The ultimate priority of the church is to glorify God. How can the church glorify God? To glorify God, we must look like Christ and be a part of the world looking like Christ too. In this video, Pastor David Platt emphasizes the importance of glorifying God through discipleship.
- The Importance of Glorifying God
- Glorifying God through Discipleship
So making disciples would not be the church’s ultimate priority. The church’s ultimate priority is glorifying God, the worship of God. This is the end. This is the end toward which all eternity is headed. This is what we are preparing for. This is what we do on a daily basis in our hearts and our minds together when we gather on Sunday. So church, we want to glorify God.
Glorifying God Is the Church’s Priority
Well, how do we glorify God? Well, certainly in song and worship and praise, but we also glorify God in obedience. And this is where we talk at Brook Hills. We glorify God by making disciples. And so we glorify God by being conformed to the image of Christ. The more we look like Christ, the more we think like Christ, the more we act like Christ, the more Christ has been conformed in us, the more God is glorified in us.
And then it’s not just about us becoming like Christ, it’s about others becoming like Christ. And that’s where disciple-making comes in, sharing the gospel of Christ and others receive it and teaching the word of Christ so that others know it and are conformed into the image of Christ. And who then do the exact same thing in others’ lives. And this is where disciple-making then is a chief way that we glorify God in the church.
Glorify God Through Discipleship
And therefore, I think every local church needs to be asking the question, “How then can we most effectively make disciples of all nations?” That question drives us as a church. We know that we want God’s glory and we know that we glorify Him by making disciples. So there are no sacred cows here, nothing that we are holding onto, I hope, and it’s a constant process to make sure we’re not. But to say, “How can we most effectively make disciples of all nations? We’ll do whatever. We’ll organize ourselves however. What can we do to most effectively make disciples of all nations?”
And I think that really should be a driving question in the heart of every local church, at the forefront of every local church. And it becomes a lens through which different things, programs, events, everything, structure, organization is filtered through, how can we most effectively make disciples of all nations?
David Platt serves as a Lead Pastor for McLean Bible Church. He is also the Founder of Radical, an organization that makes Jesus known among the nations.
David received his B.A. from the University of Georgia and M.Div., Th.M., and Ph.D. from New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary. Some of his published works include Radical, Radical Together, Follow Me, Counter Culture, Something Needs to Change, Don’t Hold Back, and How to Read the Bible.
He lives in the Washington, D.C. metro area with his wife and children.
