The following is from a speech I gave to my church during our annual Christmas party:
During the Christmas season, churches throughout the world celebrate the birth of our Savior. Some 2,000 years ago Jesus Christ, God Himself, became a man of flesh and blood like us (John 1:1-4).
Scholars will tell us that Jesus was a good man that served as an example of how we should live. They are half-right. What they are leaving out is that we can never fully live as Jesus lived. We can ostracize ourselves from every temptation, but we will still sin. We will sin against God, our fellow man, and even ourselves.
The Bible says in 1 John 4:8 that God is love. Christ loved every one of us enough to take the wrath of a just and righteous God upon Himself (Is. 53:5-6). Christ gave Himself as a ransom (Matt. 20:28), so that we may be with our Heavenly Father in Heaven (1 Peter 3:18).
The Christmas story and the life of Jesus Christ are beautiful. If the Bible ended with the death, burial, and resurrection of Christ it would be good enough. But our God is not a God that is "good enough". He is perfect! He is our Father!
This season has the highest suicide rate of the year and the most common reason for suicide is a lack of purpose. This should not be the case for any believer. Our Pastor shared a story from about a member of an affiliated church that attempted suicide. She claimed to be a believer in Christ, but didn't feel that she had a purpose in life. I was saddened when he told us that story. Not just because she tried to end her life, but because it told me that she did not read God's Word faithfully.
Our Father is so good that He not only gave His Son so that we may have eternal life (Jn. 3:16), but He gave every believer a calling. The Bible tells us in 2 Corinthians 5:20 that we are ambassadors for Jesus Christ.
The role of an ambassador is to serve as the representative of a nation, state, government, etc. The ambassador is to conduct himself or herself with professionalism, to know the laws and policies of their homeland, and to know the will of the leader that he or she represents.
The Bible says that we are to study His Word to show that we approved by God Himself (2 Tim. 2:15). 2 Timothy 3:16-17 tells us that God's Word perfects us so that we can do good works. Ephesians 2:8-10 tells us that works cannot save us, but once we are saved through the Gospel (1 Cor. 15:1-4), we were made to do works for God.
We were once mere men and women destined for a life separated from God. Once we became believers through the finished work of Jesus Christ, we became new creations. The Bible says in 2 Corinthians 5:17 that that old man is dead. We are new. We went from ordinary people that were dead inside to ambassadors representing the Almighty God and His Kingdom!
God saved us from Hell by giving us eternal life, but He also gave us gifts as members of the body of Christ (1 Cor. 12). We are all different, but as ambassadors, we all have the same purpose.
During this season, let us not only glorify Jesus Christ for His finished work on the cross, but for going above and beyond what any of us deserve: life with a purpose.
I'd like to end with quote from Kent Hovind who is also known as Dr. Dino. If you are unfamiliar with his work, he is a man that shows that science proves creation and not evolution. He was once asked if God told him to start his ministry. He responded with "no". The audience member then asked him "how did you know this was what you were supposed to do with your life?" Kent Hovind responded with "I saw a need, so I began working to meet that need". Find a need and meet it. All of us can do it. God is not going to give us step-by-step instructions. He told us in Proverbs 25:2 that "it is the glory of God to conceal a thing: but the honour of kings is to search out a matter".
He is our Heavenly Father and every good parent loves watching their children experience the joy of discovery. Embrace your purpose as a blood-bought ambassador of Jesus Christ!