For from Him and through Him and to Him are all things. To Him be the glory forever! Amen.For of him and through him and to him are all things. To him be the glory for ever! Amen.For of him, and through him, and to him, are all things: to whom be glory for ever. Amen.For of him, and through him, and unto him, are all things. To him be the glory for ever. Amen.
7 sermons cite this verse
… Give us a verse out of your word. And he did. In Matthew, I'm sorry, in Romans 1136, here's our For from him and through him and for him are all things. To him be the glory forever, amen. As a Beal, everything that we have came from God. Everything we do, we do through his power. And the whole by-product of our existence is to give glory to God. Like there's a painting over our fireplace. Our boys know it, they're teaching their kids, our grandkids, this is what it means to be a Beal. And that value was put to the test about four years after we set this as our family verse. In the middle of the night, our house caught fire. It started in the attic. So the smoke detectors were not going off and we were all sleeping. And I'll just tell you, I'm not going to get into all the details, but the Holy Spirit woke Cindy Beale up. She got out of bed, looked out the window, and there's flames shooting from our attic out of the eve vents. …
… He does whatever he pleases. Romans 11 says, from him and through him and to him are all things. So see, God is not watching history, as it were, and kind of seeing things happen and then kind of scrambling to figure out what he needs to do. No, the Bible says his sovereignty, he rules. Nothing catches him unaware. Nothing exists independently from God. Nothing is outside his sovereign authority. Think about that. As you think about your life. so you have this eternal sovereign God who's providential, because I would say the scriptures speak about his providence, and it's technically considered a work. It's not an attribute, but it is important to mention here, and that's why I'm mentioning it. See, the Heidelberg says that everything comes to us not by chance, but by God's fatherly hand. You hear that? You see that in the word there? I love those two words, fatherly hand, that the Heidelberg uses there. Because hand means power, and fatherly means love. And what providence is is that the sovereign God, who's all-powerful, actually is using his hand and is working his plan and preserving things and directing things and governing things, the details of this world, according to his wise and fatherly hand. …
… They come from God. Or Romans chapter 11, verses 35 and 36. Who is given a gift to God that he might be repaid? for from God and through God and to God are all good things. The source of goodness is not us to God. It is God to us. Goodness comes from God. But she said, whoa, hold on. I am a good person. I've worked hard for the things that I have and I deserve good things. That's what Oprah told me. Listen, this whole Oprah inspired, I'm good and I deserve good things. That mentality sounds so healthy, but it is the gateway to unhappiness. You see, even in those places where you are good, where does that capacity for good come from? Paul answers that right here in Philippians. If you let me jump ahead to chapter two real quick. Paul said, it is God who works in you both to will and to work for his good pleasure. By the way, most Christians understand that it's God, the Holy Spirit, who gives you the strength to obey him after you've decided to obey him. …
… reaches its great climax at the end of chapter 11, verse 36, and says, From him and through him and to him are all things. The all things includes the glory of the church. the glory of the church in all of its dimensions is from God, through God and to God. So when Paul soars in that last exaltation to him be glory forever it includes to him be glory through the glory of the church. so one glory is ultimate the glory of God and the other glory is penultimate the glory of the church the church is glorious for the sake of the glory of God and since we are that church it's just amazing to me that I get to talk to so many shepherds of flocks, hundreds of congregations, no doubt, represented at this conference. Since we are this and your people are this, we cannot talk dispassionately about this glory because it's your glory. This is not a theoretical thing. If we're going to talk about the glory of the church. We're talking about your glory, the glory of that people you left behind. …
… Who has ever given to God that God should repay them? For from him and through him and for him are all things. To him be the glory forever. Amen. You know you're singing good when you amen yourself, right? And then verse chapter 12 begins and says, therefore, I urge you, brothers and sisters, in view of God's mercy to offer your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God. This is your true and proper worship. Do not conform. Here's our verse for the day. So you can now see it in its context. Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God's will is, his good, pleasing, and perfect will. Most people stop there, but verse three is important. He says, for by the grace given me, I say to every one of you, do not think of yourself more highly than you ought, but rather think of yourself with sober judgment in according with the faith God has distributed to each of you. …
… Romans 11, 36 says, for from him and through him and for him are all things. To him be the glory forever. Amen. You see, there's real momentum that's building right now. Your generosity has actually spurred hundreds of thousands of others to come alongside because we're not just reaching a milestone, we're accelerating through a milestone. You may not have known this, but we actually thought we would initially reach the milestone of 1 billion in 2027. And then we thought, whoa, it's looking like it's gonna be 2026. And then here we are in November of 2025. And that's when we're celebrating a milestone because it's really, really accelerating. But here's what you need to hear. It took 17 and a half years to get to this milestone, 1 billion. But now with this momentum, we actually believe, I believe, that we will see the second billion happen in just five. And the third billion happen in just three more years. You want to know what's crazy, though? …
… Nobody puts God in their debt. For from him and through him and to him are all things. To him be glory forever and ever. God is great. Third observation, God has revealed himself, his ways, his purposes in his word. Otherwise, we're just jabbering. I look at Christians who don't believe the Bible and still hold on to a little bit of Christianity and I say, you're just making it up. If you leave the book, you're making it up. Those are two choices. You can go with the book and the way God has described himself and his ways, or if you lay the book down and turn away and you come up with ideas to call Christianity, you're just making it up. That's going to look ridiculous on the last day. I promise you, you're going to wipe your eyes out for trying to make up a new Christianity. We don't do that here, right? We love the Bible, Bethlehem. If the Bible is false, we're closing up shop. …