2 Thess 1:11+12, To this end also we pray for you always that our God may count you worthy of your calling, and fulfill every desire for goodness and the work of faith with power; in order that the name of our Lord Jesus may be glorified in you, and you in Him, according to the grace of our God and the Lord Jesus Christ. 
As we have mentioned, this first chapter of 2 Thessalonians is packed with the fullness of our Christian life. We will not take the time to recount our previous considerations as we must move forward. Even after today, we will have at least one more Sunday in this chapter, as we are glimpsing but a small portion of the heart of God instilled in His people as the Body of Jesus Christ, His Church on this earth.
    	We continue today as we ended last week, with the Apostle Peter. He gives a quick summary of the course of what develops as we are tried and tested, and seeing those trials with hearts that thank the Lord that He has all things well in hand. 1 Peter 1:6-9, In this you greatly rejoice, even though now for a little while, if necessary, you have been distressed by various trials, that the proof of your faith, being more precious than gold which is perishable, even though tested by fire, may be found to result in praise and glory and honor at the revelation of Jesus Christ; and though you have not seen Him, you love Him, and though you do not see Him now, but believe in Him, you greatly rejoice with joy inexpressible and full of glory, obtaining as the outcome of your faith the salvation of your souls. 
	It is in this manner that the value of our lives is measured in the eyes of God’s perspective. The trials, the testing and exercising of our faith, reveal the worth of our Christian lives to us and to others in our community. God knows our hearts and He uses those trials to bring forth the fullness of our love and our trust in Him as He develops our faith in Christ Jesus. As we have stated many times, ours is a living faith, a faith that thrives as it is exercised before the throne of God’s Grace. It comes from Him and returns to Him in our lives as we live on this earth.
	The ultimate purpose of this work of God is set in the fact that we are to show forth the magnificence of God’s grace, as our passage states …in order that the name of our Lord Jesus may be glorified in you, and you in Him. God has a stake in the lives that He has redeemed to Himself. There is a reason that we have responded to His call and have desired to go on into the greater depths of the reality of Christ living His life in us. There is a purpose in the fact that we are learning to live by faith, as we call it. This principle is the very core of our Christianity. Our lives are for the function of bringing glory to the name of Jesus Christ. In that momentous reality, we will find that we are sharing in the very glory of His name. 
There is a glory set in place for us, but that glory is not our end and goal, it is the result of the fact that we live our lives unto Jesus Christ, with our hearts set on doing all that will bring glory to His name. He is our Master, and as such, He is to receive all glory and honor and adoration. As He does receive that glory, so will the Church be glorified in Him. Nothing of us, but all of, in, and for Jesus Christ. First the Master receives the glory, then the attendants, who minister to the Master, share in His glory by virtue of their service unto Him. We see this in the parable of the three servants who were entrusted with their master’s money. As is recorded in Matt 25:21, as the master was glorified so were the faithful servants, His lord said unto him, Well done, good and faithful servant: thou hast been faithful over a few things, I will set thee over many things; enter thou into the joy of thy lord.
The glory is the Master’s to do with as He so deems fit and proper. His glory will never diminish. All that the servant accomplishes in His name only serves to increase the glory of his Master. Even so, the servant shares in that glory by virtue of his intimate association with his Master. Apart from the Lord, there is no glory for the servant. 
As well, the servant gives glory to his Master with willingness and faithfulness in the fact that the servant’s heart is to honor the Lord. There is a deep desire for the Master to receive all the glory in order to elevate the Lord into the higher and higher levels of acclamation and praise and honor. There is that very sense of finding our satisfaction in the greater and greater acknowledgement of our Lord and Master, Jesus Christ.
I think that the Pulpit Commentary does a unique job of describing the relationship of our glorification in Christ by the single virtue of His glory in us. Quote Christian glorification depends on union with Christ. We are to be glorified in him. First, all that makes the Christian glorious comes from Christ. Without him we are shamed and dark and dead. Second, glory comes to us through our sharing Christ's glory, as the clouds are glorified in the light of the rising sun. End of quote. (from The Pulpit Commentary, Electronic Database. Copyright © 2001, 2003, 2005, 2006 by Biblesoft, Inc. All rights reserved.) As the sun highlights, illuminates, colors, and gives brilliance of quality to through the transparency of the clouds in the sky, so is our glory only a reflection of the light and the life of the gloriousness of Jesus Christ. Our lives are the living testimony of the One by Whom we have life, and that shows forth the greater and greater majesty and love of God Almighty.
