Drawing Near to God #10 Filling the Earth with God’s Glory

Filling Earth Glory Overview

In this powerful message from NTC Ministries, the preacher continues the Drawing Near to God series with a deep exploration of what it truly means for the earth to be filled with the knowledge of God’s glory. Grounded in the foundational text of James 4:6-10, the sermon unpacks Habakkuk 2:14 and Psalm 72:18-19, revealing that glory is not merely a theological concept but an experiential reality that transforms the human heart. Drawing from the Hebrew word kabad and the Greek doxa, the message distinguishes between intellectual knowledge of God and genuine heart-level encounter. Through vivid personal illustrations, including a lightning strike in the woods and a floor-pinning experience with the presence of God, the preacher demonstrates that God’s voice is like thunder on many waters, meant to be felt within, not merely analyzed from a distance. The parable of the talents in Matthew 25 is opened to show how our perception of God directly shapes what we receive from Him. Listeners are challenged to remove the obstacles within their hearts, confess sin, and open themselves to the experiential glory of a good and generous God.

Filling Earth Glory Outline

• 0:00 – Foundation: James 4 and Drawing Near to God: The preacher revisits the foundational passage of James 4:6-10, defining repentance as harmonizing with God rather than an emotional performance, and introduces the day’s theme of filling the earth with God’s glory.
• 6:30 – Obstacles in the Heart That Limit God: An exploration of how internal heart obstacles prevent God’s word from taking root, illustrated by a real-life story of a friend paralyzed by fear after a car accident, and the need to cast down imaginations.
• 15:00 – Habakkuk 2:14 and the Knowledge of Glory: A careful reading of Habakkuk 2:14 distinguishes between the earth being filled with glory and being filled with the knowledge of glory, pressing the congregation toward experiential rather than intellectual faith.
• 24:00 – The Hebrew and Greek Meaning of Glory: The sermon opens up the Hebrew word kabad and the Greek word doxa to reveal that glory means abundance, wealth, splendor, infinite perfection, and having the same view of God that God has of Himself.
• 33:00 – Moses, the Tabernacle, and the Weight of His Presence: Using Exodus 40:34-35 and the story of Moses on Mount Sinai, the preacher shows how God desires to write His law on hearts, not just in stone, and how the glory filled the tabernacle so heavily that Moses could not enter.
• 42:00 – Worship in Spirit and Truth: John 4: The encounter between Jesus and the Samaritan woman at the well anchors the call to worship God in spirit and truth rather than through intellect or physical senses, connecting back to Adam’s original spiritual communion with God.
• 49:00 – The Parable of the Talents and Our Perception of God: Matthew 25:14-30 is expounded to show that the servant who hid his talent did so because he saw God as a hard man, while those who knew God as generous multiplied what they received, demonstrating that perception of God determines outcomes.
• 56:00 – Confessing Sin Gives God’s Glory Room: Drawing from Joshua 7:19 and Achan’s story, the preacher explains that giving glory to God in the Hebrew context means confessing sin, making the great exchange possible and clearing the heart to receive God’s fullness.
• 1:01:00 – The Heart Built to Hold Glory: Closing with a practical illustration of a gas tank built for fuel and nothing else, the sermon calls every listener to remove whatever contaminates the heart and choose life, blessing, and multiplication by knowing God as He truly is.

Scripture References

James 4:6-10, Proverbs 17:20, Habakkuk 2:14, Psalm 72:18-19, Psalm 78:40-41, Exodus 40:34-35, 2 Corinthians 3, John 3, John 4:19-24, Matthew 25:14-30, Romans 3:23, Hebrews 1:1-4, Joshua 7:19, Exodus 8:32

