In his sermon, Jason Dohm explores 2 Thessalonians 1:11-12, emphasizing the prayer of Paul, Silvanus, and Timothy for the glorification of Jesus Christ in the lives of believers. The sermon highlights the transformative power of God's grace, which works daily in Christians to exalt Christ through their lives. This grace is not only about salvation but continues to manifest in 'mighty works' of faith that are often subtle and transformative rather than dramatic. Dohm elaborates on the concept of 'effectual calling,' explaining it as God's sovereign act of claiming individuals as His own, transforming their hearts and aligning their lives with His will. The sermon also underscores the high calling of believers, who should strive to walk worthy of their calling by fulfilling the good pleasure of God's goodness and the work of faith with power. Additionally, believers are encouraged to live out their faith actively, reflecting Christ's glory and participating in it. The overarching theme is gratitude for the grace of God, which should drive believers to live lives of worship and obedience, ultimately leading to their glorification alongside Christ.

Our sermon text this week is 2nd Thessalonians chapter 1 verses 11 and 12, but we're going to read the whole chapter. Paul, Silvanus, and Timothy, to the Church of the Thessalonians in God, our Father, and the Lord Jesus Christ. Grace to you and peace from God, our Father, and the Lord Jesus Christ. We are bound to thank God always for you, brethren, as it is fitting because your faith grows exceedingly and the love of every one of you all abounds toward each other, so that we ourselves boast of you among the churches of God for your patience and faith in all your persecutions and tribulations that you endure, which is manifest evidence of the righteous judgment of God that you may be counted worthy of the kingdom of God for which you also suffer. Since it is a righteous thing with God to repay with tribulation those who trouble you and to give you who are troubled rest with us when the Lord Jesus is revealed from heaven with his mighty angels in flaming fire taking vengeance on those who do not know God and on those who do not obey the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ.

These shall be punished with everlasting destruction from the presence of the Lord and from the glory of His power, when He comes in that day to be glorified in His saints and to be admired among all those who believe, because our testimony among you was believed. Therefore, we also pray always for you that our God would count you worthy of this calling and fulfill all the good pleasure of his goodness and the work of faith with power that the name of our Lord Jesus Christ may be glorified in you and you and him according to the grace of our God and the Lord Jesus Christ. Let's pray. Lord God, we come before you and we ask that you would be with us, that you would help us to put aside distractions so that we can listen to the Word being preached. God, be with Jason and help him, give him your words to speak.

Pray that you would fill him with your spirit. God, I thank you for your word and we thank you for the diligence and all the time that was put into preparing for this sermon. May we not hear it in vain. In Jesus' name, amen. The title of the sermon this morning is A Prayer for God to Glorify Jesus in the Lives of His People.

It's a long sermon title, it's probably half as long as the sermon text, isn't it? But this is really what it's about. Paul and Silvanus and Timothy are praying that God would glorify His Son, Jesus Christ, by transforming His people and making their lives look very different. Making them live to the honor of his son so that his son would be magnified. That's what the text is about.

Last week the title of the sermon was, Continuing with the End in Mind. In that text, in last week's text, our authors give us a fixed point on the horizon that we can keep our eyes on throughout life, so that we're keeping the end goal, the end point, the end of all things in mind, to help us in all the moments in between now and then. The summary of it is that God is going to judge all things righteously. So if you wanted to skip to the end of the novel, are you one of those that when you pick up a novel you skip and you read the last couple of pages so you know what it is and then you can read the novel. If you want to skip to the end, that's what you're going to find in the last couple of pages.

God gets it right in His judgments of all people. He knows who his enemies are. He knows who don't know him and who don't obey the Gospel. And the end marked out for them is an everlasting destruction. The things that the Bible says about the ending, the everlasting destruction of the wicked are just terrifying.

And one of the things that struck me from the text last week was just how simple the description of God's enemies are. It's not people who sin in spectacular ways. Who do the scandalous things that we think of when we think the wicked. It is simply those who don't know God and who don't obey the gospel, who are offered the terms of peace. They've been at war against God and God offers them terms of peace and they will have none of it.

And so they don't know Him. And they don't obey the demands of the gospel that all men everywhere repent. And then the friends of God, those who truly believe, here's their end, they get rest. Life presses on them every day that they breathe. But at the end the pressure is off.

