Mission: Glorifying God Together

The Church Exists to Glorify God Through the Mission Statement

About nine years ago, I Believed that the Lord was calling me to something called church planting. I had heard about it. I had seen some articles about it from this organization called acts 29 and I believe that The Lord put a burden on my heart that what this country needs is more churches that preach the gospel that teach the Word of God and And it stand against the rising tide of secularism and liberalism and pluralism and all of the dreaded isms and Will simply preach and herald the Word of God the gospel of Jesus Christ.

The very first service that we did 14 months ago. The theme verse that we launched this church with was Romans 1 16. For the gospel is the power of God and to salvation for the Jew first and the Gentile.

It's the gospel. That's the power of God. We're not commanded to be woke. We're not commanded to be relevant. We're not commanded to be seeker sensitive Open and affirming or to spouse any other godless ideologies in order to reach the world.

The power that reaches the world the power that changes hearts the power that Saves and brings dead people out of darkness and into light is the gospel. It's not Marxism. It's not signs and wonder ism.

It's the gospel so a church. It's not called to throw parties. We're not called to entertain goats. The church is designed to serve and To preach the gospel of God. Now, I believe that the church was crafted called and created by God to do that very work.

That means that the church is not for the unbeliever. Unbelievers are welcome. Don't hear me wrongly, but the church is not by its purpose and by its nature for the unbeliever. The church is also not for the believer.

The church does not exist to make Christians comfortable. The church does not exist to have coffee bars and and all of those things the church Exists as pastor Derek has said before the church doesn't exist for unbelievers or for believers.

The church exists for God. The church is for God. The church is to gather together to glorify God and that's what we're going to be talking about today. Now as you can see we're not in John. For the next two weeks.

We felt like that. It would be appropriate to go through our mission statement. To revisit why we started. Our mission statement is that we exist to glorify God together through the preaching singing Hearing and doing of God's Word.

We gather together to glorify God alone and we do that together. And we do that with four means we preach the gospel. We sing the gospel. We hear the gospel and we leave to go do the gospel in a world that needs to see it more.

Than more now than ever. Now you might be asking yourself, why would we revisit this topic? Well, some of us weren't here when we went through that 14 months ago.

But I.

Also think it's particularly relevant since Thursday at 3 o 'clock. I signed a five-year lease for the Shepherds Church December the 1st. I'm gonna get the keys to a new building in Chelmsford. 10 Jean Avenue is the address.

And.

Now that we're.

Stepping into this next chapter of our lives. I want us not to forget who we are. I want us not to forget why we started this because We're gonna be in a new area. We're gonna be Sunday morning. Sunday morning means we're gonna meet new people and I want the identity of the Shepherds Church.

To be what it always was the glory of God first through the preaching singing hearing and doing of God's Word. Now if all goes well and I get the keys December the 1st and you guys are available seven o 'clock on that evening I'd like for us to get together at that building and pray.

And just ask the Lord to bless that building bless our time. December the 6th will be our very first service. I'm not gonna say that everything will be polished. I I think I'm loud enough to where I could probably yell at you loud enough to where you'd hear me.

We might not have speakers hung yet. But we want to be there so badly. We don't want to wait. So we want to meet there December the 6th the first day that we can. So today we're gonna be looking at why does the Shepherds Church exist so that as we move into this next season.

That that'll be strong and solid. Amen. Let's pray Lord thank you so much for the Shepherds Church and for what you've done. Thank you God for the fact that We signed a lease this week. It seems like it's been going on for a long time trying to move into our own space.

Lord we ask that the finances would be available for us to continue to grow strong and healthy and Lord we ask that our hearts Would be sold out to the purpose of what you've called us to do. Lord I pray that we would get to meet men and women who don't know Christ.

We Were Created to Glorify God

And Lord, I pray that you would keep us anchored to the purpose of why we exist. So glorify you together. In Christ's name. Amen. Now today we're gonna be covering the first two aspects of that mission statement glorifying God together next week pastor Derek's gonna go through four.

