, for the glory of God has illumined it. And its lamp is the Lamb. Nations will walk by its light, and kings of the earth will bring their glory into it in the daytime, for there will be no night there. Its gates will never be closed, and they will bring the glory and the honor of the nations into it. There is, as it were, the temple of heaven.
[00:21:29] It is full of glory. And what do we see in Revelation 22, verse 1? Then he showed me a river of the water of life, clear as crystal, coming from the throne of God and of the Lamb. In the middle of its street, on either side of the river, was the tree of life, bearing 12 kinds of fruit, yielding its fruit every month. And the leaves of the tree were for the healing of the nations. We see the created temple, the garden full of glory and rivers. We see the prophetic temple of Ezekiel, full of glory and creating a river. We see this beauty, the fulfillment of all things, the glory of heaven that needs no lamps, because the glory of the Son, of God and of God are illuminating it. And from that glory flows a river.
[00:22:28] And then.
[00:22:31] And then there's us, the saints, the temples that we are in this room.
[00:22:39] And that Paul said of us, do you not know that your bodies are temples of the Holy Spirit?
[00:22:47] And then. So jump with me now to John 7:38, and some of you will know this really well. And those who don't will love it.
[00:22:58] John 7 and 38. You see, what have we got? You are temples of the Holy Spirit. You have Christ in you, the hope of glory. And here in John 7:38 or 37. Now, on the last day, on the last day of the Presence and Promise Conference, the great day of the feast, Jesus stood and cried out, saying, if anyone is thirsty, let him come to me and drink.
[00:23:20] He who believes in me, as the Scripture said, from his innermost being will flow rivers of living water.
[00:23:33] But this he spoke of the Spirit, whom those who believed in him were to receive. For the Spirit was not yet given, because Jesus was not yet glorified.
[00:23:42] It's why I think we can interchange the river, the Spirit the presence, the glory. I don't think we need to get caught up on worrying about whether we use the right word words.
[00:23:53] It's about his presence.
[00:23:55] His presence is the manifestation of him. The river is what happens.
[00:24:02] It's the life and the healing that flows from the glory. The glory is the expression of God and his people, and the Spirit is the person. But they're all going to create the same thing.
[00:24:15] His presence, the river, the Spirit, the glory.
[00:24:20] So what do we have in this room? However many people are sitting in this room. What, 400 or something? How many is in there?
[00:24:29] There are 400 rivers in this room.
[00:24:32] Out of your bellies flow rivers of living water. You're a temple, you have Christ in you, the hope of glory, and out of your belly flows a river of living water. And Habakkuk 2:14 says, the whole earth is being filled with the knowledge of the glory of God as the waters cover the sea, as it flows from us. You see, our assignment is to allow the river to flow out of our belly, the river of life. And we could put together all of those examples.
[00:25:03] The river of wisdom, of the treasure of judgment, of discipline, of seeking God's will, of culture, the river of life, the river of healing. We could add to that the river of peace. We could add to that the river of our delights in God. Because those are rivers in the Bible that out of our bellies flows a river, you see, wherever there's glory, look for the river.
[00:25:27] Look for the river. I used the example in the first service yesterday morning. You know, sue, about 25 years ago, went to Bethlehem. She went there before me. She went there before anyone else, actually, from this country. Nobody even knew there was a place called Bethel. And Reading was a truck stop on the way to nowhere. That's what the guidebook said. She went seeking her freedom, and she did that. And as a result of that, you know, I end up there, and I end up doing what I'm doing today because she had the courage to go there. But back in those days, I mean, she was on her own journey. But yesterday I heard the stories of her walking into a room where there was demonic chaos, and she opened the river and brought peace in chaos because she knows she carries a river. When she walks into that kind of chaos, she knows that's the river that flows from her.
[00:26:20] You see, what I believe we need to do is to learn what river can flow from my life.
[00:26:27] What's the river? That, as it were, when I open it up, you know, you go to the Canals of this part of the world or the locks of the Thames that's just near us.
[00:26:37] And what you do is you wind up, don't you, the gate of the lock, and you let the river flow.
[00:26:43] You see, what I want to encourage you do is to let the river flow.
