How Do We Show God's Glory?

Kevin: Welcome to Press Pause, the under 10-minute family worship podcast. I’m your host Kevin and I’m with my friends Jared (Hey Kevin!), and Trey (What’s up?!). This podcast is designed to help you—dads, moms, grandparents, and guardians—share big truths about Jesus with your kids. Just listen along with your family and keep your finger near your device so that you’re ready to press pause and talk about this week’s big truth with your kids.

This is episode eight of the podcast, and we’re picking back up our conversation about God’s glory. Since we’re talking about God’s glory, I wanted to ask you guys if you had a moment of personal glory from back when you were kids that you’d share with us.

Kevin: Now that we’ve told our stories, Jared, can you tell us what question we’re tackling this week?

Jared: Absolutely! This week’s big question is all about God’s glory. A couple weeks back we talked through what God’s glory is (God’s glory is his goodness and greatness shining out to the world), but this week we’ll dive into how we show God’s glory. So here’s our QUESTION - How do we show God’s glory? And our ANSWER is, We show God’s glory by loving, trusting, and obeying Him.

Let’s read that together one more time. [ALL TOGETHER] How do we show God’s glory? We show God’s glory by loving, trusting, and obeying Him.

Kevin: It sounds like we’ve got our work cut out for us in showing God’s glory to the world around us. Jared, can you show us where the Bible talks about this call for believers to love, trust, and obey the Lord?

Jared: You can actually find these ideas all over the Bible, but I’ll highlight a couple verses for us to think through. First, let’s check out Deuteronomy 11:1: “Love the LORD your God and keep his requirements, his decrees, his laws, and his commandments always.” Then we’ll jump over to Ecclesiastes 12:13 which sums this idea up - “Now all has been heard; here is the conclusion of the matter: Fear God and keep his commandments, for this is the duty of all mankind.”

Press pause and take turns reading these two passages together with your family.

Kevin: We’re back! Those passages give us a lot to consider as we think about God’s glory and what it means to show His glory to the people and community around us. Trey, can you help us tackle why this call to demonstrate God’s glory matters? Why does God involve us in showing His glory at all?

Trey: Let’s get into it. If you remember our conversation from a couple episodes ago, you’ll remember that God’s glory isn’t one of his characteristics (like his goodness, holiness, strength, or beauty), but is instead the culmination of all His perfections shining forth for the world to behold. God’s glory is the full display of everything that’s good and true about Him. 

His glory matters because it’s what draws us toward God so that we can experience the love, grace, and mercy that He offers us through his Son, Jesus. It’s God’s glory on display that reminds us that there’s someone outside of ourselves that can heal our wounds, fix our brokenness, and forgive our failures.

God made us to display his glory. He wants us to live in a loving relationship with him and others, and he wants us to steward his creation as those who bear His image—as people who wear his name. 

Imagine for a moment that you’ve taken a trip to a baseball game. Your favorite team is the Louisville Bats, and their star third baseman and power hitter is the great Mighty Casey. On a Saturday afternoon in May, you head out to the ballpark. On the way, you hear on the radio that Casey has been traded to the opposing team, the Mudville Nine!

BeforeCasey was traded, he bore the name of the Louisville Bats. The logo with the letters B-A-T-S was written there across the front of his jersey in that beautiful purple and black. He had the bat logo on his cap. He practices with the Louisville team and you can see his name in the home team’s lineup. But now that Casey has been traded, he bears a different name—Mudville!

Jared: Who would want to play for Mudville!

Trey: Nobody! It’s sad when our favorite player is traded. It just feels more glorious when they are repping the colors and name and glory of your favorite team!

In a similar way, God wants our whole lives to revolve around His glory. He doesn’t just want us to wear shirts and caps with Jesus’s name or Bible verses on them (though that’s okay). More importantly, he wants us to spend time with Him so that our thinking is shaped by the truth we learn in His Word. He wants our hearts and affections to turn toward Him. He wants us to love Him and trust Him. 

Two episodes ago I talked about how we sometimes get into trouble. We want to keep glory for ourselves instead of giving glory and honor to God. But when our hearts turn toward Jesus, we can give thanks for God’s presence with us in joy and suffering and for the beautiful things his hands have made. We also show the world that we love God when we remember what He has told us and obey what His Word commands us to do.

Trey: Press Pause and take a few minutes to talk about this truth with your family. What does your obedience or disobedience show about how much you love God? How can you cultivate a deeper love and trust in Jesus?

Kevin: Alright, we’re back! It’s good to think about how to use our minds, hearts, and actions to glorify God. Trey, would you close us in prayer by asking God to help us love, trust, and obey him more?

Trey: I’d love to. God, you are wonderful and glorious! Help us to show your goodness and greatness in the way that we trust and obey you. Amen. 

Advertisement or Sponsorship: Press Pause is brought to you in part by the Love Thy Neighborhood podcast: exploring today’s cultural moments through true stories of social action and Christian faith. Check out the show that Christianity Today called “amazing and authentic” by searching for Love Thy Neighborhood on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or at lovethyneighborhood.org.

Outro: Thanks again for listening to Press Pause, the 10-minute family worship podcast. Be sure to subscribe to Press Pause in your favorite podcasting app and leave us a rating or review. Also be sure to follow Gospel-Centered Family on Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram. Join us next week for more big truths about Jesus for your whole family.