What do you love the most of all the things in this world that God has made? What in the world do you love most? Is it your children? Is it your spouse? Is it your reputation? Is it your money? Is it your car? Is it your house? Your job? Well, I have another question that’s related to that. What does God love most of all the things? The answer, theologically speaking, is Himself. He loves His glory. And for you and me, it would be wrong for us to love ourselves more than anything else in the world. That would be idolatrous and egotistical and self-centered. But for God, there is no one, nothing, nowhere, no idea worth him placing his affections on above and beside or beyond himself.
God must and does love himself, his glory, his character, his righteousness and his goodness more than anything else. Whatever God does, he does for his own will. Everything that God does, He does for His own glory and He does not waste time or bother doing anything that is not going to bring Him glory.
I am telling you this because I was reading in Exodus this morning and I was reading about the plagues that God sent on Egypt through Moses and Aaron in order to let the people of Israel go out into the promised land. This is what I read this morning in Exodus 9. This is during the seventh plague of Exodus 9:
“Thus says the Lord, “the God of the Hebrews, let my people go, that they may serve me. For this time, I will send all my plagues on you yourself, and on your servants and on your people so that you may know that there is none like me in all the earth for by now I could have put out my hand and struck you and your people with pestilence, and you would have been cut off from the earth. But for this purpose I have raised you up to show you my power so that my name may be proclaimed in all the earth meaning.””
God is acting on behalf of the Israelites so that Pharaoh and all the peoples of the earth will see what God is doing and know that there is a God who is fighting for Israel.
Know that there is a God who will fight for you if you know him, if you obey him, if you follow him and if you serve him. Knowing that there is a God who is on your side, who is totally good, totally powerful and wants to be known by every creature that he created on this earth.
Just for a little before I got to chapter 9, I noticed in chapter 8, during the fourth plague, he happened to say that on that day, “But on that day I will set apart the land of Goshen, where my people dwell, so that no swarms of flies shall be there, that in your midst, you will know that I am the Lord in the midst of the earth. That I will put a division between my people and your people, you will know that I am the Lord in the midst of the earth.”
In the preceding paragraphs, actually still in chapter 8, the second plague, I’m reading in verse 10 and he said, “Tomorrow.” Moses said, “Be it as you say, that you may know that there is no one like the Lord our God.” These plagues will happen. These things will take place so that you may know that there is no one like the Lord our God.
Even the plagues that God sent on Egypt were designed to let the Egyptians know and the Israelites know and all people at all time throughout all places of the earth throughout all eternity as long as men dwell on this planet, that there is none like the God of Israel, the God who fights for his people, the God who has grafted Gentiles like me into the lineage of Abraham and the people that God made a covenant with, the Israelite people.
God loves Himself. He loves His glory. He does not do anything other than to draw attention to His glory and draw focus and affection on His goodness and His character. God is a good God. He’s worthy to be known. He’s worthy to be made known. He’s worthy to be praised and worshiped by all people in all places and all time. And God knows it.
I want to encourage you with these words from the Bible today. Throughout the Bible, you find many places where God is acting on behalf of Israel or on behalf of his people, the church, in such a way that others outside of the Abrahamic Covenant will know him when he does those things and will come to seek him. You will understand that this is a great theme of the Bible, and it really is a great missions theme of the Bible. God wants everyone to worship him.
What do you love the most? Well, hopefully you love God the most because what does God love the most? God. Be encouraged. This is the great foundation for missions in evangelism in our world. No one is comparable to our God. This is why we do missions with Passion Life. We thank you for being interested in what we do, for praying for us, for sending us to these various countries, for sacrificing your finances to make it possible for us to buy the plane tickets to go where we go and do what we do.
We are a missions agency because we believe in the supremacy of Christ. We want him to be known and served and worshiped by all the peoples of the earth. And the particular application point for Passion Life, of course, is pro-life ministry. Wherever people are in a pregnancy crisis, you find people who are in a crisis of faith, wondering how or if or in what way God can possibly make life work out.
People may say, “I don’t even believe in God. But if he’s there, I’ll give him a chance in this circumstance. Because I am so desperate to have my circumstances changed. If he can do it, I will bow the knee.” We find that there are lots of opportunities to serve people in these circumstances and to preach the gospel to people in these circumstances and to let them see the all-consuming, far-reaching, unlimited power of God to reach into the darkest places of our lives and make good.
We are a missions agency and we use pro-life ministry as an application point for bringing the good news of the gospel to all people, even in the hardest places on earth. We thank you for your prayers. Pray for us today as we go about our business of making God known.