[00:26:48] What's the river that you can allow to flow from your life to, as it were? No, I don't think it's about controlling it, but I do think it's about knowing there's a river that flows from my belly. There are places where I walk into that I have an assignment to release his glory, to allow the Holy Spirit to flow, flow through me. As I live in his presence, I'm able to go let the river flow like sue did yesterday. She let a river flow, and I heard people telling me stories about it, about, oh, she brought the river of peace into a place of chaos because there was demonic chaos.
[00:27:24] Other people might not have done that. They might have tried something else. They might have made it worse.
[00:27:31] See, we have an assignment to let the river flow.
[00:27:36] And you go Back to Psalm 46. There is a river, you see, you walk in. The earth's shaking, the mountains tremble, the river's foaming, and you walk in, and you let the river flow. Because there is a river whose streams make loud the city of our God. And it flows from you, and it flows from me. What is it that you release? What's the river that you release? Where you work?
[00:27:57] Let's pray for a young man down there, what, nine months in the prison service. I've been there. I know what it's like to be a young man walking into that kind of an environment.
[00:28:06] And you're a little bit like me. I mean, you're skinnier than me, but I wasn't a big guy when I joined the prison service. And I'm walking in, there's people having fights and all sorts of chaos.
[00:28:17] But you have the privilege of walking in there and then open up the river, let the river come, let the peace come and change an atmosphere, change an environment. The wonderful people here that you know, the students are the doctors, you know the places you're going into.
[00:28:34] What's the glory you carry so that you know that when you open up your belly and you let the river flow, you're going to bring the peace in the chaos, the hope in the despair.
[00:28:46] You're going to calm storms, you're going to bring healing, you're going to bring answers to situations, and you're going to be a part of filling the earth with the knowledge of the glory of God as the waters, the river flows from your belly and covers the, the waters and fills the earth with the knowledge of the glory of God because you let the river flow.
[00:29:07] That's your assignment. It's your assignment.
[00:29:11] Wherever there's glory, wherever there is glory.
[00:29:18] Look for the river.
[00:29:21] Look for the river. What's the river flowing out of the people around you?
[00:29:26] What is that? And what's the river that you bring?
[00:29:29] And you know, I think the more we know, the more we know, the more we're able to intentionally open up, as it were, the gates of our belly and let the river flow.
[00:29:42] It's this sequence. To me, you were created for glory.
[00:29:46] Created for glory. It's stunning. It's incredible. You're a temple of the Holy Spirit. You're a temple that has a greater glory than the former glory of a temple in which the priest, priests could not stand because the glory was so weighty. That's your assignment. I want to invite you to stand.
[00:30:03] Let's be a people who let the river flow. Let's open up our bellies and let the river of God flow out of us. And you know, don't beat yourself up. Don't compare yourself with someone else. You might just walk in and you have a five minute assignment to bring peace and you let the river flow. You might have an opportunity to share the gospel with someone and you let the, the river flow because the glory in you is the testimony of what God's done in your life. You might let the river flow in healing. You might be in a work meeting and, and they're saying, what's the answer to this problem? And you sit there and go, I want the river of wisdom to flow in this room and you let it flow out of you and you change a situation and you solve problems. So Holy Spirit, I ask that you would come and you would give us great insight into the river that flows out of our bellies.
[00:30:53] That because we live in your presence, because we know that we're filled with your glory, because we know that we have the Holy Spirit in our lives. That because of that there's a river that flows, a river of life, a river of healing, a river of hope, a river of joy, a river that invites people to jump in and join us. A river of enjoying the delights of God, a river of solving problems, a river of bringing wisdom, a river of bringing peace in chaos.
[00:31:29] Let the river flow.
[00:31:31] Because there is a river whose streams make glad the city of our God and our world today needs your river. It needs you to let your river flow. Let your river flow. Open up the belly of your life, as it were, and let the river of living water flow.
[00:31:53] God, would you give us revelation so that in every situation, because we live in your presence, because we're filled with your spirit, because we have Christ in us, the hope of glory, that wherever we go we can confidently let the river flow.
[00:32:11] For the honour of your name, I pray.
[00:32:13] Amen.
[00:32:15] Thanks for listening to the Coma Charge podcast. If you enjoyed this message, you can like and subscribe. You can also join us in person or online every Sunday at Cromer Church. For more information about us, including our ministries, events, worship and how to donate, visit our website at Cromer Church.
