Zambia Hunt

Glorifying God with Your Life – Part 3

Based on Philippians 1:9-11

This is Part 3 of a 4-part series on glorifying God with your life.

In Parts 1 and 2, we explored Paul’s passionate prayer from prison and how glorifying God begins with growing love and choosing what is best. Today, we examine the final two aspects of living a life that brings glory to God.

3. Glorifying God Means Living with Integrity

The third aspect of this prayer in our text is found in the second part of verse number 10: “That you may be sincere and without offense until the day of Christ.” Glorifying God with my life means that my life is characterized by integrity. The word sincere means to be pure. It implies a lack of hypocrisy, no disguises, and nothing extra added in.

Christ’s most scathing rebukes in the Gospels were for the self-righteous. Those who appeared one way outside, but inside, it was different. Beloved, listen, when life turns up the heat, when a spouse dies, when a child has a disability or is in the hospital, when our goals and plans begin to crumble, when trials and afflictions come, what do you think? When people start to accuse you falsely, you are suddenly presented with an opportunity to demonstrate your sincerity.

What you believe about God and his love, faithfulness, and goodness is lived out amid the fiery trial. We only heard of the three Hebrew children because of the fiery furnace. You see, glorifying God with my life means my life is characterized by integrity, purity, and blamelessness. To be blameless is to be a person of Christ-like integrity or character.

4. Glorifying God Means Producing Good Works

In verse 11, we see the fourth aspect of Paul’s prayer for the Philippians: “that you will be filled with the fruits of righteousness which are through Christ Jesus.” Glorifying God with my life means that my life produces good works. Notice what Paul says: These fruits of righteousness are the product of the life of Christ—being filled with the fruits of righteousness, which are through Jesus Christ.

You see, in this fourth aspect of this prayer, he now speaks of the external fruit. That is a result of our internal love for God, which was the first aspect of his prayer. You see, it’s like this prayer is building to a crescendo. My prayer is that you’ll glorify God by a love that is constantly growing, and number two, that you’ll glorify God with your life by choosing what is best over what is merely acceptable. And glorifying God with your life means your life is characterized by integrity. And here is the last one. The result of that is… Glorifying God with my life means that my life produces good works.

You see, these good works, this fruit of righteousness, are seen in my response to suffering, in my graciousness when attacked, in my courage when threatened, and in my ability to suffer and even die if need be for the sake of Jesus Christ. Friends, the world is not at all impressed with our business success, the size of our bank accounts, or our beautiful houses or cars. That is not what will impress our lost neighbors and friends to come and submit to the Lordship of Jesus Christ.

What impacts our world is our response to suffering, pain, death, bankruptcy, and how we handle the death of a child. That is what sets the people of God apart from those who are out there in the world. Those are the fruits of righteousness that bring glory to God.

The Ultimate Purpose

And this is the culmination of Paul’s prayer. Paul’s passionate plea on their behalf all points to this as its highest end. Look at verse 11. I pray that your love may abound more and more. A life that glorifies God begins with a love that is constantly growing. A life that glorifies God means that I choose what is best over what is merely acceptable to approve what is excellent. Glorifying God with my life means my life is characterized by integrity, sincerity, and without offense. A life that glorifies God is a life that is filled with the fruits of righteousness, and all of this culminates unto the glory and the praise of God.

This is the culmination of Paul’s prayer. Paul prayed that the Philippians’ love would increase through a growing knowledge of God that would result in the discernment to spend their life for what matters by living as men and women of integrity so that the righteousness of Christ might bear abundant fruit in them to the glory and praise of God.

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Coming up in Part 4: “Don’t Waste Your Life” – We’ll explore the urgent call to live with eternal perspective and make our lives count for what truly matters.