The Greatest Glory

Ministry Apprentice Alex Bonitto preaches from 2 Corinthians 3:12-18. Discussion points: Earthly glories pale in comparison to the glory of God, obsession with earthly glory is a idol, we continue to behold God’s glory throughout our lives.

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  Scripture reader: [2 Corinthians 3:12-18] Since we have such a hope, we are very bold, not like Moses who put a veil over his face so that the Israelites might not gaze at the outcome of what was being brought to an end. But their minds were hardened. For to this day, when they read the old covenant, that same veil remains unlifted because only through Christ is it taken away. Yes, to this day, whenever Moses is read, a veil lies over their hearts. But when one turns to the Lord, the veil is removed.

  Now the Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom, and we all with unveiled face, beholding the glory of God are being transformed into the same image from one degree of glory to another, for this comes from the Lord who is the Spirit.

  This is the word of the Lord. Good morning.

  Preacher: How are we doing guys? Hope you enjoyed a good Christmas. I did. I stuffed my face with lots of food, and if you see my belly sticking out a little bit, that's from the aftermath. It's an honor, honor to be here. When Fletcher asked me to be up here, I was kind of starstruck. I'm like, oh wow, really? Already?

  All right, let, let's just get into it. But I hope today will be edifying to you and also be encouraging. About 9 years ago. I was competing in one of my last races as a collegiate athlete. Don't guess how old I am, just listen to the story. But I was competing in this, in this, race. It's, it's an event, it's called the NE10 Indoor Conference championship. Now, if you don't know anything about track, especially indoor track, may I tell you that the conference championship is very intense. It, it may be more intense than a state meet, more intense than a regional meet, maybe even more intense than a national meet. That's simply because it's personal. Think of all your ops, all your keyboard warriors who've been talking smack all season. How they're gonna beat you in this race, how your training's this bad, and how you're slow and this and that.

  And it finally comes down to when we're in the same space, and we get to see, OK, really, who is the fastest? It's intense. People are diving at the line, bodies are flying. Look, I'm serious. It's emotional. You got athletes crying, coaches crying. Mama's crying The janitor crying, everybody crying. But I'm, I'm competing in this zoo of an event, and it finally comes down to this perfect crescendo. It's the 4 by 400 m relay race. This is the most coveted race in, in the whole conference. You could be, you could be last. Your whole team could be losing the whole me, but everyone wants to win the 4x4. That's because the 400 m race, it's a race where you need to be fast but also tough. If you are super fast but not tough, you won't be a good 400 runner. If you are super tough but not fast, you will not be a good 400 runner. You need a combination of both. So we're coming to this race, and my coaches have 3 runners already chosen. These guys are fast. They're some of the best, some of the best in the nation, some of them.

  And they were debating on who the third person should be. And there were 2 other people in the running, and they were on paper faster than me. But for some reason the coaches chose me and the reason why they chose me is because Matt Carpenter graduated early, so I had a shot to get at it. But when he chose me, I felt the weight on my shoulders. I felt. There are other people here faster than me who should be on this race, who should be racing, but for some reason they chose me. So I felt the burden, I felt the weight on my shoulders, the importance of showing up. We line up, gun goes off, boom. Our first leg runs great. We're in the lead, no one's stopping us. Second leg, gets a baton. He does a great job, but for some reason, the other team had to do, he had to be on steroids or something, but he like flew by our guy in 2nd place. And I got the baton in 3rd.

  Now again, if you don't know anything about track and field. The 3rd leg is the runt leg. That's the donkey leg, that's the slow guy. And that was me. And I got that baton and I'm thinking, how am I gonna get in first? I'm, I'm just trying to hold the lead. I'm trying to, I'm trying to not give it off in 3rd place. And they have a 10 m lead on me. But I get the baton and I swear the Holy Spirit just did something in me where I ran faster than I ever did. And I'm coming up on the dude in first and I'm coming up so close to him that I bump him on the shoulder and he looks back. And as he looks back I pass right by him, and as soon as I passed by him, the, the whole stadium roars.