There's a relaxation of all the pressure. They're given an eternal rest where Jesus is glorified in and by the saints forever and ever. And The saints aren't those who do three miracles that you can verify. The saints are just those who have believed in Christ and trusted in Christ. Then they rest and they spend their eternity with Jesus being glorified in them and by them.

The word from the text was marveling at or wondering at Him. That's the range of the meaning in the Greek. Why all this? Why all this talk about something that may not even happen in our lifetime? Because it helps us.

It helps us to know what the end of the wicked is going to be. And it helps us to know what the end of the righteous, those who have truly believed in God, will be. It is that fixed point on the horizon that gives us such encouragement and keeps us from being disquieted by all the waves and the winds that are going to happen between now and then. We need it. It's a blessing for these authors to fix that point on the horizon for us to keep our eyes on.

This week we have a prayer by Paul and Silvanus and Timothy for the exaltation of Jesus Christ. If you want to boil it down to just a very few words, that's it. They're praying that our Lord Jesus Christ would be exalted. So as we go to the text, let's go to the text in prayer. God, I thank you for this text and I pray that you would exalt our Lord Jesus Christ through our lives.

Knowing the depth of His mercy for us, we want to live in a way that exalts Christ so that the world can see His goodness to us. I thank you that you had these missionaries praying this prayer for their converts. And we desire the things they were praying for the Thessalonians to be true among us, that we would live in such a way that Christ would be exalted, he would be lifted up and loved. Maybe so in Jesus' name we pray. Amen.

So we've got two verses and I want to draw out just four, what I believe are the main points from these two verses. So I'll be drawing on the words of the text certainly But with only two verses and them being so interrelated and interdependent, I'm not going to be going verse by verse, because it's just all there in a very short stretch. So I just want to give you what I think are the four main points. Here's number one. Main point number one.

These missionaries prayed for God to glorify Jesus through mighty works of grace in the lives of His people. That's a long one so I'll give it to you again. These missionaries, also Venus and Timothy, these missionaries prayed for God to glorify Jesus through mighty works of grace in the lives of His people. You're filling out the outline, filling in blanks, it's mighty works of grace. I'm saying that we should take the first part, that they were praying.

Look at the first part of verse 11, therefore we also pray always for you. They're saying that they were praying. And the last part, where they tell us why they were praying, look at the beginning of verse 12, that the name of our Lord Jesus Christ may be glorified in you. And we hook everything to that. So that forms our framework.

That they were praying to God, asking God for something, and that the grand purpose of it was for Christ to be glorified helps us to make sense of everything else. It forms the framework for everything else that's there. Our text today begins with, Therefore. Because of what happens at the end to the wicked and to the righteous, because of that, Paul and Silvanus and Timothy are praying that this would happen now. So they have fixed the point on the horizon.

That is the end of the wicked and the righteous. But what about now? They are praying about what happens now. In other words, Paul, Silvanus, and Timothy are not all about pie in the sky. You've heard that phrase, right?

It's used, pie in the sky is used for talking glowingly about something that's just out there in the future that is supposedly wonderful. So the future for the saints is wonderful, but it's not pie in the sky. It's not just talking glowingly about something that might be out there for the saints. There is real grace to be enjoyed today for the people of God. It's not all pie in the sky.

It's not all future for the Lord's people. They did talk about the future, but they're talking about the here and now. They're praying for the here and now. Now what is this thing that they're praying for, for the here and now? That the will of God would be accomplished through God's grace and by God's power in his people.

The future is wonderful, but in the here and now we are praying for the will of God to be done by His grace and by His power now." So the grace of God is not just what plucks us from hell and brings us to heaven. I'm not trying to minimize that. It's not a small thing that you would be plucked from hell and delivered to heaven. But I'm saying our text is telling us that the grace of God is more than that. The grace of God in the lives of His people is more than just the wonderful thing that plucks you out of hell and delivers you to heaven.

The grace of God works in the people of God every day. And The grace of God works, mighty works in the people of God every day to exalt the Lord Jesus. That's what this text is about. The grace of God is not back there somewhere. Oh Yeah, I needed it to be saved back there when I got saved.

You still need it and you still have it every day. The grace of God worked mightily in you to bring you to salvation, but it never stopped. God never stopped pouring out grace on you if you are in Christ. Just like we saw at the beginning, grace and peace is the overwhelming disposition of God towards His people. It's not back there, it's here today.