The Pulpit Commmentary goes on to state, quote We glorify Christ by our lives. Songs of praise go for little if our conduct dishonours our Lord. The richest anthem of praise rises from the silent living of a pure and useful Christian life. Our own glory is also only possible when our life in Christ has been fruitfull. End of quote. (from The Pulpit Commentary, Electronic Database. Copyright © 2001, 2003, 2005, 2006 by Biblesoft, Inc. All rights reserved.)
This means that, as the servants of Christ Jesus, our lives, our thoughts, our desires, our actions, our intentions, our joy, our aspirations, in other words, our everything needs to be subjected and subordinated to what brings forth the greater measure of the name of Jesus Christ. We can talk very much theoretically and spiritually about how we want to live lives that glorify God. The prayer of the Apostle Paul for those Thessalonians, for us, for the church is that in the most practical manner applicable, we express Christ’s glory. It is through the trials and the tribulations, the suffering and the heartaches, that the Church is seen as the very living expression of how absolutely vital it is that we live by the grace of God in Jesus Christ. That is the purpose of being thankful, don’t we see. It is in thanksgiving unto God, true and heartfelt, and sincere holding forth of the joyful consideration that we are counted worthy by God to suffer for His name’s sake, that this age will completely realize that life is only in and through Jesus Christ, period.
One cannot get this to a more practical level than that even our physical death will serve only to bring about a clearer understanding that for us to live is Christ, and to die is gain. Phil 1:19-21, For I know that this shall turn out for my deliverance through your prayers and the provision of the Spirit of Jesus Christ, according to my earnest expectation and hope, that I shall not be put to shame in anything, but that with all boldness, Christ shall even now, as always, be exalted in my body, whether by life or by death. For to me, to live is Christ, and to die is gain. 
	This world cannot fathom the fact that we have no fear of death to cause us to seek to do anything in order not to die. We know that we are here only because this is where Christ needs us as His witness. When that time comes to an end, we are ready and willing to leave this world, desiring nothing other than to be with Christ in His glory, as we live in His glory, even now on this earth. Christ outlines the fact that we are to reflect His glory on this earth in Matt 5:14-16, "You are the light of the world. A city set on a hill cannot be hidden; nor does anyone light a lamp and put it under a basket, but on the lampstand, and it gives light to all who are in the house. "Let your light shine before men in such a way that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father who is in heaven. 
In the light of Christ, the glory of God is revealed. There is a veil of darkness over the full glory of God in Christ Jesus, because for this world to see it now would mean instantaneous death. There is no manner in which those of this age could see His glory and survive in the presence of His intense and perfect holiness. That is why we are chosen to give forth those glimpses of His glory that can be seen with the eyes and hearts and cause those who will respond to seek after the glory of Jesus Christ, Whom we serve. 
Again, the Pulpit Commentary brings forth another great image of the glory of Christ as infused into the life of His people. Quote, Finally, at the end of time, when we are perfected, we will be a perfectly transparent vessel that is so close to Christ that his glory fills us and we flawlessly reflect his grandeur. We will be like a clear sheet of glass placed directly in front of Jesus, and all that will be seen through the glass is Jesus and his majesty. End of Quote. (from The Pulpit Commentary, Electronic Database. Copyright © 2001, 2003, 2005, 2006 by Biblesoft, Inc. All rights reserved.) 
Scripture uses this example in several places as the church is made into that clear reflection of the glory of Christ. Paul, in 1 Cor 13:12, lays forth the cycle of the operative Hand of God in the sense of our being able to see what His Hands are accomplishing to His glory in our lives. For now we see in a mirror dimly, but then face to face; now I know in part, but then I shall know fully just as I also have been fully known. We are not seeing the clear vision of the glory of Christ on this earth at this time. Our faculties of spiritual wisdom and understanding and vision have not, as yet, been fully developed, but they are being developed. God is working in a most perfect manner to bring us into that place where we will not have a clouded vision of His Glory in Christ Jesus. When we do see with full visual, spiritual abilities, it will be the truly defined and brilliant display of the glory that God has manifested in Jesus Christ through His work within the church.