Which is not really fair. I get to get. I get to go to he gets to have four. That's just the way I guess that it works. But this week we're gonna be doing those two things. We're gonna be looking at the fact that we were made by an all-glorious God to give God glory as the community of God.

That's what we're gonna be doing today. And we're not gonna be going in one verse. We're actually gonna have a lot of verses that we're gonna be going through. So if you'd like to follow along with me, it might be difficult.

I'm gonna be all over the Bible today. But if you want I'll post the verses that I preached from today so you can look at them later. They're beautiful and rich and they're only about one one hundredth of the verses that I could have included.

So the first thing that we're going to talk about is that we were made to glorify God. The Westminster Confession of Faith written about four hundred and so years ago starts out its confession or its catechism like this.

What is the chief end of man meaning? What is humanity's purpose? Why were we created? What does God have for us to do? The answer to that question is to glorify God and to enjoy him forever meaning that our purpose is That we were created by God to glorify him.

That's more natural to us than breathing. It's more necessary to us than eating. That is why we were created. Was to give glory and honor to God. Scripture confirms this not just the Westminster pastors that gather together.

Scripture says this. Paul says whether you eat or whether you drink or whatever you do. Do all to the glory of God? That means that the sum total of our lives is meant to be about glorifying God. We were to give him glory when we awake or when we sleep.

We're to give him glory in the way that we eat or when we fast. We were to give him glory in the ways and the things that we put before our eyes the things that we say with. Our lips were to give glory to God and the way that we behave in the relationships that we enter into and steward.

We are to give glory to God in the way that we treat one another in the way that we're citizens of this country. We are to give God glory in every conceivable realm of our life. Now, why do you think Paul would say that?

Who gives him the right to tell us what to do, right? It's because God is so unimaginably glorious that his person Demands that he be glorified. It's kind of like this. Why can't you and I leap to the moon?

Because there's a force called gravity that's holding us in check. Think about how much infinitely greater God is and in his presence we are restrained and we are defined and we are shaped into who we've been called to be and It's not just grounded to the earth.

It's grounded to him so that we can glorify him with everything that we do. By sheer nature of his existence He demands our deference our respect our honor. Now I know we understand this. Because when we're driving down the interstate and there's a cop pulled behind a tree.

By sheer nature of their presence our behavior changes quickly. The foot moves from the accelerator to the brake. We start looking around we start fumbling to see if he noticed that we're trying to put on our seat belt.

By sheer nature of that cops presence our behavior begins to change. How much infinitely more. By the nature of God's presence in our life should our behavior then change not to earn God's approval. But because of God's presence For all of eternity God has been radiating his glory among the three members of the Trinity father son and Holy Spirit for eternity God has been Radiating his glory at a certain point.

God made space and time land and sea dark and light beasts and kings all For his glory. He made them for his glory. Especially humanity was the crown jewel of God's creation. He made humanity to give honor and glory to God to be fruitful multiply spread out to the ends of the earth.

Why so that the whole world will be filled with worshipers who glorify God? Humanity's purpose I think was meant to echo the angelic angels in heaven. We read this earlier in Isaiah 6 where first for all eternity or sorry for all of creation.

The angels have been saying holy. Holy. Holy is the Lord God Almighty. They do not cease to give glory to God. What exactly is glory though? It's easy to throw around those terms. Yeah, we're supposed to glorify God.

What does that mean? I don't know. Let's talk about that for a moment. What is glory. Glory is a Hebrew word. It comes it's called kavod. Kavod and it means wait. Actually, it means something heavy. Something that has significance.

It means burden some significance. It means something that's deserved honor and fame renown awe inspiring impressiveness. If you were to define it more simply you would just say that glory is the Significant and the awe and the respect that is due someone who is weighty.

Who is significant? Now some of us in this room have various levels of significance. When I walk down the street. No one pays attention to me because I don't have much glory. But yet if a president or a king or someone were to walk down the street, they get noticed instantly because of their status.

It's almost like people flock to them and worship them.

Because.

While glory is difficult to describe. It's not difficult to notice when it's happening. For instance when you're in the per when you're in the presence of someone who has a lot of glory as a human being you notice it you feel it and.