God's grace is being poured out on us so that there would be mighty works that exalt the Lord Jesus Christ. Now what kind of mighty works? What do you think of when you think of mighty works? Let's Walk on water. What could be mightier than that?

Let's raise the dead. Well, I don't know of anything that would keep that from happening if God wanted to do that. But this is not really what's in view in our text. What's in view in our text is daily stuff. This is a grace of God in the daily stuff text.

Not the once in a lifetime, walking on water, raising the dead things. Day by day, God fulfilling all the good pleasure of His goodness. We're going to talk about what that means in a minute. Day by day, God doing that. Not a big thing that attracts a lot of attention is never to be seen again, but day by day, God is working in your life to fulfill all the good pleasure of His goodness.

Day by day, having faith that works. What are the words of our text? Work of faith. Faith that becomes the source of tangible things in our lives. Work of faith.

Work that comes from faith. Faith that is the source of things that you can point to and say, that is evidence of faith. And that with power. Work of faith with power. Those are the words of our text.

Again, not as a big flashy thing that happens and draws a lot of attention and never reappears, but God working works of grace in our lives every day. Not flashy works of grace, but mighty works of grace, transforming works of grace. This is fundamentally about God transforming His people and taking them from sinners who just love themselves and just serve themselves and completely transforming them. Not overnight, but over time. God's grace every day giving you a little bit of progress every day, drawing you out of yourself and your love for the world a little more every day.

Grace, grace, grace, grace every day, daily grace producing things every day. So that when people look at you after time, of grace, grace, every day, they see deep change, they see lasting change, and they say does not compute, because they know what human beings are naturally like. And the things they see in you, they don't have a frame of reference for that. That's what we're angling towards. That's why Paul and Silvanus and Timothy are praying for these new converts so that they can see that God is doing works of grace in their lives day by day, daily works of grace in their lives to transform them so that the outside looks and says does not compute.

Like I don't even have a frame of reference for this kind of change that takes a person that was this and makes them that. That's glorious. That's glorious. God wants to do something glorious in our lives by acts of grace. Daily grace.

Daily outpourings of grace that transform us over time. You'll notice on the handout there is no place for applications. That's because we're going to apply point by point. So here's an application for this first point. We should pray this way for our brethren.

I think Paul and Silvanus and Timothy are giving us a model prayer that can and should be prayed by us for our brethren. Add this to your prayers for your brethren. You have a brother or a sister and you have reason to believe that their faith is genuine. As you can see, their affections have changed. So you begin to pray for them.

God, do mighty works of grace in their lives that draw attention to Jesus and his ability to transform sinners. Please pour out grace on this brother. Pour out grace on this sister so that Christ would be lifted up and loved. What do you think God thinks about those prayers? Prayers like that.

Do you think God has a disposition to favorably answer prayers like that? God, work in my sister so that Christ would be exalted. I think he hears those prayers. If you want to know, am I praying the will of God? I think the answer is yes when we pray this way.

I think we should add this. We should have an abundance of this in our prayers. Number two. Major point number two. This is an effectual calling, a high calling, and a calling we need God to make us worthy of.

If you're filling in blanks on the worksheet, effectual, high. This is an effectual calling, a high calling, and a calling we need God to make us worthy of. Let's look at the beginning of this text again, verse 11. Therefore we also pray always for you that our God would count you worthy of this calling. There is a calling that is referenced in this verse.

A specific calling. This calling, be worthy of that. There are three things that I said in major point number two about this calling. Here's the first thing. So I'm going to give you three things about this calling that's referenced.

First it's an effectual calling. It's an effectual calling. Calling is used two ways in the New Testament. The first way is a general call, the offer of the Gospel. It's a broad call.

You never know when you're calling, whether you're calling the elect or not elect. And in this sense, in this usage in the New Testament, it doesn't matter. Our job is not to call the elect, our job is to preach Christ crucified and offer terms of peace on behalf of the God of the universe. Through the work of Jesus Christ. And then God does what he does.

This is one way that calling is used in the New Testament. The general call, the offer of the gospel. We find it used this way in Matthew chapter 22 verse 14. Matthew chapter 22 is the parable of the wedding feast. And a lot of people are called to the wedding feast who don't come.

