The Purpose Of Our Lives

Well, good morning, church. Are you ready to hear the Word of God? Amen. Let us turn to Luke chapter 4, and we're going to be examining this morning, verses 38 to 44.

Please stand for the reading of God's Word. Hear ye the word of the

Lord this morning. Luke chapter 4, starting in verse 38,

And he arose and left the synagogue, and entered Simon's house. Now Simon's mother -in -law was ill with a high fever, and they appealed to him on her behalf.

And he stood over her and rebuked the fever, and it left her. And immediately she rose and began to serve them.

Now when the sun was setting, all those who had any who were sick with various diseases brought them to him, and he laid his hands on every one of them and healed them.

And the demons also came out of many, crying, You are the Son of God! But he rebuked them, and would not allow them to speak, because they knew that he was the

Christ. And when it was day, he departed and went into a desolate place.

And the people sought him, and came to him, and would have kept him from leaving them. But he said to them,

I must preach the good news of the kingdom of God to the other towns as well.

For I was sent for this purpose. And he was preaching in the synagogues of Judea.

This is the word of the Lord. You may be seated. Father, we do come before you again, thankful for the word that you've laid before us.

Your word is indeed like sweet honey. It is indeed meat in due season. We accept this food, this spiritual nourishment that comes from thy word today.

We ask, Lord, that you'd prepare the hearts of thy people to consume this good word, for the edification of the saints, for the building up of the kingdom of God, and for the glory of your own name.

In Jesus' name we do pray. Amen. Like any human being, you may have asked yourself the question, the existential question,

Why do I exist? And what is my purpose here in this world?

Many people have gone into existential crises asking themselves this question.

Maybe people have come into a crisis coming from a worldview such as secularism, where there is no

God, there is no overarching purpose, there is no creator, there is really no rhyme or reason, there is just dumb, blind matter and chance and billions of years interacting, which produce all that you see and all that you are.

And likely under that worldview, one will begin to ask themselves, Well, what is exactly the purpose of life?

Why do I exist? Why am I here? And with such worldview, one could not fully come to comprehend the vast, incredible truth of what our purpose is as human beings.

The Westminster Catechism begins, as many of us know, with this question,

What is the chief and highest end of man? In other words, what is our purpose?

What is the chief, that is the overarching theme and reason for our existence?

And what is the highest end of man, that archae, the word in Greek meaning the top architecture of all things.

What is the archae of life? What is the chief end, the chief architecture of life, the meaning for our lives?

And wisely the answer is this, Man's chief and highest end is to glorify

God and fully to enjoy Him forever.

What is the chief end of man? It is to glorify God. In my previous church,

I had a young woman ask me the question, Why is it God's end for us to want to glorify

Him forever? Doesn't that make God selfish? That He wants to be the center of all things? I said, young lady, the question that you just asked demonstrates how selfish you actually are.

That you want to be the center of all things. That you want man to be the chief end of man.

When the chief end of man is not man, it's God. You were created for a purpose.

You were created to know Him, to love Him, to be found in Him, and to enjoy

Him. Because it's not just in our glorifying of God that we find our highest end and chiefest end, but it's also in the glorifying of God that we find our enjoyment of Him, and it's forever.

Maybe you know, if you've read the book Desiring God by John Piper, where he coins the term

Christian hedonism. Hedonism being the pursuit of pleasure. And what John Piper argues in his book

Desiring God, is that the pursuit of hedonism, the pursuit of pleasure, is in and of itself not bad, because we were created for such a thing.

We were created to seek out pleasure. We were created to enjoy things. But it's what we find our pleasure in.

It's what we fulfill our hedonism in that becomes the problem. And the way he likens it in his book is like this, that man, in his sinful fallen state, finds pleasure in the filthiness and mundaneness of the world.

It's like, in the way he puts it in his book, it's like one coming into the mud and enjoying making mud pies and saying, this is my end.

