Two students. Larry Page and Sergey Brin, sat in their dorm room at Stanford University and pledged themselves to the following mission statement: "To organize the world's information and make it universally accessible and useful." The result was Google, the most powerful and widely used search engine in the world.

Today, it seems that both large and small businesses are all adopting mission statements. Even businesses with an unambiguous and widely known purpose such as Federal Express, Barnes & Noble, and Nike all have mission statements. Nike's mission statement, for example, is "to bring inspiration and innovation to every athlete in the world." The mission craze has even begun to influence the government. For example, the state department now has a mission statement—"to create a more secure, democratic, and prosperous world for the benefit of the American people and the international community."

Possible Preaching Angles: (1) Missions; Global missions—God is on a mission to rescue the world from sin and to bless all the nations on earth. (2) Christ, Death of; Cross; Christ, cross of—Jesus was also on a mission to die on the cross so he could "give his life as a ransom for many." (3) Dedication—Christians should have their purpose clearly in mind; "So we make it our goal to please him."