For me, a guy who loves new experiences, it was enlightening and stimulating. I came away full of insight and wisdom. One in particular that I heard came from a young man I’ve known since 6th grade. His name is Kyle Vanderzee, and he is the worship director for a church in Northern Indiana. Preaching isn’t his normal role, but when he does preach, I’m always eager to listen.
He shared an observation from pastor-theologian John Piper regarding worship in church. More to the point, about a specific word we use in our worship. It’s the word “Magnify”
The word magnify gets used a lot in the expression of our faith. We read it in the Bible. It gets used in lyrics in hymns and praise songs. We speak it in our prayers.
And it makes sense to use this word, because magnify is an appropriate word. It is an action word. It means “to make larger.” But there is a subtly here that we need to be aware of…because in the everyday use of the word, we use it differently. And because we use it differently, it can distort the true meaning of what magnify is trying to communicate.
What am I talking about?
In everyday life when we use the word magnify what come to mind? What do we think of or envision? For most of us, we think magnifying glass or maybe microscope. Maybe the zoom function for the cameras on our phones. Or even the lower part of our eyeglasses
We MAGNIFY as a way to make small things look bigger.
That would be correct use of the word, but that is not the way scripture, song, and prayer uses it. Because there is another way that magnification is used…in telescopes. Telescopes make big things closer and clearer. We can see them as they really are. When we peer thru a telescope it closes the distance and enhances the detail.
In the same way, when we magnify God, we see him clearer and we experience him as closer.
I think of Moses and his story given to us in the Book of Exodus. Moses wanted to see God. God warned him he could not look fully into God’s face and survive. He’d be too close; he’d evaporate in an instant.But there was a magnification process that allowed him to draw closer to God - and know and experience God. We’re not going to get as close to God as Moses did, but there is a magnification is available to us here and now. There is way we can encounter God; focus on and experience Him.
We can do that through the magnification of: Word - Worship - Prayer - and Discipleship.
When we make use of that kind of magnification, God’s incomprehensible immensity comes into sharper focus. We are struck with awe and reverence. And that leaves a mark on us - just as surely as it did on Moses. (Genesis describes Moses’ face as “radiant.”)
So we are starting a series called: Magnify the Lord.
In this series we will explore what and how we can magnify the Lord in different ways, including, through our scripture study, through our worship, and through our daily living.
It is a six week series that is centered on the letter that the Apostle Paul wrote to a church in the ancient city of Ephesus. We call that letter the “Book of Ephesians”. It’s not a particularly long letter, but scholars have divided into six separate parts that we call “chapters.” So six chapters gets you six weeks.
So that’s the introduction, let’s turn to chapter 1 of Ephesians. It is a chapter we can summarize as “Magnify Love.”
Ephesians 1:3-11 (NLT)
All praise to God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly realms because we are united with Christ.
Even before he made the world, God loved us and chose us in Christ to be holy and without fault in his eyes. God decided in advance to adopt us into his own family by bringing us to himself through Jesus Christ. This is what he wanted to do, and it gave him great pleasure.
So we praise God for the glorious grace he has poured out on us who belong to his dear Son. He is so rich in kindness and grace that he purchased our freedom with the blood of his Son and forgave our sins. He has showered his kindness on us, along with all wisdom and understanding.
God has now revealed to us his mysterious will regarding Christ—which is to fulfill his own good plan. And this is the plan: At the right time he will bring everything together under the authority of Christ—everything in heaven and on earth.
Furthermore, because we are united with Christ, we have received an inheritance from God, for he chose us in advance, and he makes everything work out according to his plan.
- - - - -
Now if these words are a telescope…it reveals a constellation of things we could explore. But I want to focus on verses 4 and 5.
Even before he made the world, God loved us and chose us in Christ to be holy and without fault in his eyes.
If there was ever a biblical statement about the BIGNESS of God…this has to be one of the top contenders.
Even - before - God - made the world…
Let’s stop there and dwell on that…
Before God started speaking the words that brought Creation into existence,
WE - WERE - ON - HIS - MIND.
As He spoke: “Let there be light”…
You and I are what He was thinking about.
As He separated sky from water, and water from land…
We were in His thoughts.
As He spread out the stars in the universe. Put the sun & moon in their place. Spun the earth on its axis so we’d have day & night…
You and I were in His gaze.
As he called forth plants and animals, birds and fish, let them multiply and spread out over his Creation…
We were the ones in He was thinking about.