And one comes to the wedding feast who's not in the right garments and he is put out. So calling is used in the general sense. Many people are called to this wedding feast, and a lot of people have excuses, and they never come. And then in Matthew 22 verse 14 we read, For many are called, but few are chosen. That's the general call.

There's another way though that calling is used in the New Testament, which is the specific call of God where God claims you. It's an effectual call, meaning God gets his man, or God gets his woman, or God gets his boy, or God gets his girl. God says, you're mine. And he sets you apart for himself because he's God and he can do such things. And he does do such things.

I want you to see this specific calling and how Paul speaks of it about his own life. So turn to Galatians chapter 1. So you know the story from the book of Acts about what Saul was and what happened to him on the road to Damascus and how God really did that. God just said to this man who was bent against him, who was absolutely a war against God's people, and God just puts his hand on him and says, you're mine. Isn't that an accurate description of what we read in the book of Acts?

There's really not much other way to explain it. Here's how Paul speaks of it, his calling by God in Galatians 1. This is that other usage in the New Testament. Galatians chapter 1, I'm going to read 13-17. Paul writes, For you have heard of my former conduct in Judaism, how I persecuted the church of God beyond measure and tried to destroy it.

I advanced in Judaism beyond many of my contemporaries in my own nation being more exceedingly zealous for the traditions of my fathers. But when it pleased God, who separated me from my mother's womb and called me through his grace, to reveal his Son in me, that I might preach him among the Gentiles, I did not immediately confer with flesh and blood, nor did I go up to Jerusalem to those who were apostles before me, but I went to Arabia and returned again to Damascus." Paul talks about what he was when he was Saul. He was doing well in the ranks of those who were zealous. He was more exceedingly zealous. And up the ladder he climbed.

And he was actually climbing the ladder by persecuting the Lord's true people. He says, but when it pleased God who separated me from my mother's womb and called me through His grace. In other words, God knew that Paul was separated from his mother's womb. It was God's plan to call him at a point in time and sweep him into the kingdom by his grace, even when he was persecuting the church. He was separated from his mother's womb.

And then he called him through his grace. It's the specific call. It's an effectual call. It's God going to work on the heart of a man or a woman or a boy or a girl to change the inclinations and the affections of that heart, to remove the heart of stone and put in a heart of flesh, to cause someone to begin to love the things they used to hate and to hate the things they used to love. You can't do that.

You can't do that for yourself. God does that for you. He calls you. So it's an effectual calling. Secondly, it's a high calling.

It's a high calling. Flip back to 1 Thessalonians chapter 2. I'm Just going to look at one verse here, but it's also about this calling of God. 1 Thessalonians chapter 2 verse 12. That you would walk worthy of God who calls you into his own kingdom and glory." Now you can see how this relates to our text.

That you would walk worthy of God. Now in our text it's walk worthy of the calling here, but it's walking worthy of the God who calls, related but not exactly the same. What do we learn about the call here in 1 Thessalonians 2.12? Well, we learn that God does the calling, that you would walk worthy of God who calls you into his own kingdom and his own glory. So it's a high calling because the one who calls is the King of Kings and the Lord of Lords.

You don't need anything else to call it a high calling other than who does the calling. God Almighty does the calling, it makes it a high calling. And, He calls you into His kingdom and glory. Now we're just piling on. You're called into His Kingdom and Glory.

This is such an exalted calling. One of my favorite hymns is When I survey the wondrous cross. And the last line of the last verse is this, Love so amazing, so divine, demands my soul, my life, my all. That's what Paul and Silvanus and Timothy are getting at here. There's a calling.

There's a love that's so amazing, that's so divine behind this calling, that it demands Our souls, our lives, our all. This calling is a high calling. We should long with all of our hearts to walk worthy of it. To be counted worthy of it. So first it was an effectual calling, second it was a high calling, third and finally it's a calling we need God to make us worthy of.

It's a calling we need God to make us worthy of. Here are the words of our text, that our God would count you worthy of this calling. What's rendered here, count you worthy, if you look at the Greek it means to judge worthy, to deem deserving. So that God would judge you to be worthy of this calling. So that God would deem you deserving of this calling.

If you just look at this in isolation, you might say, okay, we do and he deems. If you look at it in isolation, that's what I think you get out of that. We do, like, go work, go work, so that God will deem you deserving of this calling. But no, no. Context, context, context.