When I was 18 years old, I was in Iraq. I left Iraq and I came home for a two-week R &R trip. It was like a vacation. We're the only country I know who you can be in war and you can send your soldiers away on vacation.

That makes no sense to me. But I said yes, I'm gonna take it and I flew from Iraq to Kuwait. I flew from Kuwait to Ireland. I went from Ireland to Maine. I went from Maine to Atlanta in Atlanta. I got off the plane I met my mom and dad and I was sitting there just.

I was Talking to them hanging out with him out of the corner of my eye I saw an an older gentleman walking towards me and I did what all of us would do. I look over to see who it was and Out of the corner of my eye it became clear that the 41st president of the United States was walking up to me George Herbert Walker Bush.

Now.

When he came up to me, he said are you Kendall Lankford?

I.

Know he didn't say that he asked me about Iraq. I told him that I was in a town called Balad. He said you have a lot of mortar fire that's happening there. I was like, yeah, how'd you know that? He's like, I'm the president former president.

I know everything. He was very nice. He was very kind, but I was on my best behavior. Yes, sir. No, sir I've never been more polite. There was a certain decorum that came into talking to the president of the United States.

I was in this man's presence and it changed me. Actually, I Tell you the most natural thing for us is when we're in the presence of God. Should change us. It should do something to us. I Had the same experience in New York a couple years back.

I went Shannon my wife who is the kindest sweetest most Incredible woman on earth. I preface that because what she did She sent me down to see Mike Krzyzewski's thousandth victory Duke Blue Devils, that's my favorite team and I wander around to the back of the auditorium and there he is walking out and he looks at me and he says you're Kendall.

No, I'm just kidding. But I didn't even get to say hello to him. I didn't he didn't make eye contact with me at all, but just being there in front of my favorite coach thousand victories most NCAA winning his coach of all time just being there did something to me.

How much more being in the presence of God should do something to me and change me? I think we we know about soldiers in war. There's a certain glory that comes to fighting on a battlefield. Americans give people who've been wounded in war purple hearts.

We award them for getting shot. That's the only time that anyone can ever get awarded for getting shot. Why. Because it was glorious that they fought for their country when they do something Incredible beyond the realm of imagination we give them to something called the Medal of Honor.

Why. Because it's glorious to do something heroic like that. It's glorious to to fight for your country and to defend your freedoms. What we've seen in these two examples is that glory is attributed to a person because of their status and who they are and Because of their thing that they did their heroic significant weighty thing that they did.

So either a person has significance in their status or they have significance in what they do and by those two things. We as humans recognize that a person is weighty or that a person has status or a person has glory.

Now.

Why is God glorious. Because there is no one higher than God. He's infinite in his personhood. There is no one who does more than God. He spoke universes into existence. He's infinite in his actions. He's both infinite his person infinite his actions.

Therefore he has infinite glory. He is all authority all wisdom all knowledge all ability all intelligence. There's nothing that he cannot do. There's nothing that is beyond God's power. So if I felt a certain amount of weight.

Being in the presence of George Herbert Walker Bush. How much more. I keep asking myself this question this week how much more? Significant should I view God and yet how thoughtless I am sometimes when it comes to my relationship with him.

I Was in the presence of George Herbert Walker Bush for all of about five minutes. The last thing he said to me was I got to go Babs is in the car. That's a true story. That is what George Bush said to me five minutes and it changed me.

I'm in the presence of God every minute of every day. There is no place on earth where God's presence does not dwell and how little it changes me. The questions I think we need to ask ourself is If we truly saw God for who he really is wouldn't it change us?

Wouldn't it affect us. Wouldn't it cause us to bow down more frequently? Wouldn't it call us to not be silent? When we walk out and There's people who are dying without Christ when it caused us to sing his praises loud and proud.

The obvious answer is that it would make you and I like the angels in heaven we could not cease speaking about our God. We would say with Paul in 1st Timothy 1 17 to the King eternal Immortal and visible the only God the honor and glory forever.

So remember God is glorious because of who he is and God is glorious because of what he does and I want us to take a moment now to explore that a little more carefully. I As a pastor Enjoy preaching verse by verse through a book of the Bible.