This is my chief end. I really like this. When God has in store for you an all -inclusive vacation stay at the greatest resort you could possibly imagine, and one could say that one

God, when one is offered that, and they say, no, I don't really want that. I want to stay here in the mud. I want to enjoy this because it brings me pleasure.

And the chief end of man is not to be in the mud forever, but instead it is to be invited into the presence of majesty, to be invited into the presence of God, where you can know him and enjoy him forever, and find your chief end there, and knowing him, being found in him, and enjoying him forever.

And I think this is what we find here in the beginning of Luke chapter 4.

We begin to see the biblical answer to why is it that we exist, and why it is, and what is indeed our purpose.

Not just as human beings, but also as Christians and kingdom proclaimers.

I want to bring your attention to Luke chapter 4 again. In verse 38, it says,

And he that is Christ arose and left the synagogue and entered Simon's house. Now Simon's mother -in -law was ill with a high fever, and they appealed to him on her behalf.

And he stood over her and rebuked the fever, and it left her, and immediately she rose and began to serve them.

Jesus's life in the Gospels is marked by many miraculous instances, this being one of them, where he comes and divinely heals a sick person.

Now many people look at the healing and they say, well, that sounds really interesting. Jesus healed people.

Does that mean that there's healing for us today? And they want to focus on that theological question and inquiry about spiritual gifts and healing, but really what's at work here is something that's more macro, something that's bigger than the question of whether this has implication for us today in regard to actual healing.

I want you to know that the metanarrative of Luke's Gospel is all about the arrival of God's kingdom.

If you're following the notes today, please put that in your notes. Luke's Gospel focuses on the arrival of God's kingdom.

This is the overarching metanarrative of Luke's entire Gospel. He focuses laser -sharp on the idea, on the notion, on the doctrine of the kingdom of God, and that this kingdom is now coming to fruition.

It's coming into the world. It's breaking into the world in the advent of the Messiah, that Jesus in his incarnation, that Jesus in his self -humiliation, that Jesus in his earthly ministry is the advent of this kingdom.

For when John the Baptist was on the scene, he said, Behold, repent, for the kingdom of God is nigh.

Jesus comes on the scene, baptized, filled with the Holy Spirit, and he says, Repent, for the kingdom of God is here.

Difference. Big difference. The kingdom of God was near, was nigh in the advent of John, but it had come in the advent of Jesus.

Jesus is the one who is bringing forth God's kingdom into the world. The Luke's Gospel is about the kingdom of God breaking into the world in that time of history, and the implications for us today are vast and large and important.

This is why when we read stories of Jesus healing the sick, casting out demons, it's not just a virtue of his authority, not even a statement, not just necessarily, just a statement of his divinity.

He who has the power to heal, sanctify, and also cast out demons, but it's also a statement about his kingdom that is coming to vanquish the foes of God, including sickness.

Did you know that sickness is indeed a foe? We all encounter it at one degree or another.

All of us in this room have been sick. Whether with the common cold, whether it was of COVID, whether it is with autoimmune issues, whether it is with a disease or virus that you've encountered at some point in your life, you have encountered sickness.

And sickness is a result of the fall. Because the fall touches everyone, sickness and death touches everyone.

There is no one in this world who can avoid sickness. That's why today, even over the last several years, we've learned through this, living through a pandemic, people have done all that they could to avoid sickness, all that they could to avoid getting this virus.

I've known people who were very religious in their observance of the

COVID regulations, who would wear masks and hand sanitizer every five minutes and so much so that their personal health actually began to degrade more and more and more the more they tried to avoid the virus.

They got sicker and sicker because they began to weaken their own immune system by avoiding contact with the outside world so much so that they eventually would even get

COVID and it would hurt them more than it would have done so in the onset, in the beginning. When we try to do all that we can to avoid sickness, we often fall short.

But there's only one way in which we can avoid sickness. The greatest sickness that there is the sickness of sin and it's through faith in Jesus Christ.

It is in Jesus that eventually all sickness will be vanquished.