Key Takeaways

• Repentance means harmonizing your heart with God, not an emotional performance, and this alignment is what opens the door for His glory to fill your life.
• The Hebrew word kabad reveals that God’s glory means abundance, splendor, infinite perfection, and a great quantity of good things He desires to pour into every believer.
• Intellectual knowledge of God through the senses alone cannot produce lasting stability in your walk with Him, but experiential heart-level knowledge carries you from faith to faith and glory to glory.
• How you perceive God determines what you receive from Him, as shown in the parable of the talents where the servant who saw a hard master buried his gift while those who knew a generous master multiplied theirs.
• Every obstacle in your heart that is not surrendered to God limits what He can do through you, and a simple sincere confession removes that obstacle and restores the flow of His glory.
• God never made you sick, poor, or broken, and believing the lie that He is a hard judge is itself the spiritual obstruction that keeps His blessings from becoming a reality in your daily life.
• The earth being filled with the knowledge of God’s glory begins with individual hearts being opened to encounter Him, making every believer a vessel and a carrier of that glory to the world around them.

Filling Earth Glory Notes

Heart Knowledge vs Head Knowledge

One of the central tensions in this sermon is the difference between intellectual understanding of God and genuine heart-level experience of Him. The preacher argues that after Adam’s fall, humanity became enslaved to the five physical senses, forcing God to communicate through external signs like pillars of fire and smoke. These stirred the intellect but did not transform the inner person. The New Covenant changes everything: born-again believers have the capacity to encounter God from the inside out, receiving His word not as information to be processed but as a living reality that reshapes their identity and stabilizes their walk with Him.

What Kabad and Doxa Really Mean

The sermon gives significant attention to the biblical vocabulary of glory. The Hebrew word kabad carries the meaning of heaviness, weight, splendor, abundance, wealth, honor, and the infinite perfection of God. The Greek doxa means to share the same view or opinion as God, to see reality as He sees it. Together these definitions paint a picture of glory that is far richer than religious ceremony or emotional excitement. Glory is the fullness of who God is pressing into the human heart and producing lasting transformation, fruitfulness, and a life that consistently reflects His generous and good nature.

The Parable of Talents Reframed

The preacher opens the parable of the talents in Matthew 25 through the lens of perception rather than performance. The servant who failed was not lazy because of moral weakness alone but because he held a distorted image of his master as harsh and demanding. That distorted image produced fear, and fear produced inaction, and inaction produced loss. The two servants who multiplied their talents did so freely because they understood their master to be generous and good. This reframing makes the parable a diagnostic tool: what you believe about God in your heart is the soil in which your potential either grows or withers.

Achan and the Exchange of Glory

In Joshua 7:19, Joshua tells Achan to give glory to God, and the preacher reveals that in the Hebrew context this phrase is a direct call to confess sin. Achan had taken forbidden plunder from Jericho, placing his own intellectual reasoning above God’s command. Joshua’s appeal shows that genuine worship, giving God His glory, begins with radical transparency before Him. The sermon frames confession not as shame-driven duty but as a great exchange: we bring God our dull and broken places, and in return He gives us His righteousness, His presence, and the freedom for His purpose to unfold fully in our lives.

Filling the Earth Starts With Your Heart

Habakkuk 2:14 declares that the earth will be filled with the knowledge of the glory of the Lord as the waters cover the sea. The preacher draws out the word knowledge as the key, pointing to an experiential knowing rather than mere information. This global promise is fulfilled one heart at a time. When believers remove obstacles through confession, worship God in spirit and truth, and open their hearts to His weighty presence, they become conduits of His glory in every arena of life, family, work, community, and culture. The great commission and the filling of the earth are ultimately a matter of hearts surrendered to God’s fullness.

Choosing Life in a Black and White Moment

The sermon closes with a pastoral urgency rooted in Deuteronomy’s call to choose life or death, blessing or cursing. The preacher speaks candidly to the current cultural and spiritual moment, warning that a half-committed, intellectually religious life will not hold in times of opposition. Just as Israel saw the pillar of fire and still turned away, believers today can attend powerful services and remain unchanged if they refuse to open their hearts to what God is doing. The call is clear and uncompromising: press into God, confess what hinders you, know Him as the generous Father He is, and watch multiplication replace every area of lack.

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