I Want to take a passage and dive into it. I don't it's it's harder for me to prepare a message like this where we're all over the Bible. But I wanted to do it because we need to constantly be reminded about who God is.

Because if we don't know this God that we worship, then who are we worshiping? It's very possible that on Sunday mornings across this nation. Many are worshiping a God of their own imaginations because they do not know him.

I want us to know God. I want us to have the knowledge of God. So again, this is gonna be the tip of the iceberg today. But I want us to see who this God that we worship is and he is sovereign first and foremost.

By sovereignty. I mean that he is the right and authority to do everything that he pleases to do first Chronicles 29 11.

Says yours.

Oh Lord is the greatness and the power and the glory and the victory and the majesty. For all that is in the heavens and on the earth is yours. The Chronicler is telling us that all honor and praise and worship is due to God because of who he is.

He rules over all. Everything in the heavens and on earth is his. Everything even beyond space is his because God cannot be contained in a physical universe as massive as it is. Incomprehensibly big God is still bigger infinitely bigger because he cannot be contained.

He's omnipotent. Latin word coming from omni and potent meaning his all-power. 2nd Peter 1 3 says his divine power is unlimited power. Has granted to us all things that pertain to life and godliness.

Through the knowledge of him who called us into his own glory. Do you see how that relates? This God who has all power is also a God who has all glory because his power demonstrates it. John Piper said that God's glory is The manifold weight of the sum total of his character meaning that if you take all of God's character together You cannot help but see that he is infinitely glorious.

He is sovereign and he is omnipotent. Those are the first two things. He's also omniscient omni science. He knows all things. Psalm 147 5 says great is our Lord and abundant in power. His understanding is beyond measure.

Meaning you can't build a ruler long enough to measure it. You can't build a scale big enough to weigh it. It's infinite his knowledge. He's omnipresent Meaning that he is all present. He is everywhere all at once.

There is nowhere not one square inch in the cosmos that God cannot be present in. He invades all space and as hard as this is to wrap our brains around we live second by second. Right now we are in 2020.

Next year will be in 2021. God in his infinitude dwells not only in every conceivable inch of reality that exists right now. But he also pervades all space in the past and in the future. So that if you were to lay out all of time God is perfectly present even there too.

There's nothing that this God can't do. He transcends all space and time. David describes this in Psalm 113. He says the Lord is high above all the nations His glory is above the heavens. Who is like the Lord our God who is thrown and thrown on high who humbles himself to behold the things that are in the earth.

I Love that passage. It's saying that God has to humble himself in order to come down and observe the things that we do here on.

Earth.

Meaning that he is so infinitely large big he can't even be Conceived of it is a humbling experience for him. To be present in all aspects of the universe. That's unbelievable when you try to wrap your head around it.

He's transcendent. He stands powerfully and mightily over creation and Unless he allowed himself to be known. He's so powerful that we would never know him. Romans 11 33 through 36 describes this all the depths of the riches and the wisdom of the knowledge of God.

How unsearchable are his judgments and how inscrutable his ways? For who has known the mind of the Lord and who has been his counselor or who has given a gift to him that he might Be repaid for from him and through him and to him are all things to him be glory and honor forever.

Do you see how glory keeps showing up in these attributes every time God is being described in his character? The word glory is showing up because God is glorious. Because of who he is those two things work together.

He's not just transcendent. He's also eminent. Transcendent means that he's high above eminent means that he's near. Psalm 145 18 says the Lord is near to all who call on him. He's not just a powerful dictator who exists somewhere in a reality that we cannot access.

He is a loving and kind father who is available to us as big as he is. He also knows every hair on your head. Psalm 34 18 the Lord is near to the brokenhearted and saves the crushed in spirit. Which means that he's not only Big enough and powerful enough to create a universe.

He also cares enough to know you. He knows your struggles. He knows your pains. He knows your fears. He knows your brokenheartedness. I Just blows my mind the more we talk about this I'm overwhelmed by a sense of God's glory.

That's what should happen to us right now. You know, there's I didn't write this down. There's there's sermons.

Where.