Context is king. That's always a helpful phrase. Context is king. What is the context? Verse 12, according to the grace of our God and the Lord Jesus Christ.

Everything that we read in verse 11 and verse 12 is According to the grace of our God and the Lord Jesus Christ. Everything that we read in verse 11 and verse 12 is according to the grace of our God and the Lord Jesus Christ. These are things that come from grace. Worthiness of the calling is just one of these things in this text that comes from the grace of God. At the end of verse 11, the work of faith with power.

Whose power do you think Paul, Silvanus, and Timothy are talking about? Your power? What, are you nuts? They're not talking about your power. They're talking about God's power.

They're talking about the acts of grace, the outpouring of grace. He works in your life, so that you'll be deemed deserving of this calling of yours. But it's all of God. It's all of God's grace. It's more like this, God make our lives worthy of the kingdom you have called us into.

That's the sense of what's being prayed here. God, Go to work on us. Pour out your grace on us. Make us worthy. Make our lives worthy of this kingdom that you've called us into, by making our lives consistent with this kingdom that you've called us into, because we're getting grace that we need every day.

Here's the application, I think, for major point number two. We must be continually shaped by the height of the calling. We must be continually shaped by the height of the calling. We must be continually shaped by the height of the calling. It's a high calling and the height of the calling should shape us.

I am the Lord's. It's no small thing to be the Lord's. It's a great thing to be the Lord's. It's a grand and glorious thing to be the Lord's. It should change us to be the Lord's.

How can I be continually shaped by the height of the calling? I think one of the ways is by continually marveling. That was in last week's text. But we don't have to wait until then. We don't have to wait until eternity to marvel at Christ.

We shouldn't wait. It would be a sin to wait. He's worthy of being wondered at now. It heightens our calling when we marvel at Him and His work on behalf of sinners. In other words, when we're always thinking about what Jesus does for us, it makes it obvious how high the calling is.

And to have that always before our eyes will be shaping us. We're understanding, we're aware day to day what a privilege it is to be the Lord's, to have been called by him. Why would he call you? What was in you that deserved this calling? The Bible is so clear, nothing was in you that made him call you.

He called you as an act of free grace on his part. He called you because he wanted to call you. That's it. There's nothing else to know that he's willing to tell you. He just wanted to.

Major point number three. We are given two ways that the Lord's people can and should walk worthy of this calling. If you're taking notes and filling in blanks on the handout, two ways. We are given two ways that the Lord's people can and should walk worthy of this calling. Way number one, by fulfilling all the good pleasure of His goodness.

Here's one way we can walk worthy. By fulfilling, fulfilling, filling all the way up, That word is just what it is and the two words that make it up. By fulfilling all the good pleasure of His goodness, God likes to spread his goodness. He takes pleasure. God takes pleasure in spreading his goodness.

Very often he just spreads his goodness through the lives of his people, growth in the lives of his people. Think of how many ways we are seeing the badness of man spread. It was on full display in downtown Raleigh yesterday, believe me. It's never been a less threatening time in my lifetime to be bad. You can Do it out there on Fayetteville Street Mall.

Kind of whatever. If you're censured, those who are censuring you will be censured. Meaning, the only thing you get in trouble for is saying, that's wicked. Think about how quickly the badness of man is spreading. I want to say this, I think it comes right out of our text.

God has put a mighty counteracting force in the world. It's His people. So the badness of man is spreading. You know what? God still has a people and God through his people is spreading his goodness.

That is the whole point of the Great Commission, is the spreading of the goodness of God and God takes pleasure in it. And he sweeps people into his kingdom by his grace and then he multiplies his goodness in their lives and it results in goodness all around them for their neighbors and their co-workers and on and on. As quickly as the badness of man can spread, God has a people and he is spreading his goodness. It's a grand counteracting force to all the vileness of man spilling over in those who don't know God and who won't obey his gospel. Well, guess what?

That's not the end of the story. God has a people. The gates of hell will never, ever, ever, ever, ever prevail against His church. Forever prevail against his church. What does this look like?

What does fulfilling all the good pleasure of his goodness look like? All the law is fulfilled in one word, love, Galatians 5 14. All the law is fulfilled in a single word. In Galatians 5 14 Paul says, you shall love your neighbor as yourself. That's the word, love.

Looks like love. Way number two. That We can and should walk worthy of this calling by fulfilling the work of faith with power. By fulfilling, filling all the way up to the top, the work of faith with power. Having a faith that works.