In 2 Cor 3:18, we read the terms of what is required for that clear, pure, reflective glass to be created. But we all, with unveiled face beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory, just as from the Lord, the Spirit. Glass is purified by fire. It is heated and blasted with intense temperature to burn out the impurities and to eliminate the bubbles of air that cause flaws. The final product is tempered with heat to produce the clearest visual presentation. Such is true of us as the Church. It is from glory to glory, from trial to trial, from heat to heat that we are made into the increasingly more perfect reflection of the One Whose glory we reveal. The higher the heat, the more intense the blast furnace, the greater the strength and purity and clarity of Christ’s glory that is brought forth as evidence to the complete workmanship of our Creator. 
When the church is finally revealed, the entire universe will be completely awe-struck and dumbfounded at the perfect work of God in Christ Jesus and His Church. It will be forced to give Him the glory, in resignation, which we freely choose to give Him, even now, in Love. This truth is foreordained in several scriptures, leaving no doubt of its veracity. Isaiah saw it as written in Isa 45:23-25, "I have sworn by Myself, The word has gone forth from My mouth in righteousness And will not turn back, That to Me every knee will bow, every tongue will swear allegiance. "They will say of Me, 'Only in the Lord are righteousness and strength.' Men will come to Him, And all who were angry at Him shall be put to shame. "In the Lord all the offspring of Israel Will be justified, and will glory." 
	Paul writes of it several times. In his Letter to the Church in Rome, Chapter 14, verses 11+12, For it is written, "As I live, says the Lord, every knee shall bow to Me, And every tongue shall give praise to God." So then each one of us shall give account of himself to God. And, in the passage that we know much more intimately and joyously, Phil 2:9-11, Therefore also God highly exalted Him, and bestowed on Him the name which is above every name, that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of those who are in heaven, and on earth, and under the earth, and that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father. 
	In the Book of the Revelation of Jesus Christ, we find our conclusion for this morning. Within it, in Chapter 15, verses 2-4, we see the result as given from the heavenly perspective. The image of glass is here, as well, mingled with the trials and the fires of our purification, and to the same, incontrovertible end that Jesus Christ will be glorified above the heaven and the earth. Of this there is no doubt. So, as we live our lives before God on this earth, let the dimness of our current vision not hinder our complete understanding of the truth of what God has, is, and will yet accomplish in the glorification of Jesus Christ in His Church. And I saw, as it were, a sea of glass mixed with fire, and those who had come off victorious from the beast and from his image and from the number of his name, standing on the sea of glass, holding harps of God. And they sang the song of Moses the bond-servant of God and the song of the Lamb, saying, "Great and marvelous are Thy works, O Lord God, the Almighty; Righteous and true are Thy ways, Thou King of the nations. "Who will not fear, O Lord, and glorify Thy name? For Thou alone art holy; For all the nations will come and worship before Thee, For Thy righteous acts have been revealed." Amen
Once again, the prayer of the Apostle Paul, To this end also we pray for you always that our God may count you worthy of your calling, and fulfill every desire for goodness and the work of faith with power; in order that the name of our Lord Jesus may be glorified in you, and you in Him, according to the grace of our God and the Lord Jesus Christ. Amen

Guests
Announcements: 	Wednesday Night Prayer Meeting
			Women’s Meeting
			Young People’s Meetings
			Men at Dupar’s 6 AM, Tuesday
Other announcements?
			Wednesday, Oct. 31 – Young people’s gathering in Moorpark 5:30-8
Birthdays:		Today – Daniel Eastvold
			Tomorrow – James Paventi	
Tuesday – Hedy Wainor
Anniversaries:

Today’s benediction is Gal 1:3-5, Grace to you and peace from God our Father, and the Lord Jesus Christ, who gave Himself for our sins, that He might deliver us out of this present evil age, according to the will of our God and Father, to whom be the glory forevermore. Amen.