Mission Statement

To glorify God by knowing, living and proclaiming His truth in the world

  1. To glorify God.
    1. The Bible clearly teaches that the purpose of our lives is to bring glory to God.
      • 1 Corinthians 10:31 – even the most basic and routine part of our lives (eating and drinking) is to be done with this supreme purpose in mind!
      • Romans 11:36 – all things exist because of Him (“from Him,” He created them; “through Him,” He sustains them) and “for Him,” that is His glory.
    2. What does it mean to “glorify God?”
      The two biblical words for glory, kabod (O.T.) and doxa (N.T.) combine to give us a good sense of what this biblical concept means. Kabod means to “be heavy or weighty – to be of great value,” while doxa means to “exhibit splendor and brilliance.”Together, we get the sense that to glorify someone or something is to attach great value to him or it. To glorify God we must attach supreme value to Him. Honoring God in this way is reflected in two basic areas: (1) Our Attitude; and (2) Our Actions.
      • Our Attitude: to glorify God we must ourselves come to value Him supremely. In our hearts we glorify Him when we see His matchless worth and desire Him above every other thing.
      • Our Actions: to bring glory to God we must also live in such a way that our lives call the attention of those around us to His supreme vlaue. Glorifying God means making much of God by the way we live.
    3. Bringing glory to God is the reason everything exists. Why did God create all things? For His Own glory!
  2. By knowing, living and proclaiming His truth in the world.

This part of the mission statement deals with the How. How are we to bring glory to God?

One of the most ironic statements in all of Scripture is found in Isaiah 6:3. In this passage you will recall that Isaiah sees the Lord in all His glory, he sees the seraphim and hears their words, he feels the earth shake, and he is overcome by this vision. In Isaiah’s account the seraphim make a statement that, if we pause and reflect a moment, is truly amazing. You remember what they repeat over and over, “Holy, Holy, Holy is the Lord of Hosts. The whole earth is full of His glory.” The irony of this verse is that the seraphim tell us that God’s glory is not, as we are prone to think, hidden or veiled, or just sometimes revealed. Rather the glory of God is not hidden at all! It is so clearly manifest and so fully revealed that it is rightly said that “the whole earth is full of His glory”! According to these mighty angels God’s glory is all around us, surrounding us and pressing in upon us at all times. God is not hiding Himself. On the contrary He is continually and extravagantly making Himself known. The problem it seems is with us. Though His glory shines brightly like the noon-day sun, we are blind. We don’t see it even though it is right before our eyes! God’s words to Isaiah a little later in chapter 6,v.17, are to the point: “that hearing, they may not understand; and seeing, they may not perceive.” II Corinthians 4:4 says that our blindness is deepened by Satan himself, “the god of this age has blinded the minds of unbelievers…” Satan has one consistent strategy by which he blinds people and keeps them from seeing God and His glory, He lies. Jesus said of Satan, “there is no truth in him… he is a liar and the father of lies” (John 8:44). Satan blinds the hearts of men by lying to them about God and through His lies he veils their eyes even more so that they dwell completely in the dark concerning God.

What are we called to do? To glorify God by telling the TRUTH! The TRUTH about God. Whenever and however the truth about God is made known then God is truly glorified. The truth about God makes known His infinite worth, His matchless beauty, and His supreme majesty. How do we make His truth known? Turn to Ezra 7:10. How do we make His truth known? In three ways.

We Know it

Ezra “set his heart to study the Law of the Lord….” He sought first to know the truth for himself. You can’t give what you haven’t received. We have got to be diligent students of the truth. I Peter 2:2; II Timothy 2:15

We Live it

Ezra also “set his heart….to do it….” He wanted more than head knowledge; he wanted to obey God. James 1:22-25. Our lives bear powerful witness to the reality of God. Matthew 5:16

We Proclaim it

To honor and glorify God we must also be ready to testify with our lips about His faithfulness, goodness and glory. Acts 1:8 calls us to “witness.” A witness with his mouth of what he has personally seen or heard – what he has experienced. We must be diligent witnesses for Christ.