This is the book of James, right? There are two kinds of faith. One is dead and it produces nothing. Dead things don't produce anything. Not a surprise.

One is alive and so it produces things. So this is just alive faith, faith that works. There's not an alive faith that doesn't work, that doesn't express itself outwardly, and prove itself, and demonstrate itself to be genuine. This from last week. Is there enough evidence to convict you?

You're on trial. He's accused of being a Christian. Bring the evidence. No, can't convict this guy. You can go now.

You're free. We want to be able to be convicted when we're on trial for being a Christian. We want to have faith that works. Here's the application for major point number three. An application.

We need the mind of Christ Who said My food is to do the will of him who sent me and to finish his work." That's John 4, 34. I think about that. This is what Jesus says. My food is to do the will of him who sent me and to finish his work. Obeying God, doing the will of God, was to Jesus like breakfast, lunch, and dinner is to us.

He needed it like we need breakfast, lunch, and dinner. And he wanted to finish all the work that God had given him. Hey, we don't even think in those terms. We think in terms of, whatever I get done, I get done. Jesus thought in the terms of, what has God given me to do and how do I finish it all.

It's like food to me to do His will, to obey Him. We need the mind of Christ that has more of that. That's always thinking, how do I do his will? How do I do his will? How do I obey him?

How do I finish the work that God has given me to do? How do I leave not one thing undone when I'm giving my last breath? I want them all done. Everything he wanted me to do, everything that was his good pleasure, I want to have finished off by the time I take my last breath. So we should always be asking, what am I doing with my life?

It sounds like such an easy question, but when was the last time you ever thought deeply about that question? What am I doing with my life? And you do a Pareto chart in your mind. So a Pareto chart is a graphical representation, it's a picture that shows things in comparison to one another. I do the most of this with my life.

And the second most of this my life and the third most of this my life. What am I doing with my life? The Pareto chart shows you what you do the most of and the second most of and the third most of and down the line and how much it is. So now let's look at the few big ones. I do the most of this, and the second most of this, and the third most of this.

Can those be called works of faith with power? Can they? This tells us how we're spending our lives. God gave us one life to spend for His glory. How are you spending it?

Be careful with how you answer that question. You might say the third most thing I do with my life is laundry. That is not a work of faith with power. Are you sure? The things that you do that seem mundane can actually be works of faith with power.

They don't have to be, but they can be. So be careful how you measure to measure rightly. Think about these things rightly. But it's right to ask ourselves, what am I doing with my life? Because we only have one.

And it seems like, how many days is it? A million days? Or a hundred thousand days? It's a lot of days, right? They go so fast.

You think, I can waste a day. You can't think like that. You need the mind of Christ who said, My food is to do the will of him who sent me and to finish his work. Major point number four. Major point number four.

The Lord's people participate in their Lord's glory. If you're filling in blanks, it's people, glory. The Lord's people participate in their Lord's glory. Look at the first part of verse 12. That the name of our Lord Jesus Christ may be glorified in you and you in Him.

So the grand purpose of these works of God's grace in our lives is that Jesus Christ would be glorified in us, period? No, comma. And you in him. And you in him. We are partakers of His glory.

Listen to how Paul says this in Romans 8 verse 30. This is such a key verse. Romans 8 verse 30, moreover, whom he predestined, whom God predestined, these he also called. We're using the word called here the exact same way we're using in our text, the effectual call where God claims you. Whom he predestined, these he also called.

Whom he called, these he also justified. And whom He justified, these He also glorified. This is not a verse about Jesus being glorified. This is a verse about us being glorified. Can you believe it?

Can you think of one good reason why we should be? Well, God desires it. That's one good reason. I don't have another one. I'm fresh out of reasons why we should be glorified.

God takes pleasure in it. Through God's sovereign choice, whom he predestined, before he made the world, he picked some to be the objects of his grace. He said, I'm going to pour out my grace on him. Why? Because it pleases him.

Through God's sovereign choice, and then through His calling, and then through His justifying, we become partakers of His glory. You get to participate in it. It's not enough that he saves you. And then he goes on and glorifies us. Listen to how Paul says it in 2 Corinthians chapter 3 verse 18.

