We are zealous for what we are passionate about. We are zealous for that which is most important in our lives. We are zealous for those things that keep us awake at night when they’re threatened. But what can bear the weight of our zeal? Scripture reveals that, just like the church in Laodicea, when we are zealous for our own comfort and success we only find ourselves to be wretched, pitiable, poor, blind, and naked. It is only in Christ that we can find satisfaction for our zeal. But how do we become zealous for Christ?

Just as we saw last week that a church can only be biblical if its members are biblical, so with zeal. If a church is full of lukewarm Christians, the church itself will be lukewarm. What makes a Christian lukewarm? The passionate pursuit of one’s own interests. Do you want Christ or do you want people to think you’re a good person? Do you want to rest in God being glorified or do you want to rest in comfortable prosperity? Do you run from your sin-guilt or do you run to Christ in real repentance?

At Veritas we desire to be a biblical church. Why? Because we believe that the Bible is the inerrant, divinely-inspired Word of God and, thus, the ultimate authority for all that it speaks on. But a church is only biblical if it is made up of biblical Christians. We, as individuals, need to love the Bible and study the Bible. We need to view Scripture with the authority with which it views itself. We need to read the Bible looking for Christ so that we can grow closer to Him. We need to see the call it puts out on us to believe in and love Jesus, recognize our need for Jesus, and understand the gospel Jesus gives.

Every church tries to say that it’s biblical, but what does that even mean? Is the Bible true? Is it Truth? Can we trust what we have as Scripture? The Bible makes a lot of claims about itself and about what that means for our lives. The Bible is more than just another helpful resource or handbook, it must be the lens through which we see and assess absolutely everything. Can we handle something demands that kind of authority?

We have been called as individuals and as a church to a story far greater than any story we could tell of ourselves. The King has come to redeem His land and we have been called to join Him as He fishes for men. This isn’t necessarily the easiest life, or the most comfortable life, or the most profitable life, or the life without suffering, but it IS the greatest life. It is life to the full because it is spent giving glory to something bigger than ourselves. It is spent giving glory to God in the greatest story ever told, that God is moving and is reconciling all things to Himself.

The idea was to preach about how God’s immense glory, as seen by Isaiah, translates to our call as a church to be on mission. God had a different idea. Ten minutes before the gathering began we learned that the infant daughter of a couple in the church had passed away. This sermon is still about the immense glory of God, but it is about how His glory informs our suffering here on earth. We don’t merely see a God who sends messengers and ambassadors from His throne (which is true), but we see a God who in the midst of earthly chaos and calamity sits. Calmly and unworriedly, He sits. And we don’t merely see a God who is so glorious that the seraphim can do nothing but sing for all eternity (which is true), but we see a little girl, taken from us sooner than we had hoped, finally able to join in the unending chorus with them and all creation.

God is glorious. God stands out from us because He is awesome and we are not, He is big and we are small. God creates in proportions we can’t understand, yet measures it with the span of His hand. We were made to worship God and it is when we, as individuals and as a body, look to the glory of created things—ourselves, other people, possessions, etc.—rather than their Creator, that we fall into sin and the brokenness that it brings. We were made for His glory and it is only with vision toward that glory that we find our satisfaction.

What is our vision? What do we fight and strive for? Where do we see ourselves going? Throughout Scripture, time and time again, we see people seeking after and wrestling for God’s glory, and it leaves them transformed. It is God’s glory that creates worlds with a word and can destroy just as quickly. It’s a glory that Jacob wrestled God for and that Isaiah was burned by an angel for. It’s a glory for which we need not fear and are bid to come toward because of the veil removed by Christ. It’s why we’re here.