Making God Great Again (In Your Life)
“According to my earnest expectation and my hope, that in nothing I shall be ashamed, but that with all boldness, as always, so now also Christ shall be magnified in my body, whether it be by life, or by death.” Philippians 1:20 (KJV, emphasis added)
In the 2016 presidential election, the Trump campaign reached back to the days of Ronald Reagan (1980) and grabbed the Gipper’s powerfully persuasive phrase that promoted patriotism and propelled him to his landslide victory over Jimmy Carter: “Make America Great Again." Now I would like you to consider with me not a slogan but a sentence that seeks to supplant self-centeredness and set God as the superior subject of your life! Make God Great Again!
Now it is an absolute truth that God is great without any acknowledgement from man and His absolute ascendency is always and forever!
“Thine, O LORD, is the greatness, and the power, and the glory, and the victory, and the majesty: for all that is in the heaven and in the earth is thine; thine is the kingdom, O LORD, and thou art exalted as head above all.” 1 Chronicles 29:11 (KJV)
“Great is the LORD, and greatly to be praised; and his greatness is unsearchable.” Psalm 145:3 (KJV)
“Forasmuch as there is none like unto thee, O LORD; thou art great, and thy name is great in might.” Jeremiah 10:6 (KJV)
The point of this phrase is to position our minds and hearts like Paul as he proclaimed his expectation and hope in God in our opening text! I submit to you that Paul positioned himself in the promise of eternal life and purposed to magnify Christ. Magnify means to make great or declare great. Question: How can you Magnify (me-gä-lü'-nō) Christ with your body?
I encourage you to entertain the following teaching points that I believe will forward the faith-filled exercise and exhortation to magnify the Lord and Make God Great Again in your life!
Head
“For who hath known the mind of the Lord, that he may instruct him? But we have the mind of Christ.” 1 Corinthians 2:16 (KJV, emphasis added)
The reference to the mind comprises alike the faculties of perceiving and understanding as well as those of feeling, judging, determining. Do we purpose to perceive, understand, feel, judge and determine like Christ?
Emotions
“He that hath no rule over his own spirit is like a city that is broken down, and without walls.” Proverbs 25:28 (KJV)
This verse refers to our spirit as the seat of emotion. Individuals who do not rule over their own emotions are vulnerable to the enemy’s attacks.
Actions
“And every man that striveth for the mastery is temperate in all things.” 1 Corinthians 9:25a (KJV)
A temperate person exhibits self-government and conducts one's self temperately, showing moderation and self-restraint.
Relationships
“And let us consider one another to provoke unto love and to good works.” Hebrews 10:24 (KJV, emphasis added)
The call to consider in this verse means to observe, understand, to consider attentively and to fix one's eyes or mind upon something. To provoke means to incite or encourage. We are to collectively consider each other in order to encourage one another to love and good deeds. Love begets love.
Talk
“Let no corrupt communication proceed out of your mouth, but that which is good to the use of edifying, that it may minister grace unto the hearers.” Ephesians 4:29 (KJV)
Behavior
“He that saith he abideth in him ought himself also so to walk, even as he walked.” 1 John 2:6 (KJV)
Obedience
“Know ye not, that to whom ye yield yourselves servants to obey, his servants ye are to whom ye obey; whether of sin unto death, or of obedience unto righteousness?” Romans 6:16 (KJV)
Decisions
“I call heaven and earth to record this day against you, that I have set before you life and death, blessing and cursing: therefore choose life, that both thou and thy seed may live.” Deuteronomy 30:19 (KJV)
Yield
“Submit yourselves therefore to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you.” James 4:7 (KJV)
In closing, consider the words of the hymn How Great Thou Art:
O Lord my God,
When I in awesome wonder
Consider all
The works Thy Hand hath made,
I see the stars,
I hear the mighty thunder,
Thy pow'r throughout
The universe displayed,
Then sings my soul,
My Savior God, to Thee,
How great Thou art!
How great Thou art!
Then sings my soul,
My Savior God, to Thee,
How great Thou art!
How great Thou art!
God’s people are in the position to enjoy greatness in their lives because God is great!
For the Glory of God,
PBKSR