2 Corinthians chapter 3 verse 18, 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 by the Spirit of the Lord. He's just said in the verses leading up to that, that unbelievers, the truth is veiled to them. Now he's talking about believers in 2 Corinthians 3 verse 18, and he says you have an unveiled face. Not the veil over you like the unbeliever anymore, but an unveiled face. You're beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord.

You're beholding Jesus' glory. And you're being transformed into the same image from glory to glory. These are the works of God's grace in your life to conform you day by day, a little more by a little more by a little more, into the image of Jesus. Just as by the Spirit of the Lord. It's the Spirit of the Lord doing this.

Conforming you into the image of Christ. And as that happens, you're going from glory to glory. You're increasing in glory. You're being glorified. Being glorified.

It's a reflected glory. You're looking at Jesus and little by little becoming like Him, and His glory is reflecting off of you. Here's the application. Here's an application for our major point number four. We should live our lives out of gratitude.

We do have a duty to obey. He is God Almighty. He has every right to command us to do anything that he wants us to do and says is good. He is the creator and we are the creature, but the driving force in our life should be gratitude that he has saved us. You make it all duty and your life ceases to be worship.

You get that right? You make your obedience just duty. God's big, I'm little, I guess I have to do it. And your life ceases to be worshiped. We do have a duty, but the driving motivation has to be, Christ spilled his blood to take a vile sinner.

You know what you were. You know what you were. He made you as white as snow. Now we live out of that. Here's the conclusion.

I want to take us to Ephesians chapter 2. We keep coming here and keep coming here and we're going to keep coming here. I hope you like it. It's a great place to be. Ephesians chapter 2, I want to close here.

Please turn to Ephesians chapter 2. As we read this, we're going to go 1 through 10. Think about how related this is to our passage. And the passage that we just came out of that talks about the end of the wicked and the end of the friends of God. Ephesians chapter 2, Paul writes, And you He made alive, who were dead in trespasses and sins in which you once walked according to the course of this world, according to the Prince of the power of the air, the Spirit who now works in the sons of disobedience, among whom also we all once conducted ourselves in the lusts of our flesh, fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the mind, and were by nature children of wrath just as the others.

But God who was rich in mercy, because of his great love with which he loved us, even when we were dead in trespasses, made us alive together with Christ. By grace you have been saved. And raised us up together and made us sit together in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus that in the ages to come he might show the exceeding riches of his grace and His kindness toward us in Christ Jesus. So I'm going to pause here and just comment. We're coming out of a text that talks about the end of the wicked and the end of the friends of God.

But you understand what's being taught here is that we all start wicked. The starting line doesn't have two groups of people, the starting line only has one group of people, children of wrath by nature. By nature, children of wrath. Born into a rebel race. A rebel bent on rebellion.

Then verse 4 starts out with these beautiful words, But God who is rich in mercy. You start with a pool, a cesspool of mankind, all bent on rebellion, but God who is rich in mercy reaches into that and shows His grace to some. That in the ages to come He might show the exceeding riches of His grace and His kindness toward us in Christ Jesus. Throughout all eternity We are going to be marveling at Him for this. This is how these two texts weave together.

Now verse 8. For by grace you have been saved through faith and that not of yourselves. It is the gift of God, not of works lest anyone should boast. For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them. So we're stripped of any ability to boast.

You're saved by grace alone, through faith alone, and even the faith is a gift. So you're really saved by grace alone, by grace alone, by grace alone. Because we're being taught here that faith is grace. It's the grace of God. It's just another element of the grace of God.

You're given it. So all boasting is eliminated. And then in verse 10, we are His workmanship. Those who are new creatures in Christ, that's God's work. Someone has worked to make you that, but It wasn't you, it was God.

We are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works. These works of grace are just going to continue in our lives. He prepared them beforehand that we should walk in them, that Christ would be exalted for His workmanship. This is what it means to be the salt of the earth. This is what it means to be the light of the world.

Jesus says, let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works and glorify your Father in heaven. Matthew 516. God, I do pray that you would glorify your Son Jesus through us. Not many people. Even when we're all here, we're not many people.

Christ has made a world of difference in our lives, and I pray that it would be on display that you would exalt the name of Jesus Christ in our neighborhoods, in our extended families, in our workplaces, in this community. People would see that Jesus Christ can do in lives what people are utterly unable to do for themselves. He would be lifted up and exalted. Pray this in Jesus' name. Amen.