  Think of like when someone makes that buzzer beater shot, right? The whole stadium goes crazy. That's what happened and it happened right in front of some of my two best friends from college, and they're screaming at me like on the track. I'm about to hit them as I'm leaning over the corner. And they're screaming at me. As I passed him, it was intense, it was amazing. I give the baton off to the guy in 4th position. So I give it to our 4th leg, and I knew if I could give it to him in 1st, it's done rap. He's a Bermuda national record holder. Nobody is stopping this guy. He runs, crosses the line, and now we are the 4 by 4 champs. We won. Now, I'm crying, my coach is crying, my mama's crying. My friend's crying, the janitor's still crying. I don't know what's going on with the janitor.

  But what I felt in that moment is something we would call glory. I felt the weight of that. Did you know That the Hebrew word for glory, Kavod, if you transliterate it, transliterate it, it'll be K A V O D, Kavod. It is a term used to describe something heavy, even something physically heavy. So if you experience something weighty, if you experience something important like I did, you have experienced glory. It may not have been a collegiate championship race. But it might have been when you got that job promotion. It might have been when you got your PhD. It might have been on your wedding day. It might have been When you beat your friend in Madden. And it might have been when you were the first person to pass in your math tests. Whatever it was, it's glory. But these things are something I would call an earthly glory. They're based on merit and human achievement.

  The glory in this passage is far deeper and far richer. The glory in this passage is about the radiant, reflective glory of God. It's the glory that the Creator of the universe exudes on its creation. Michael Reeves defines this glory as radiant light shining out, enlightening and giving life. It is self-giving And loving Do you know anyone like that? Someone who as soon as they walk into the room, the whole room lights up. Someone who speaks life into you, in the midst of discouragement. Someone who encourages you all the time. Someone who you know would take a bullet for you, and wouldn't think about it. I think of Femi, when I think of someone like that. I think we all could agree. I think of Jared. And of course I think of my mom. They exude the radiant glory of God.

  Back in the spring, I was asked to speak on this passage at a Christian athlete event. And the main theme was chasing glory. And they use this passage to buttress that thought. But as I kept reading, as I kept diving into the scriptures, I realized this passage has much more to do with how the glory of God surpasses all earthly glories rather than a polemic against chasing glory. It's far richer, it's much deeper than that. Let's look at our text. I don't have slides up, I kinda slacked. I'm sorry. So if you have a Bible, you can kind of follow along, you can take out your phone. I'll permit it for today.

  Verse 12: Since we have such a hope, this is hope in Jesus. We are very bold. Not like Moses who put a veil over his face so that the Israelites might not gaze at the outcome of what was being brought to an end. In the days of Moses, when he was on Mount Sinai. He was receiving the written law of God, this glorious thing. The Bible tells us that because of his deep intimate relationship with God, when he came down from that mountain, his face was physically shining very bright, so bright that the Israelites had to put a veil over his face. They were, they were probably freaked out by it, honestly, if I saw someone face shining like the sun, I'd put a veil over it too. But the veil was an illustration. It was an illustration that the people couldn't handle the glory of God. And this is one of two illustrations of this passage, and we need to understand this in order to get to, to the last verse.

  Let's read verses 14 to 16. But their minds were hardened. For to this day, when they read the old covenant, that same veil remains unlifted, because only through Christ is it taken away. Yes, to this day when Moses is read, a veil lies over their hearts. Notice there was a veil over their face before. Now today there's a veil over their hearts. But when one turns to the Lord, the veil is removed. In this circumstance, the veil is there for those who still reject Jesus. Before it, it was because they couldn't behold the glory of God, they couldn't take it. In this instance, it's because people can't see God. But notice, who is the key to both of these predicaments? It's Jesus. If you can't behold his presence, Jesus gives you access to it. If you can't see Jesus, if you can't see the glory of God, Jesus takes off the blindfolds. The veil is simply an illustration of anything that blocks you from the glory of God.

