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I don't mind telling you that if God were not alive today, I would not be too interested in studying the Bible. If I had never felt God, it would be hard to convince me that He is real. If God did not choose to move today, I would not spend the hours that I do in church, prayer, and study and certainly would not be doing what I do for a living. I can go through many trials; I can have a lot of heartache in this life. You can disillusion me with many things. But there is one thing of which I am completely convinced: God is real, He still moves today, and He is very interested in me and my response to Him!

That is why there is nothing in this life that I love more than being in the wonderful prescence of God. The memories that I cherish most, is the times when the wonderful Glory of God has filled the building and without a shadow of a doubt you know, that God is in this place! I can't see Him, and I can't figure Him out, but I can sure tell when He visits His people with His Glory! If it's this good feeling His presecnce down here, what's it going to be like up there?! Heaven is far beyond what I can even imagine! I can't wait to get there!

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The word for glory is "doxa" and means the "extravagant, magnificent splendor and brightness of a pure king." It referred to the times that God's mighty splendor and magnificent power came among men till there was no doubt that the King of Glory had visited that place! The Glory of God! The word denotes all of the goodness and all of the power, and all of the ability of the king! When the Glory of God comes into a place what is happening is that God has made everything that we need available! All of the riches, all of the power, all of the miracles, and all of the blessings that you need are available for the Glory of God has visited that place!

If you read your Bible, you will find that the Glory of God is referred to many times throughout scripture. God chose a particular people, the Israelites, to use to reveal His Glory to the world! When Jacob was running from his past and not quite sure what he was going to do with his life, the Glory of God met him at Bethel. 14 years later, the Glory of God met him once again. When the Glory of God met with a man who would humble himself in repentance, God was able to forever change Jacob's life! Jacob the deceiver, became Israel the keeper of God's Glory simply because of some encounters with God's Glory! As human beings today, we must never underestimate the power of God's Glory! I don't care how many times that they have failed God, I don't care how many times that they have fallen. Let's keep encouraging them to come to church. I don't care how hard they may seem or how deep in sin they seem to be entangled, keep inviting them to church. It may be one of the times when God's Glory comes in this place that they will have a life changing experience with God! Let them experience the wonderful Glory of God!

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It was Israel that God called out to be separate, and the reason was that God wanted to reveal to them His glory! While the pagan religions dealt in fable and fiction, the one, true, living God of Israel revealed Himself as a living God who was able and magnificent. Can you imagine the feeling of seeing the Glory of God descend like a cloud upon the temple, and knowing that God Almighty had just come in all of His power and all of His might!?! Can you imagine being at Solomon's temple after Solomon had just spent great effort and great expense in preparing a place for God to dwell!? And seeing the sacrifices get interrupted by a glory cloud of God that was so thick that the priests could not even see to minister!? The planned dedication service was interrupted the Glory of Almighty God descending into that place! What a powerful God! What a blessed people they were to have the Glory of God in their midst!

We too are blessed. The same things that attracted God to move in such a powerful way has attracted God to move in our church, and in this town! Their were three things that attracted God to Solomon's temple!

1. The people had gathered together to commit themselves to praise and worship only the one true living God with an humble and repentant heart.

2. The temple was furnished and built according to God's design and specifications.

3. There was much sacrifice of time, animals, and effort to prepare a place for God to dwell among the people.

All three have attracted God to us! This morning is a tremendous example of the mighty Glory of God visiting us! Sometimes He descends in the worship, sometimes He descends in the preaching, and sometimes during the altar service. There have been times when He has come with all of His glory in the prayer meeting before service! God has been moving in a special way in our services.. why? Because some of us are meeting the same criteria that attracted God to Solomon's temple {go back to the three points!}

God still wants to dwell among His people! He still wants to reveal His Glory to His chosen people! He still wants to reveal His Glory to this area by people who are committed to worship with a pure and humble heart. By people who will commit to worshipping Him, and Him alone! By people who are willing to sacrifice time, effort, and expense to provide a place for God to dwell and meet His people within, and by people who are willing to build the temple of the Holy Ghost (their bodies) in the design and to His specifications! When people are going that direction in their lives, God will reveal His precious Glory to His people!

In our text, it was the night before Jesus' death and Jesus was praying for His disciples. As He prayed for them, He looked at the eleven and realized that they were but a small part of what God wanted to do. They were all Jewish and had spend 3 and a half years with Jesus literally walking about the earth. As I recently read Jesus' prayer, something stood out to me:

Did you catch that? Jesus wasn't just praying for 11 Jewish men who were there, but was praying for "them also which shall believe on me through their word." In other words, He wasn't praying just for the original Apostles but all who would believe on Jesus THROUGH THE DISCIPLES WORD! Then Jesus went on to say that "they," meaning the Apostles and those who would believe their word concerning Jesus, "all may be one!" What does this mean? Read on:

Jesus was praying that the Glory of God would be manifest through the disciples! That the same Glory that had been revealed to Israel would carry on throughout the disciples and even into those who believe on Jesus through the disciples' word! That means us!