He made the Garden of Eden - put humanity in it - and gave us a role (which gives us our significance), He wasn’t only thinking of Adam and Eve…
He was thinking of YOU and ME.
So what was He seeing? What was He thinking?
I dunno about you, but if I do an honest look at my life;
Everything I have done, that I knew I shouldn’t;
Everything that I shouldn’t have done, did anyway;
All the words I spoke in anger, fear, jealousy, hate,
gossip that should have never left my lips;
And all the words that I should have spoken in love,
support, confession, truth that I kept locked away.
If THAT is what God was thinking about me…
If THAT is what God was seeing in me…
WAY BEFORE all of this was created.
I would not blame him a bit if he decided to hit the reset button and start over. Or maybe “Let’s not do this at all.”
That is what makes what comes next in our scripture makes God so much bigger than we could possibly comprehend.
What is our scripture magnifying about God?
First: He loves us.
Maybe that makes a little bit of sense. We can wrap our mind around that God loves us. I mean that’s God’s job. He has to love us. But what follows is harder to accept.
Next: He chooses us.
Again…full and honest picture of our life. Not the life that we project to everyone to make us look normal. But also that secret life we live. The stuff we think, do, and say when we believe no one is looking.
And he still wants to choose us?
There are a lot of people in our lives that we “love” but we would never “choose.” Maybe we have family members that we love, but we’re stuck with them because they’re family, because if they weren’t…we’d be waving “bye-bye.”
This is the optional part of our love. We can choose people to be in our life. And while we know the people we choose are not perfect, at least they are minimally annoying or aggravating.
But to God, we MUST be the most annoying and aggravating ever. Because God IS perfect. And we’re not. And yet he chooses us.
But it doesn’t stop there.
Finally - He makes us holy and without fault.
Let’s be clear…this far surpasses being freed of annoyance and aggravation, or saying or doing the right thing at the right time
This is WAY beyond that…
We are made HOLY - which means set apart. SACRED
We are without FAULT - forgiven and freed from our sins;
Clean and new.
And he make us holy and without fault through life, death, resurrection of Jesus - God’s son. A person who countless people saw and touched and didn’t instantly evaporate because they were too close.
The person who was God incarnate - God in a human body
That is what was in God’s mind. That is what God saw
FROM. THE. BEGINNING.
And if we were to try to look behind all that and figure out WHY?
Why would God LOVE me?
Why would God CHOOSE me?
Why would God make me HOLY and WITHOUT FAULT?
The next sentence tells us simply and plainly.
This is what he wanted to do, and it gave him great pleasure.
Again…MAGNIFY that. Say it slowly and let sink in.
This is what he wanted to do, and it gave him great pleasure.
Our God is a SOVEREIGN God.
A CREATOR God
A PERFECT God
God doesn’t need anything from us. Indeed, God doesn’t “need” - period. End of story.
But this is what God WANTS to do.
Perhaps my favorite psalm of all time captures this:
Our God is in heaven; he does whatever pleases him. (Psalm 115:3)
And this is what he wants. More to the point, this is what he DOES:
HE loves you
HE chooses you
HE makes you holy & without fault
I encountered during sabbatical called: “As You Find Me.” It’s by Hillsong (of course.) I encourage you to put this song on your playlist.
Songs have a unique way to connect us to truth in ways that saying the words can’t. This one captures what this scripture is trying to magnify for us. Every time I listen to it, I’m reduced to a blubbering mess.
But I want to highlight part of the lyrics that reflect what Ephesians 1 is communicating - MAGNIFYING - for us:
I was found before I was lost
I was yours before I was not
I know I don't deserve this kind of love
Somehow this kind of love is who You are
It's a grace I could never add up
To be somebody You still want
But somehow you love me as You find me
When we magnify God’s LOVE to its true proportion….
NOTHING can stop it.
It is TOO POWERFUL.
And God loves us where he finds us.
His love is too good to leave us here.
Let me close with some words I received from my best friend in seminary Drew Poppleton, who is now leading a church in Traverse City, Michigan.
__________
You are not what you have done or not done,
You are not what people say or think about you,
You are not what you have or don’t have,
You are a beloved child of God,
That’s who you are and whose you are,
God knows you…and loves you as you are,
With the expectancy of who you are becoming,
(and becoming is always a matter of living into an identity rather than "living up to" an expectation.)
__________
Keep the Faith - Pastor Art
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