For His Glory- Chandler

• God created us for His glory (Isaiah 43:6-7). I want you to think about this. The reason you exist, the reason you are is for the glory of God, the name and renown of God. The praising of His infinite perfections, that’s why you exist. You’re not here for fellowship. God was not lonely and decided to make you because He was just tired of being alone after eternity of being alone. God was perfectly content within the Godhead. God the Father, God the Son and God the Spirit did not need to create you. He did create you for the praise of His glorious grace. That’s why you exist. It’s the reason you’re alive.
  
  
  
• God calls Israel for His glory (Isaiah 49:3). “And he said to me, "You are my servant, Israel, in whom I will be glorified."”
  
  
  
• In Jeremiah 13:11, we find out that He tells the nation of Israel, “I didn’t pick you guys because you’re awesome. I picked you because you were the smallest, crummiest tribe there was.” So even with Israel, it wasn’t about Israel. In fact, even to this day, God delights in making much of Himself through people who are lacking. You should be very grateful for that.
  
  
  
• God rescues Israel from Egypt for His glory (Psalm 106:7-8). “Our fathers, when they were in Egypt, did not consider your wondrous works; they did not remember the abundance of your steadfast love, but rebelled by the sea, at the Red Sea. Yet he saved them for his name’s sake, that he might make known his mighty power.”

• God raises up Pharaoh to show His power and glory (Romans 9:17). “For the Scripture says to Pharaoh, "For this very purpose I have raised you up, that I might show my power in you, and that my name might be proclaimed in all the earth."” I know Romans 9 is a wildly unpopular Scripture, but it’s in the Bible. You ought to check it out. In Romans 9, the Scriptures tell us that God allowed Pharaoh into the pinnacle of human power. So Pharaoh pretty much is ruler of the world at that point in history. He has a slave force of millions, a massive empire and a massive army, and the Bible tells us that God gave him all of that so He could crush him to show that man at his pinnacle is tiny compared to God on His worst day. We see that even the destruction of Pharaoh was about the name of God.
  
  
  
• God defeats Pharaoh by the Red Sea to show His glory (Exodus 14:4; 17-18). “And I will harden Pharaoh’s heart, and he will pursue them, and I will get glory over Pharaoh and all his host, and the Egyptians shall know that I am the LORD." And they did so. . .And I will harden the hearts of the Egyptians so that they shall go in after them, and I will get glory over Pharaoh and all his host, his chariots, and his horsemen. And the Egyptians shall know that I am the LORD, when I have gotten glory over Pharaoh, his chariots, and his horsemen.”
  
  
  
• God spared Israel in the wilderness for the glory of His name (Ezekiel 20:14). “But I acted for the sake of my name, that it should not be profaned in the sight of the nations, in whose sight I had brought them out.” I have never ceased to be comforted by the fact that God never just outright destroys the nation of Israel. They get it right for a couple verses in the Old Testament. Right behind almost every verse of commendation is, “All right. You want t go that way? We’ll go that way.” And so God never destroys them or completely annihilates the nation of Israel, and He does it for the sake of His name.
  
  
  
• God gave Israel the Promised Land for the glory of His name (2 Samuel 7:23). “And who is like your people Israel, the one nation on earth whom God went to redeem to be his people, making himself a name and doing for them great and awesome things by driving out before your people, whom you redeemed for yourself from Egypt, a nation and its gods?”
  
  
  
• God did not cast away His people for the glory of His name (1 Samuel 12:20-22). “And Samuel said to the people, "Do not be afraid; you have done all this evil. Yet do not turn aside from following the LORD, but serve the LORD with all your heart. And do not turn aside after empty things that cannot profit or deliver, for they are empty. For the LORD will not forsake his people, for his great name’s sake, because it has pleased the LORD to make you a people for himself.”
  
  
  
• God saved Jerusalem from attack for the glory of His name (2 Kings 19:34; 20:6). “For I will defend this city to save it, for my own sake and for the sake of my servant David. . .and I will add fifteen years to your life. I will deliver you and this city out of the hand of the king of Assyria, and I will defend this city for my own sake and for my servant David’s sake.”
  
  
  
• God restored Israel from exile for the glory of His name (Ezekiel 36:22-23; 32). “Therefore say to the house of Israel, Thus says the Lord GOD: It is not for your sake, O house of Israel, that I am about to act, but for the sake of my holy name, which you have profaned among the nations to which you came. And I will vindicate the holiness of my great name, which has been profaned among the nations, and which you have profaned among them. And the nations will know that I am the LORD, declares the Lord GOD, when through you I vindicate my holiness before their eyes. . .It is not for your sake that I will act, declares the Lord GOD; let that be known to you. Be ashamed and confounded for your ways, O house of Israel.”