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. 
We will end our consideration of the first chapter of this second letter to the Thessalonians with a concentrated effort to ascertain something of what it means, as the church, as Christ’s Bride, to bring glory to name of our husband, Our Lord Jesus Christ. We do this with the complete knowledge that we will not be able to grasp the full intent of God in that glorification of His Son until we are with Him in the eternal ages. But we can, as instructed through the Holy Spirit throughout His Word, gain a deepening sense of the fact that we are now made part of the plan and purpose of God to fill the entire creation with the glory of Jesus Christ, His Son. We have a major role within that plan, and are called upon by the Father, to live in accordance with the single purpose of bringing glory to Our Lord and Savior.
Before we proceed any farther, we need to get some basic grasp of what glory means and entails in terms of its definition and its function within the light of Jesus Christ. Many of us use the term glory in a very generic, theoretical sense, without a true understanding of what it is. We need some enlightenment in the fact that God’s glory is an urgent and vibrant characteristic and goal of practical application within our lives as His Church. 
God has ordained His church to manifest His character on this earth. That means that we need to have instilled into us the resolve to live every day, every moment of our lives with the activity of the Holy Spirit with His Holy Word, as our guide, our strength, and our source of wisdom. This is to the purpose as stated in verse 11,    
…that our God may count you worthy of your calling, and fulfill every desire for goodness and the work of faith with power… This then leads to the purpose of this work in verse 12, in order that the name of our Lord Jesus may be glorified in you, and you in Him.
	We are being brought to the truth that it is only Christ living His life in us that will serve to establish the character of God in His Church. We need to have established in us the very desire for His goodness and His faith to become our absolute life on this earth. In that, God will be glorified because His Son will be the single recipient of the recognition of what has been created in us, His people, His Church, His Bride. As Christ’s character becomes our character, day by day, so will this entire creation see that it is only God, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, who is worthy of all praise and honor and adoration. It is as we learn to allow Christ’s character within us to faithfully and triumphantly endure the trials and the tribulations that God will be glorified in the life of Christ expressed today on this earth.
	At the core of this is the aspect of what glory signified in the Old Testament. The word glory has the contextual meaning of heavy, or weighty. In Gen 13:2, we read, Now Abram was very rich in livestock, in silver and in gold. Abraham, because he had more wealth than anyone else, became respected. He was heavy with the respect of his neighbors, or glorified in their eyes.
Accordingly, the IVP New Testament states that, quote …God is weighty in every good characteristic: he has more love, power, knowledge, righteousness, patience, grace, truth, and the like than anyone else. Because he is so heavy with these characteristics ("glory" is the sum of his attributes), the community of angels and saints respect him. He becomes heavy with respect (glorified) because of his heavy characteristics… 
Therefore, the notion that God is to be glorified means that his people take pleasure in heaping their respect on him since he is the only one intrinsically worthy of such respect by virtue of his intrinsically weighty attributes… His people will reflect his characteristics perfectly, and it will be seen that God is the one who has made them reflect him, so that he, not they, gets all the glory. This is intensely practical, since it means that we glorify God not only by praising with our lips but also by being godly people who reflect his character in all we think and do. End of quote. (from IVP New Testament Commentary Series © 1992-2004. All rights reserved. For specific copyright information on each volume, see the copyright page.)
As we reflect His character as our lives, so will God receive the glory of this entire universe. He will receive the glory for the great things he has done, with us as the primary examples of His so great love in action. As we saw last week, the Lord makes the statement of this fact in Matt 5:14-16, as He tells us that our actions on this earth will result in the glory being given to God. "You are the light of the world. A city set on a hill cannot be hidden. "Nor do men light a lamp, and put it under the peck-measure, 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. Let our light shine before men. Our light is the light of Jesus Christ. It is as He shines forth from the lives that we live that people will be impelled to give glory to God, to load Him with all honor and adoration, to consider Him in the perfect heaviness or weightiness of His absolute characteristic of holiness. 
Consider, even within our own families, how, when Jesus Christ is the center of our hearts, our lives, our thoughts, and our actions, it is recognized. Rather than seeing the filth and the selfishness that we are in our natural state, His beauty shines forth and that is unto His glory. Our family members and friends practically gawk at the change, and they must count it as being the Hand of God at work, for there is no other explanation for the complete turn around in our behavior and our emphasis on living in the manner that is more pleasing to God than to our self-lives. No, we are not perfect in this body. We make mistakes, but, now we begin to recognize those errors. We accept correction. We seek to make things right before God because He is now our focal point of life. We desire to live lives that will bring all glory to Him and no longer care about our own glorification. 
The Psalmist knew of this desire to glorify God, and he also knew some of the measures and means used by God to accomplish His glory in our lives. Ps 84:10-12, For a day in Thy courts is better than a thousand outside. I would rather stand at the threshold of the house of my God, Than dwell in the tents of wickedness. For the Lord God is a sun and shield; The Lord gives grace and glory; No good thing does He withhold from those who walk uprightly. O Lord of hosts, How blessed is the man who trusts in Thee! 
	Please notice that in this passage we have grace and glory linked together in a vital fashion. There is a very specific reason for this in the fact that the more grace of God that is poured into our lives, the more glory that is given unto God. We have spent the last three weeks dealing with the manner in which the grace of God floods our lives. It is through the trials and the tribulations as we count on Him to get us through, that His glory is evidenced and expanded in the lives that we live. The more the grace of God is actively at work in our lives, the greater the honor and adoration, the glory that we give to God and that others watching give to God. Once again, we are at the purpose of this grace, which is to bring forth greater and greater measures of the faith of God in our lives. As we trust Him, as we live in that faith, that trust, so is God glorified in us, His church. Rom 5:1+2 Therefore having been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom also we have obtained our introduction by faith into this grace in which we stand; and we exult in hope of the glory of God. 