  And today, the things that block us from the glory of God are earthly glories. Earthly glories we find more appealing than the glory of Christ. When we do this, we find ourselves like the Israelites putting a veil over our face. Blocking us from seeing God, ultimately quenching the transformative work the spirit wants to do in and through you. That's what happens when you let earthly glories outshine the glory of God. What I experienced as a conference champ, it was a glorious thing. It's a good thing. Your great accomplishments in life are glorious and great things. But they are mere earthly glories, and they pale in comparison to the glory of God. And when we appeal to them more than the glory of Christ, we actually miss out on its glory.

  It's like staring at a light bulb and saying this is all the light I need. When you have a giant ball of plasma called the sun behind you. It's like going to Texas Roadhouse. You know where I'm going with this. And having your mind and eyes set on a Caesar salad. When you got these honey butter rolls. And a prime rib cooked medium rare. Amen. By the way, if you're someone who gets their steak well done, you know, we love you. But, you know, you're alive, there, there is time to repent. Amen. But we often treat God as the appetizer instead of, instead of the full course meal, do we not? We often do. And in the Bible, we have this word for that, it's called idolatry.

  So my question to you is this. What earthly glories are outshining the glories of Christ in your life? Is it your desire for fame? Your need for love Your need for respect Maybe it's that marriage you always wanted. Or maybe it's a desire to just be great in your craft. These things aren't bad in and of themselves, but they become a stumbling block for our faith when our desires outshine the desires of Christ. When you allow these glories to outshine Christ, it actually makes you a prisoner of them. It doesn't grant you freedom. Only freedom, sorry, only Christ can give us freedom from these shackles.

  Let's read verse 17 together. Now the Lord is spirit. And where the spirit of the Lord is, there is what? More rules? More things you need to adhere to. Yeah Freedom This is freedom from ourselves. Freedom, freedom from sin, freedom from idolatry. Freedom from your addictions. Freedom from all the earthly pressures of the world. Who here feels pressured by their job or their boss to get things done at a certain time? Did you, yeah, amen. Did you know that through Christ, you can have freedom from those pressures? You can have freedom from all these things. And that's the reason why the glory, that's one of the reasons why the glory of Christ far surpasses earthly glories. Your achievements, your accomplishments cannot grant you freedom from these things. Earthly glories are fleeting. That means they don't last forever.

  Imagine if I was still harping on being a conference champ today, 9 years ago, you would tell me I need to get over it and move on with my life. Amen. Amen. Earthly glories are self-centered. How self-centered would it be if I just kept talking about it? Amen. They're designed to bring glory to ourselves. But they're also unsatisfactory. Who here knows who Tom Brady is? Yeah, we call him the goat around here. If you guys don't, again, there's time to repent. But Brady accomplished it all. I don't know how many Super Bowls he won. I know Josh can probably tell me. But he had it all. He had all the accolades. He was arguably the greatest quarterback of all time. He had the girl. He had everything. Yet in an interview, Brady says this. There's got to be more than this. This can't be all that it's cracked up to be. I've done it. What else is there for me? The reporter, the reporter asked him, well then what's the answer? And Brady responds, I wish I knew.

  But we do know, don't we? When you live your life expecting these earthly glories to sustain you, you will find yourself like Brady, unsatisfied and deeply wanting more. When this goes long enough, it can become destructive. The Bible says that hope deferred makes the heart sick. When you continually long after these earthly glories, and they don't fulfill you the way you need to be fulfilled, it becomes destructive. Who knows Michael Phelps? Michael Phelps is the greatest Olympian to ever walk the planet. 23 gold medals, 28 medals in total. Yet Michael Phelps struggled with something called post-Olympic depression. That's when you come off such a high from being an Olympian and achieving all these things. To going back to reality and realizing wow that didn't sustain me as much as I thought it would. And it keeps happening and you become super depressed.

