03 June, 2014

The Glory Belongs to God!

I'm seeing something that disturbs me trending with churches and ministries. There are many churches and ministries that have become so competitive that they are actually giving in to the temptation to put down other ministries while at the same time trying to elevate themselves or their own ministry.  For example, it is pretty common to see phrases like "You've tried the rest, now try the best" in church advertisements. In the last 2 hours I've seen ministers promoting themselves by boasting about all the signs and wonders that are in their meetings. I've seen people write, (loosely quoted) "If you are hungry and tired of the mundane in church, give MY ministry a try." "I'll be in (insert city) and bringing the fire with me."  "Miracles happen in MY meetings."  "When I come to a church, revival follows."  "When I pray, people are healed."  I could go on and on, but do you notice anything wrong here? The emphasis is on ME. MY ministry. MY prayers. My fire. My revival. It's all about building up the individual or the local church, rather than giving glory to God and HIS church.
I spoke about this briefly in my sermon this past Sunday. God speaks directly to this in his Word. 
"I am the Lord: that is my name: and my glory will I not give to another." (Isaiah 42:8)

God is not about to share the glory with anyone. I always tell people that when you see ministers who are always trumpeting their own name and how God uses their ministry, that these folks have a misdirected focus and to stay clear of that church or evangelist. I'm not saying that we should not speak about what God is doing in our churches, revivals or through a ministry, but we should use caution to make sure that the glory is directed to God and to God alone. If we begin to draw the attention toward ourselves and away from God, we are robbing God of his glory and we open the door for the enemy to creep in and destroy what began as a genuine move of God.
It's HIS glory. You belong to him, so any and all glory should be directed toward him.  To GOD be the glory!

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