	The Apostle Peter, as well, saw the Hand of God’s grace as actively working to bring forth the glory of God within those who are His people. In 1 Peter 5:10+11, we read And after you have suffered for a little while, the God of all grace, who called you to His eternal glory in Christ, will Himself perfect, confirm, strengthen and establish you. To Him be dominion forever and ever. Amen. Note that he uses the terms perfect, confirm, strengthen and establish. These are all active verbs with the inherent characteristic of intense work and training, the training of our faith, our trust, and our hope in the Lord God Almighty.  
Christ outlined the very purpose of God’s active work of grace as evidenced in His birth and, soon to take place, crucifixion and resurrection in John 17:18-24.  "As Thou didst send Me into the world, I also have sent them into the world. "And for their sakes I sanctify Myself, that they themselves also may be sanctified in truth. "I do not ask in behalf of these alone, but for those also who believe in Me through their word; that they may all be one; even as Thou, Father, art in Me, and I in Thee, that they also may be in Us; that the world may believe that Thou didst send Me. "And the glory which Thou hast given Me I have given to them; that they may be one, just as We are one; I in them, and Thou in Me, that they may be perfected in unity, that the world may know that Thou didst send Me, and didst love them, even as Thou didst love Me. "Father, I desire that they also, whom Thou hast given Me, be with Me where I am, in order that they may behold My glory, which Thou hast given Me; for Thou didst love Me before the foundation of the world. 
	God’s glory is completely set in the grace with which He chose to send forth His Only Begotten Son. Christ is the only means by which God could reconcile us to Himself. It is in the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ that His glory shines forth from the heart of His grace. That grace is still vigorous and He continues to work to bring us into conformity with His Son. That is what all creation will witness on the day that it has to give all glory to God for the great things He has done, for His tremendous weightiness of Holiness.
The Apostle Paul saw this day of God’s glory being revealed and gives us very specific instructions as to the life we now live as God has made us part and parcel of His Glory. As we read in Phil 2:5-11. Have this attitude in yourselves which was also in Christ Jesus, who, although He existed in the form of God, did not regard equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied Himself, taking the form of a bond-servant, and being made in the likeness of men. And being found in appearance as a man, He humbled Himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross. 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. We are the living result of the life-giving grace of God. It is in our testimony on this earth that His grace and His mercy and His lovingkindness and His faithfulness and His provision and His holiness and His righteousness and His forgiveness and His goodness and His power and His knowledge and His patience and His truth, to name but a few of His weighty attributes, are seen. It is in the Church that God now manifests Himself and His Being of Love unto this world. Our lives are to give forth, in continued and increasing perfection, these characteristics, which are now our very characteristics by virtue of our indwelling Lord and Savior. As He is, so are we to be on this earth to His overwhelming glorification.
	John saw the very result of the life of Christ established and lived by the Church, as the bride of Christ. He recounts the vision of Christ’s revelation and glorification by all of creation in Rev 5:9-14, And they sang a new song, saying, "Worthy art Thou to take the book, and to break its seals; for Thou wast slain, and didst purchase for God with Thy blood men from every tribe and tongue and people and nation. "And Thou hast made them to be a kingdom and priests to our God; and they will reign upon the earth." And I looked, and I heard the voice of many angels around the throne and the living creatures and the elders; and the number of them was myriads of myriads, and thousands of thousands, saying with a loud voice, "Worthy is the Lamb that was slain to receive power and riches and wisdom and might and honor and glory and blessing." And every created thing which is in heaven and on the earth and under the earth and on the sea, and all things in them, I heard saying, "To Him who sits on the throne, and to the Lamb, be blessing and honor and glory and dominion forever and ever." And the four living creatures kept saying, "Amen." And the elders fell down and worshiped. 
	It is in the Church that Jesus Christ was, is, and will always be glorified. It is as the Church continues to earnestly seek for Christ to life forth His life in it that He will be glorified and we will be glorified in Him. The glory is His Alone. All of Him, for Him, unto Him, by Him, and through Him as the established result of the living Grace of God’s love.
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:     Men’s meeting in two Mondays Nov. 5
Wednesday Night Prayer Meeting
			Women’s Meeting
			Young People’s Meetings
			Dupar’s 6 AM
Other announcements?
			Tuesday, Oct. 30 Weekly Prayer meeting
Wednesday – Oct 31 – Young people’s gathering in
Moorpark 5:30-8
Birthdays:		Today – Matthew Menzie
Tomorrow – Doug Bryant
Tuesday – Marcy Harding
			Wednesday – Davis Stallings
			Friday – Omar Serrano
			Saturday – Ella Enke
Anniversaries:	Tuesday – Terry and Kristina McGregor
			Wednesday – Denise and Cornelius Van
Thursday – Chris and Julie Parsons

Today’s benediction is found in Heb 13:20+21, Now the God of peace, who brought up from the dead the great Shepherd of the sheep through the blood of the eternal covenant, even Jesus our Lord, equip you in every good thing to do His will, working in us that which is pleasing in His sight, through Jesus Christ, to whom be the glory forever and ever. Amen.