God didn't give us a bunch of stories about His Glory descending and miracles and powers and wonders being done just to make us sigh and wish for what used to be! He gave them to us to reveal to us exactly what He wants to do through us! Jesus prayed that the Glory of God would be revealed through the Apostles and those who believed on Him through their word! That's why when you begin to teach and obey the Apostle's doctrine, it brings the Glory of God! When you teach and preach the same message as Peter, John, and Paul did, and begin to obey it, you begin to experience the Glory of God! Many of you through either teaching or divine revelation have come to realize the truth of who Jesus Christ is. You've started to realize the importance of Repentance, Water Baptism in Jesus' name, and the infilling of the Holy Ghost. You've begun to believe on Jesus through the Apostle's words! You know exactly what Paul was talking about when he asked the guys in Ephesus, "Have you received the Holy Ghost SINCE you believed!" And as you begin to change your beliefs and actions to match the Apostle's doctrine, you become the benefactor of His Glory! God will make His Glory manifest in a special way in a church that preaches the truth! The Glory of God should be a common occurence in our services! The Apostolic church brings the Glory of God! Oh, it takes sacrifice. It takes effort. It takes a made up mind to worship and praise God despite the circumstances. It takes studying the blue print of the temple plans to make our bodies a temple designed according to God's specifications! But the Glory of God is worth it! Nothing is too great to ask in response to the Glory of Almighty God!

And when the Glory of God comes into this place, He desires to move just as mightily as He did back in the Old Testament. He desires to move just as He did in the Apostolic Church. He is here in all of His Glory and splendor and might and ability, and that's the time to allow Him to change you. To receive power, to seek after His face! When the Glory of God comes down!

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In our other text, Paul stated that the law was glorious but was intended to die. In other words, the Law was written with one thing in mind: Jesus Christ dying to end it! And yet the Law was glorious!

What is his point? If the law was so glorious that when Moses came down from receiving it, the Glory of the Lord shone so much that Moses had to put a veil over his face for the people were afraid! The Glory of God had so great effect on Moses, who witnessed it, that the people saw a visible shining! But Paul went on to say that the law was to simply bring us to Jesus Christ and the Dispensation of Grace. The law was to get us to a time when the Spirit of God could minister among us! So if the Law was that glorious and the Glory of God in Law was able to have such a tremendous effect, then the Glory of God now, that the Spirit of God has been poured out, now that Jesus Christ has died and risen again, it will "EXCEED IN GLORY!"

When I think of what God has done for the people of Israel! When I think about the Glory of God coming and troubling the Egyptians while Israel escaped on the other side of the Red Sea. When I think of how the Glory of God led Israel literally to the promised land! When I think of how the Glory of God filled the temple and shook the mountains and ALL of the wonderful acts that God did for His people back then! I need to realize that God is going to do GREATER things for His people today! For the people who believe this precious Apostolic message! For those who are willing to build this temple according to the specifications of God's Word!

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In our text, when God brought the children of Israel, He brought them to Mt. Sinai and showed them His Glory!

God then gave them stipulations on how to guard the glory! As I begin to read this passage this week, something stood out to me that I had never noticed before! What would happen to the people if they touched the mountain? They would be killed. But how would they be killed? God left it up to the people to execute judgment! In other words, God was going to reveal His Glory and yet it was up to the people to defend it!

In all of scripture, I can only think of a few times that God has defended His Glory. Once God struck a man named Uzzah dead because he touched the Ark of the Covenant while they were moving it. Another time, God burnt up the sons of Aaron, Nadab and Abihu when they had offered up strange fire to God upon the altar. Another time, God struck dead Ananias and Sapphira for lying to the Holy Ghost, but since then we cannot find another person struck by God in defense of His Glory! Why?

God has left it up to us to defend His Glory! If you want the Glory of God to stay, then you must be willing to defend it! Why would God strike Uzzah dead and yet when the Philistines stole the Ark of the Covenant which is where God dwelt, He did not strike them all dead immediately? Because God wanted Israel, His promised people to defend His Glory! God wanted the people to stand up and serve Him and love Him and keep His commandments in order to keep the Glory!

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We have already talked about when Solomon dedicated the temple to God. In reading, I found a disturbing scripture:

God was saying, "It's up to you to defend my Glory in the midst of you." I'll help you unless you begin to serve other Gods, but if that happens, then I will leave this house and dwelling place!

Solomon did eventually turn his back upon serving God. And when He did, the kingdom followed suit. Nebuchadnezzar came and burnt Jerusalem and the Bible says:

I have often wondered why a God that was so strict that if the priest were to enter into the temple, say forgetting to wash himself and change garments, that God would strike Him dead. Yet, when the armies of Nebuchadnezzar came in, they walked right into the temple and stole all of the sacred vessels! They walked into the Holiest place and carried out the ark! Why didn't God strike them dead? BECAUSE HE WAS ALREADY GONE! His Glory had already departed! When the people chose to live in idolatry and to compromise and live like the world, God said "if you will not defend my Glory, I will leave!" It is up to us to keep this precious glory of God intact!

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Story of Joshua, the children of Israel, Ai and the sin of Achan:

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When I look over the history of God's people, I can find generations that have neglected to defend the Glory of God. Just as God was already gone when Nebuchadnezzar came, so was the Glory of God departed from the temple when the Romans destroyed it in A.D. 70!

When they rejected the Apostolic message, the Glory of God had left the temple!

Now, just because the Spirit of God lives in temples of the human body, doesn't lessen the responsibility! We must become guardians of the Glory of God! It's not enough to feel the Glory of God one time, but we must ensure that the Glory of God will still abide here and dwell here for generations until His coming!