A FUTURE and a HOPE w/RON OHST

A Future and a Hope

Our preferred future and how to get there

 

God’s Glory

·        

·       God’s glory is essentially God expressing Himself

·       God’s glory is united with God’s goodness

 

Exodus 33:18-19

18 Then Moses said, "Now show me your glory." 19 And the Lord  said, "I will cause all my goodness to pass in front of you, and I will proclaim my name, the Lord, in your presence.

 

Psalms 8:1

8 O Lord, our Lord, how majestic is your name in all the earth! You have set your glory above the heavens.

 

Isaiah 6:3

And [the serap him]  were calling to one another:

"Holy, holy, holy is the Lord Almighty; the whole earth is full of his glory."

 

·       Jesus is the ultimate reveler of God’s glory and goodness

 

John 2:11 Jesus turning water into wine for a wedding banquet

1 This, the first of his miraculous signs, Jesus performed at Cana in Galilee. He thus revealed his glory, and his disciples put their faith in him.

 

Hebrews 1:3-4

3 The Son is the radiance of God's glory and the exact representation of his being, sustaining all things by his powerful word. After he had provided purification for sins, he sat down at the right hand of the Majesty in heaven.

 

John 14:9-10

Anyone who has seen me has seen the Father. How can you say, 'Show us the Father'? Don't you believe that I am in the Father, and that the Father is in me? The words I say to you are not just my own. Rather, it is the Father, living in me, who is doing his work.

 

2Corinthians  4:6

6 For God, who said, "Let light shine out of darkness," made his light shine in our hearts to give us the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Christ.

 

·       Perhaps that greatest miracle of salvation is that God causes us to reflect His glory

 

John 17:22-23

22 I have given them the glory that you gave me, that they may be one as we are one: 23 I in them and you in me. May they be brought to complete unity to let the world know that you sent me and have loved them even as you have loved me.

 

2 Corinthians 3:18

18 And we, who with unveiled faces all reflect the Lord's glory, are being transformed into his likeness with ever-increasing glory, which comes from the Lord, who is the Spirit.

 

Colossians 1:27

27 To them God has chosen to make known among the Gentiles the glorious riches of this mystery, which is Christ in you, the hope of glory.

 

Our Preferred Future

 

·       Vision is a description of a preferred future.

 

Habakkuk 2:14

14 For the earth will be filled with the knowledge of the glory of the Lord, as the waters cover the sea.

 

·       Knowledge – Hebrew “yada”: experiential, relational, intimate knowledge

 

·       The natural response to the knowledge of the glory of God is a life of worship

 

“The chief end of man is to glorify God and enjoy Him forever” – Westminster Catechism

 

 

Our Vision Statement:

For people everywhere to know and worship God in all His glory and goodness

 

 

How to get there

 

·       Vision describes a preferred future; mission describes how to get there.

 

·       God’s plan for fulfilling His vision of the earth filled with the knowledge of the Glory of the Lord is quite simply and powerfully to make disciples who make disciples.

 

Matthew 28:18-20

18 Then Jesus came to them and said, "All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. 19 Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, 20 and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age."

 

·       A disciple is an apprentice, one who learns to do what the master does.

 

·       We disciples of Jesus are to become like Him in our character, in our message, and in our deeds.

 

·       All over the world, Jesus is gathering disciples who make disciples. He calls these communities of disciples His church.

 

Matthew 16:18

 I will build my church, and the gates of Hades will not overcome it.

 

Our Mission Statement:

To build growing communities of worshipers who are becoming like Christ, empowered to do His work.

 

 

[MATT – the following may not make it into the handout for space purposes (and it’s in the bulletin already) but for completeness I thought I’d tie it all together with our Shared Identity statement]

 

Who we are – Our Shared Identity

Real God

God is Alive! When we meet He shows up, and we experience Him through His Word, His Spirit and each other.

 

“For where two or three have gathered together in My name, there I am in their midst.”    — Matthew 18:20 NASB

 

Real People

Come as you are. We grow by getting real with God and others in genuine, caring relationships.

 

“Every day they continued to meet together in the temple courts. They broke bread in their homes and ate together with glad and sincere hearts, praising God and enjoying the favor of all the people. And the Lord added to their number daily those who were being saved.“    — Acts 2:46-47

 

Restoring Lives

Give it away. We freely share the truth, love and power of Jesus to heal and restore broken lives.

 

“For God was in Christ, restoring the world to himself, no longer counting men’s sins against them but blotting them out. This is the wonderful message he has given us to tell others. We are Christ’s ambassadors. God is using us to speak to you…”  — 2 Corinthians 5:19-20