How to Bring Glory to God
- Jack Selcher
- Mar 3
- 3 min read
Updated: Mar 4
My Best Sermon Was Playing Lazarus
Acting is bringing a character to life. I preached a sermon on Lazarus in about ten churches. It was a monologue in which I played Lazarus telling his story.
The script came from a Presbyterian pastor in the Pittsburgh area who served a church my father-in-law and mother-in-law attended. He printed out all his sermons. It received a far more positive response than my usual sermons.
I memorized the entire script. In my mind, I was Lazarus playing the part with my glasses removed and wearing a white outer garment. It was the story of going to heaven and returning from his perspective.
A man in the first church I shared said that I had missed my calling. I should have been an actor instead of a pastor. He thought acting was a more prestigious occupation.
An elder in two other churches said it was the high watermark of sermons they had heard. Many people said they felt like they were there witnessing Lazarus’ live testimony.
Such praise can easily become the jet fuel of pride. We preachers want to glorify God and our congregations to love and appreciate us. It’s easy to forget the first when the second is happening! Let’s consider how to bring glory to God.
So, did my message glorify God or myself? I hope the first happened, but I know the second did.
God Knows How to Bring Us Back to Reality
Rest assured; God was at work to keep me humble through another man whose wife attended the first church where I shared the Lazarus message. When I visited him, he asked when I was getting a real job!
Around the same time, I overheard a man who attended a yoked church I pastored telling someone, “My cousin and I don’t think much of the preaching.” Both men thought loud sounds from the preacher’s chest automatically equaled good preaching.
The same man once muttered loudly enough for everyone in the congregation to hear while I was preaching an interactive sermon, “That ain’t preaching!”
Our High Calling Is to Bring God Glory
We have no gifts other than what God has given us for His glory. My ability to portray Lazarus and the strength and energy to do it are God’s gifts for which I can take no credit.
“God has given each of you a gift from his great variety of spiritual gifts. Use them well to serve one another. Do you have the gift of speaking? Then speak as though God himself were speaking through you. Do you have the gift of helping others? Do it with all the strength and energy that God supplies. Then everything you do will bring glory to God through Jesus Christ. All glory and power to him forever and ever! Amen” (1 Peter 4:10–11 NLT).
If I share my messages in the power of the Holy Spirit, I should feel no worse about the “That ain’t preaching” sermon than the one that received rave reviews. God is responsible for the results. An applause meter doesn’t measure our success. Our hearers doing God’s will does.
Our Assignment Is Completing the Work God Gave Us to Do
We follow Jesus’ footsteps. He said, “I brought glory to you here on earth by completing the work you gave me to do” (John 17:4 NLT). We bring glory to God by finishing the work He gives us to do.
That’s our purpose. It isn’t to make a name for ourselves, experience all the pleasure we can, or become rich. Those three continue to pull at our hearts and create detours away from the only thing that matters.
They lure us with applause, pats on the back, awards, and other incentives to do our will rather than God’s and please people rather than Him. That review doesn’t count. We are destined to die once. After that God’s judgment comes (Hebrews 9:27). That’s the one that counts. See additional free spiritual growth resources for Christians #discipleshipresources #evangelismresources #christianleadershipresources
See free spiritual growth resources for Christians at https://www.christiangrowthresources.com.
God has empowered me to write “His Power for Your Weakness—260 Steps Toward Spiritual Strength.” It’s a free evangelistic, devotional, and discipleship eBook. Pastors have used it in Malawi, Mozambique, and Zambia to lead more than 3,436 people to Christ and teach the basics of Christianity to 9,476 people. I invite you to check it out.
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