  I want you to hear some of the things Michael Phelps said. He said in 2004, that was his first taste of post-Olympic depression. Coming off such a high. 2008, he said it was my second taste of post-Olympic depression because of coming off that high. After doing something, watch this, after doing something, you set out to do your whole entire life. I can tell you I've probably had at least 6 of these depression spells. And in 2014, He said, I didn't want to be alive. Am I here to pick on these people? Cause I too have suffered from this.

  A few years after I graduated college, I was still training. If I didn't, if I haven't told you, I compete in the decathlon. And but I always had this desire to be a great athlete. I always wanted to compete on the world stage with the best in the world. But that led me to just not wanting to be fast, but needing to be fast. I needed people, every person in the room to know that I was the fastest dude there, that I was the most athletic, my friends can attest to this, and it, and it, and it consumed me. And this led me to develop a habit of overworking and overtraining myself. I trained 4 to 5 hours a day and I wouldn't get that much better. And it also led to me getting crazy injuries.

  So I would get in shape Then I'd get hurt. Then I would get in shape. And then I would get hurt. And this happened 6, even probably more than that, dozens of times. That's where it led me. And one night, I found myself driving home, this is when I lived in New Hampshire. Driving home on a dark. Winding road. And I was arguing with God. And I said, Lord, why didn't you give me the things I wanted? I've been working so hard on these things, yet you have not given them to me. How many of you felt like that, with the things you desire? And I took it a step further. I'm an intense dude. And I said, Lord, if what I thought was going to be true, that I would be in that world stage one day. If this was all a lie. If you're just playing with my emotions. That night I said, Lord, take my life. Cause I don't see the worth in living if I can't have what I want.

  And on that ride home. The effects of overtraining, the effects of obsessing over this dream. Started to hit me. And I started to Doze off. And I kept dozing off. And dozing off And dozing off Next thing you know, I'm not dozing anymore. I'm out cold. And as I'm out cold. My car starts drifting off the road. Onto the gravel Pass the guard rail. Into a ditch of trees. I was on my way to die. But right before. Right before my car goes off into that ditch. The Lord wakes me up. And I correct my car, I wake up, I correct, I go into the other side of the road, I crash my car into a bank, my car is totaled. And the EMTs were shocked. Cause there wasn't a single scratch on me. All I had was a sore shoulder for 3 days. That's it. The Lord protected me that day.

  Couple of years later after that, I still didn't learn my lesson. I was, I have stiff necks. I was stiff-necked, and I went after this goal. There was a, there was a big competition. It happens every 4 years. And you're 2021 and I was training my butt off for it and I put my all into it. I put so much money into this. And I compete at an event that will hopefully let me qualify for this. For this competition And I got to 9 events. And I didn't finish. I had an Achilles an Achilles issue. And here's the sad thing. Even if I did finish, I wouldn't have been close. It was embarrassing. I, I, I won't even tell you how far away I was from qualifying. It, it was, it was delusional.

  I and I remember later on. I was out at the beach one day, it was like midnight, crying out to God. And I said, Lord, what happened? I, I, I thought you were in this. I've never heard an audible voice of God. I know some of you probably have. I've, I've never heard it. But when I asked him that question. I heard him say very, very clear. Clearer than any conversation I had with the actual person. The Lord said to me, He said, AB, when are you gonna let me be your God? And I looked up in the stars and I said, Lord, forgive me. Wretched man that I am. For I have longed and hoarded after the god of sport, and the God of self exaltation. For I've neglected to seek after your glory. And only sought after my own earthly fleeting unsatisfactory, destructive glory. But it wasn't until then that the Lord transformed my heart.

