“Beyond the Glory”

For several years, one of my favorite television programs has been Beyond the Glory. It is a 10-time Emmy-nominated series and Fox Sports Net’s highest-rated weekly program. The critically-acclaimed documentary series profiles some of the most legendary and controversial athletes in recent history. The show uses archived video, on-camera interviews and player histories to take viewers beyond the playing field and into the athletes’ lives and minds. Each show documents the entire life of a particular athlete, from the cradle to their current status. In many instances, the athletes profiled truly posses a rags to riches story. 

No matter the demographic: black, white, Hispanic or Asian, rich, middle class or poor, rural, suburban or urban, there is something that nearly every athlete spotlighted grows up with, a driving force that reigns supreme-a hunger and thirst for glory. It is mind boggling to consider how much a man or a woman will deny themselves of for a grasp at the ring of glory. Sleep deprived, friends forsaken, families floundering and bodies aching, they push on towards the upward call, not just to play professional sports but to be the best at the professional sport they play. If they succeed, the payoff is hefty and the glory gaudy. Glory obtained.

Unfortunately, the very thing they strive so hard for, once obtained, often  becomes their very undoing. The relationships sacrificed along their climb to the top mixed with the volatile ingredients of fame, fortune and freedom often leave the greatest of sports heroes awash in a backflow of injuries, drugs, shattered marriages, run-ins with the law and financial hardship. In the end, even if those negative things don’t occur, there is one thing that is inevitable, the glory fades. Fans are fickle, professional sports is a business and the culture lives for the person on top at the moment. When the stadium lights are turned off in a career there may still be a level notoriety but never to the degree that existed at the pinnacle of success.

One of the most well known figures in the Old Testament, Moses, had a similar experience. In Exodus 34, after spending forty days and forty nights on Mt. Sinai in the presence of the Lord of Glory, Moses came down the mountain to the congregation waiting below and his faced shined. This spooked the children of Israel, so, for a time, Moses put on a veil when he came out to talk with them and he removed it when he came into the Lord’s presence. If that was the only look at this event in Moses’ life one could naturally conclude that he wore the veil in order to be able to converse with the people without causing them to stampede every time his glowing face appeared. As the Old Testament is the New Testament concealed and the New Testament in the Old Testament revealed, the New Testament book of 2 Corinthians and the third chapter shines some more light on our Old Testament passage. The thirteenth verse of that chapter tells us that Moses was not just covering up his face to put at ease the fear of the people, but that he “put a veil on his face so that the children of Israel could not look steadily at the end of what was passing away.” That glory hound Moses put the veil on his face because the glory was fading and he didn’t want the people to know. Oh yes, he prolonged the hi-pro glow by entering into the Lord’s presence with the veil off, but alas the shine diminished until, in fact, he needed the veil no more at all.

Lest you think I am too hard on Moses by calling him a glory hound and lest you respond with the words of the Pentateuch stating that Moses was “very humble, more than all men who were on the face of the earth”, let me simply state that he wasn’t entirely humble, just more humble than everyone else. Knowing that human nature is the same in every generation I can probably safely conclude that the humility bar was undoubtedly set pretty low by those “on the earth” at that time.  No matter, Moses was humble but he was still human. Humanity longs for glory. I believe this longing for glory is a God given desire initially.

Adam and Eve experienced His glory. They were in the Lord’s presence daily. They found their glory in Him. He walked with them in the cool of the evening. But at the Fall that relationship was broken. The glory departed. Man sinned and fell “short of the glory of God.” (Rom. 3:23). The “wages for sin is death” (Rom. 6:23). Death was passed from Adam down through the human race (see Rom. 5). Mankind, now sinners by nature, proved their sin nature by their individual actions-“there is none righteous, no not one” (Rom. 3:10). Thus, mankind has been condemned by its nature and its actions. This left quite a dilemma, for the glory departed but the desire for glory remained. Mankind has since that day been driven by a sin distorted drive for glory.

Glory: something that is a source of honor, fame, or admiration; a distinguished ornament or an object of pride. Whether carnal or Christian there is an inner desire for recognition. The carnal man lives for a career, a hobby, a cause.  He  lives for the next raise, the next outing, the next noble endeavor. Even the godly, like Moses, would like a little glory, desiring that people would see them as more than they are. We veil the areas in our life that are not what they once were or aren’t what we want them to be. Some serve the Lord for recognition; others subject themselves to rigid regulations to stand out. Many live trying to pile up more good deeds than bad deeds. God will surely love and accept them then. In the end, whether a life is lived with eternity in mind or not, both the religious and the reprobate stand before an Almighty God and there is but one hope of glory-JESUS CHRIST (Col. 1:27).

The Bible sates in the third chapter of John that God sent His only Son, Jesus, to die in the place of a condemned world. As a substitute, He came to earth and lived a perfect life (despite being tempted in all points as we are Heb 4:15) in order to offer Himself as a sacrificial substitute for condemned man. “He became sin who know no sin that we might be made the righteousness of God in Him (2 Cor. 5:21).” He bore our sins on the cross. He suffered. He died. Yet He rose again on the third day. He ascended to heaven where He sits at the right hand (place of power and prestige) of the Father. Jesus, through His perfect life lived, work on the cross and resurrection receives glory, and then bestows that glory upon those who believe in Him (John 17:22). Romans chapter five verse two states that ‘through (Jesus) we have access by faith into this grace in which we stand, and rejoice in the hope of the glory of God.” Through Jesus, the relationship that was broken in the Garden is reconciled and the glory that departed is now obtainable.

When one accepts Christ as his/her Lord and Savior one is justified (God looks at you just as if you had never sinned). As we journey through life in relationship with Him we are sanctified (changed into His image as we come to know Him more deeply). This work is not completed until we leave this temporal life, where we enter into His presence and we are glorified (Becoming all that we were ever meant us to be. Becoming like Him again (Gen. 1:26 and 1 John 3:2). We are…Redeemed! Reconciled! Restored!

What is your hope of glory? Are you living for yourself? Are you putting your trust in your achievement? Is the next promotion, the next president, the stock market rebounding, your pending vacation, a mended relationship, or your eventual retirement your hope of glory? Do you mask your deficiencies hoping no one will see? Or has your hope of glory faded to the point that there seems no hope at all? Jesus is the answer. I’m speaking to the non-Christian. I’m talking to you Christian. I’m preaching to myself as well. He is the answer. He is the answer temporally; Get your eyes off of yourself and onto Him. The result will effect the temporal. To see and know and trust Jesus is so wonderful, so beautiful, so freeing…“Come unto me all you who are weary and heavy laden and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn of Me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For My yoke is easy and My burden is light (Matt. 11:28-30).” A relationship with this Jesus changes your heart, mind and actions. And your actions imply your belief. The implications of your belief implying actions are eternal…“(He) will render to each one according to his deeds, eternal life for those who by patient continuance in doing good seek for glory, honor and immortality, but to those who are self-seeking and so not obey the truth, but obey unrighteousness-indignation and wrath (Rom. 2:6-8).

Jesus Christ is so beyond any glory you have ever contemplated for your life. “Seek first the kingdom of God and all (the rest of) these things shall be added (Matt. 6:33).” “Delight yourself in Him and He will give you the desires of your heart (Psalm 37:4).” “And at the appearing of the Chief Shepherd, you will receive the never fading crown of glory (1 Peter 5:4).”

To God be the Glory,

Pastor Mike