The communicator and I call them a communicator because I'm not going to call them a pastor, but the communicator is attempting to Make you feel something and make you feel good and give you practical applications so that you can go out and live your life.

The Bible itself just being read over God's people should be enough to cause us to be in awe of who God is. That's all we're doing today. We're just reading passages about who God is and it It ought to blow our minds it ought to warm our hearts it ought to make us sing With the angels in heaven.

He's immutable meaning. He's the same yesterday today and forever praise God for that. There's never gonna be a day when God changes his mind about saving you. There's never gonna be a day when God changes his mind about loving you.

He is the same yesterday today and forever. He's infinite which means he has no limits. He's eternal which means he cannot be constricted by time. He's exclusive which means that he will not share his glory with another.

He's a jealous God. Isaiah 42 8 says I am the Lord and in my name or that is my name my glory I give to no other nor my praise to carved idols. God is also spirit. Says in John 4 God is spirit and those who worship him must worship him in spirit and in truth first.

Timothy 6 16 says God alone possesses immortality and Dwells in unapproachable light. No one has seen him or can see him to him be honor and eternal dominion. That's another way of saying glory. So let's summarize who God is for a second.

Again, this is just the tip of the iceberg. He's exclusive eternal infinite immutable omnipresent omnipotent sovereign, and I'm sure I forgot a few of those. That's just things that he is. It doesn't even yet describe things that he does.

For instance God is personal meaning sees he's relational he can be known. Psalm 34 8 says Oh taste and see that the Lord is good meaning that you can actually Experience God because even in his infinitude he allows us to experience him because he wants to be known.

Blessed is the man who takes refuge in him. Meaning that praise God we can relate with him. He's good. He's morally perfect. Unstained by error or sin praise God. We don't believe in.

Greek.

Pantheon of deities that are just as immoral as humans, but with superpowers. We believe in a God who is perfect and holy and pure. Psalm 107 1 says Oh give thanks to the Lord for he is good his steadfast love endures forever.

He's holy. Which means that he set apart. First Samuel 2 2 says there's none holy like the Lord. There's none beside you and There is no there is no rock like our God. Our God is also love. He's not just loving he is love first.

John 4 8 says anyone who does not love God does not know God because God.

Is love.

He's wise merciful truthful angry at sin filled with wrath over our rebellion. This God is perfectly and infinitely glorious. The manifold Perfections of his character of who he is and what he has done testifies to the fact that he is glorious and What is owed to this glorious God is that we would forever praise him.

It is actually an infinite crime that we would not praise God and I think biblically speaking The chiefest of all sins. There's a lot of sins in the Bible the chiefest of all of them is that we would not glorify God.

It's not just that we've Been angry. It's not just that we've lied or bore false witness. It's not just that we've murdered someone in our hearts. It's not just that we've lusted or any other of the Ten Commandments or any of the other sins.

The chief sin. The greatest act of treachery is that we have not glorified God. Romans 3 23 describes it for all have sinned and what fallen short of the glory of God. Meaning that our chief sin is we've not worshipped him as he deserves.

Our most profound sin is we've not found him as beautiful as he is. We've not respected him Like he ought to be respected. We've not praised him with the fervor that is due an infinite glorious God. We've not feared him.

How often have we sinned boldly? With not an ounce of fear in our heart for this glorious. Holy God we've not consistently and or perfectly given to God what he is due and because of this our chief and most egregious sin is that we've fallen short of God's glory and as Romans 6 23 says The wages of our sin is death.

Meaning that the paycheck for our actions is Death not just physical death eternal unending.

Death.

Jesus says this in Matthew 6 or Matthew 25 41. Then he will say to those on his left apart from me you who are cursed into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels. Now many will ask why is God so severe in his judgment?

Why is God? Relocating human beings people who are basically good. Why is he relocating them to eternal fires of damnation for all of eternity? Why that seems overboard? But when you understand who God is and when you understand what his glory actually Dictates for us.

I believe hell actually is gracious as Hard as that may be to understand. I believe that hell is not as hot as it could have been. Hell is not as painful as it probably should have been. And to ignore such a beautiful and loving and holy God Does it's righteous and it's just and it's fair That we would go to hell for our sins as hard as that is for our Rebellious hearts to understand that and believe that now it doesn't have to be that way.