  And that's where we get to verse 18. Let's read it together. And we all with unveiled face. Beholding the glory of the Lord. Are being transformed into the same image from one degree of glory to another. For this comes from the Lord, who is the spirit. Remember, unveiled face. That's freedom from the things blocking us from beholding God's glory, from understanding his word. And because of this unveiled face, we can behold God. What's interesting about behold in this, in this passage, is the grammar. This is in the present tense, which means it's an ongoing action. You don't just behold, you don't, you don't just behold God once, and that's it. You are continually beholding God throughout your whole life. If your face is unveiled, if your eyes are unblindfolded.

  And it's not just understanding scripture, it's not that, it's seeing his handiwork in your life. I was blinded in my pursuit of my own glory. I didn't see God's handiwork. I used to be mad at him all the time. I didn't see that he was protecting me by not by not giving me the thing I wanted. Because if he, if he gave me those things, if he gave me that world stage, I would've been just like Michael Phelps. I would have been just like Brady. I didn't see it. But through Christ, through an unveiled face, we can see these things. And that allows us to behold his glory, his radiant, life-giving self sacrificial glory.

  And because of this, through this, actually. We are transformed. Now, this transformed is also interesting. The grammar, because it's in the present tense as well. Which means you're not just transformed. Once You are continually being transformed every day, every living second. As you spend beholding God's glory. We don't just accept Jesus and reach our final form. It's a lifelong journey of beholding God and being slowly, beautifully. Yet radically changed into his image. Through Christ, you can be transformed. I was transformed He changed my heart towards competition. He changed my prayer life. I used to like to pray before a a race I want people to see me, you know, the, you know, the Tibow thing. I don't know if you guys are too young for that, but. But instead of just praying when the spotlight's there, every practice, even in my garage when I'm working out, I kneel down. And I give thanks for just the ability. To do this.

  I say, Lord, If there's people here, I want to reflect you in all I do. I want your radiance to exude through me in my efforts and actions towards whatever I do. Never used to think like that. I used to think, I wanna impress these people by how fast I am. But instead, he changed my heart to say, no, I want them to see the glory of God in and through me. There's more glory And reflecting the love of Christ to my competitors than there is beating them. There's more glory in sharing the gospel with spectators and fans than impressing them with your, with my abilities. There's more glory in having a smile of gratitude on my face after a bad performance than winning the Olympic. Than than than winning the Olympics and having haughty eyes. There's more glory. Because the glory of Christ is radiant and self-giving. The glory of Christ is everlasting rather than fleeting, it's self-sacrificial rather than self-centered. It's existentially satisfying rather than wanting. And it's transformative rather than destructive.

  This glory is far greater than any achievement. Achieving things are good. We're designed for greatness. We're designed to, we're designed to achieve things. But they pale in comparison. To the glory of God. In fact, If you are being transformed into God's image. If you know the living God, and they're being transformed by him, you have more glory, you are more glorious than Michael Phelps. Think about that. Your tran the transformative work the Holy Spirit is doing in and through you is more glorious than winning a national title. It's more glorious than being the CEO. It's more glorious than getting your PhD. It's more glorious to being the most published person in the world. Cause they all pale in comparison to the glory of Christ.

  The new year's coming up. So I have a challenge for you guys. Like I said, I'm intense. But let's enter into the new year with a different heart posture. Let's prioritize beholding God's glory over beholding our own accomplishments. Let's prioritize reflecting his image than over our self-image. Let's spend more time meditating on his sufficiency rather than our inadequacies. And let's encourage one another as a community. To be bold for the Lord, not lacking anything. Relying on his strength alone to accomplish the work he has planned for us. Would you join me in prayer?

  Dear Lord, Father. Your glory is so magnificent. So wonderful. So awe inspiring. That no accomplishment we can ever achieve will compare. Lord, I ask that you change our hearts. That you transform us into your image day after day. Second after second. I pray that you put roadblocks in our life to stop us as we go after these earthly glories instead of seeing you. And I thank you, Father, for being long suffering. For being a God who cares. Who takes an interest in us. And wants us to reflect the best thing for us, which is you. I pray this in Jesus' name, Amen.