This is where the Bible is such good news. It doesn't we don't have to Go to hell because of what Jesus Christ has done. Those who go to hell go to hell because they have not believed in Jesus Christ, but for all of you here Who you've placed your faith in your hope and your trust in Jesus Christ.

I want you to hear for a moment. What's in store for you? God knew that we were gonna fall short of his glory. God knew that we were gonna sin. So what does God do? John 1 1 says in the beginning was the word John 1 14 says.

And that word became flesh and he dwelt among us and we beheld his glory. We've held his glory. The glories of the only begotten of the father full of grace and truth. Meaning that what Jesus appeared in human flesh was the very first time that a human being.

Ever.

Had the kind of glory that has always been with the father. Because Jesus Christ is God. Philippians 2 states that when he came to earth He came in the form of a slave meaning that he laid down some of his nature some of his divinity some of his.

He still had it, but he he became a slave so that he can interact with us. Hebrews 1 3 says he's the radiance of the glory of God the exact imprint of his nature. So what we're seeing is that Jesus came to in glorious creatures rebellion or people who were in rebellion against God he came as God in the flesh with all of God's glory veiled as it was so that he could save us and rescue us at The end of his life.

Jesus who had done everything Perfectly and had and was perfect. Remember the two aspects of glory. It's who you are in your status and what you do in the flesh. Jesus at the end of his life praise. Now father glorify me with yourself with the glory that I had with you before the world was.

Jesus is asking God to bestow on him his full glory once again because of what he had done and What had Jesus Christ done. Hebrews 1 3 tells us after making purification for sins He sat down at the right hand of the majesty on high.

Philippians 2 9 through 11 says basically the same thing. Therefore because of what Jesus had done God highly exalted him and bestowed on him the name that is above every name. So that at the name of Jesus Every knee should bow in heaven and on earth and under the earth and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of the Father.

This means that God The all-glorious God the one that we have fallen short of his glory gave us a way to to know him once more and that's through Jesus Christ. Romans 5 6 through 9 says for while we were still helpless at Just the right time Christ died for the ungodly.

For one will hardly die for a righteous man though. Perhaps for a good man someone would even dare to die, but God Demonstrates his love towards us and that while we were yet sinners Christ died for us and When we place our faith and our hope and our trust in him We get to be restored to our original created purpose.

It's not just about salvation. It's about that. We would be able to be restored to God glorifying creatures. Hebrews 2 10 says for it is fitting that he For whom and by whom all things exist and bringing many sons the glory Should make the founder of their salvation perfect through suffering.

What Hebrews is teaching us is that? Jesus Christ Who suffered in the flesh for you and I? Did that? Specifically so that he could bring us into Glory glorifying God bring us into the presence of a glorious God.

That is why we are saved at the heart of it. The heart of it is not just that we're saved because God Thought we were special and like kindergarten dodgeball. I want to pick Tommy but not Jesse. It wasn't like that God restored us.

So that we could give him glory that's the ultimate end and purpose of our salvation is so that we could give glory to God right now and So that we could give glory to God forever in eternity. Romans 8 1 says there's now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus meaning that There's nothing standing between us and God.

So that Paul can say in 1st Corinthians 620 you have been bought with a price therefore glorify God in your body.

The Church Glorifies God Together

Now.

That's a summary a very very 20 ,000 hundred thousand foot summary of the glory of God. We were created by glorious God. We were created to give God glory. We fell short of God's glory. Christ came to restore us.

So that we could give glory to God. That's kind of the four movements so far that we've talked about. And that leads us to what's our responsibility. Why do we say that the Shepherd's Church is a church that's going to glorify God?

Because when the Bible talks about this it doesn't talk about this as individuals. The Bible doesn't talk about each of us as individuals should give glory to God. That's true. But the Bible talks about this actually is a community effort.

You see it's confusing for all of us who speak English unless you're from the south because then you have y 'all. It's actually way smarter. I know we're in the north, but it actually is way smarter. In English up here.