Unfortunately, I have a friend that lives in the state of Washington whose wife just passed away yesterday due to cancer, a very aggressive form of brain cancer that began to literally deteriorate the bone in front of her face.

And she died with a knowledge of Jesus. And when I saw the post that he put on Facebook yesterday, he says, my wife no longer has cancer.

That's true. One day, there'll be no more sickness. One day, there will be no more pain.

One day, there'll be no more suffering. One day, we shall see him face to face.

And as he is, we shall be also. And be free of every sickness, free of every illness, free from every effect of the fall of Adam in Jesus.

Because in Jesus, the kingdom of God is breaking into the world. And Jesus, just as he began to heal those who were sick in his day, he has the authority to ultimately take away sickness at the end.

And that day is coming, as is promised in Revelation 21, that there will be no more death, no more crying, no more pain, no more suffering.

The former things shall be passed away. And it'll be just as if it were a memory, a distant memory.

And we'll live in the fullness of the glory of the sons of God, the inheritance that is promised all those who believe on the name of Jesus Christ.

Beloved, there is hope and there is purpose to life. Even in the midst of illness, even in the midst of sickness, even in the midst of great difficulty, there is a great promise of purpose for your life.

Jesus is fulfilling His purpose, His promise, by obeying the very words of His Father when

He commissioned Him in eternity past to be the Savior of the world. And throughout the

Old Testament, we see what the reign of the Messiah would bring, what the Messiah would do in His earthly ministry and the implications it would have worldwide, not just for a few, but for all of humanity.

Jesus demonstrates the arrival of the kingdom of God by healing the sick.

I want you to write this in your notes if you're following along, the second bullet point there. Jesus demonstrates the arrival of the kingdom by healing the sick.

I want to point your attention to a couple of verses in Isaiah chapter 33. You don't have to turn there, but if you would like to, it's in chapter 33 of Isaiah.

And notice this prophetic hope that we have in chapter 33 verse 24 when it says this, and no inhabitant will say,

I am sick. And people who dwell there, this is the Jerusalem, New Jerusalem, they will be forgiven of their iniquity.

No resident, no person will say, I am sick in the world to come. And this world that has promised us, no one will ever be sick again.

We see this promise again, reiterated in Isaiah chapter 35. In verse five and six where it says, the eyes, then the eyes of the blind shall be open and the ears of the deaf unstopped.

And then shall the lame man leap like a deer for the tongue of the mute will sing for joy for waters break forth in the wilderness and streams in the desert.

This is the promise that God has made in the Old Testament that one day there'll be no more sickness.

Neither will there be any more blindness, deafness, lameness, muteness.

All these things will be done away with. Those who suffered from chronic diseases or things from birth, such as blindness or death, will one day have their eyes fully opened, ears fully open.

Everything that has been touched by sin and corruption will be undone through the sacrifice of Jesus Christ.

What great joy, what great hope we have in Jesus. Amen. Jesus is demonstrating the arrival of the kingdom by healing the sick, demonstrating that He is the promised

Messiah of the Old Testament, that He is indeed the Christ. And He begins to heal the sick, open the eyes of the blind, open the ears of the deaf, have the lame walk, and even deliver those who've been oppressed by demons to demonstrate not only

His authority as our Messiah today, but to demonstrate what will be done at a larger scale in the world to come.

Now, what do I mean by that phrase, world to come? I don't mean what's often referred to by the

Armstrong movement. They used to have this guy named Herbert Armstrong who led the

Worldwide Church and he had this notion of the world to come and he had a radio program called the world to come.

And I'm not talking about that world to come, I'm talking about the biblical world to come, which is a new heavens and a new earth.

If you want to know the purpose of life and all that you have to go by is by what you see and what you've experienced in this world, you are missing the larger picture.

Because part of the purpose of our lives is that we hope and know that there is life beyond the grave.

Just as my friend who lost his wife yesterday to cancer, he steadfastly is holding on to the hope of eternal life in Jesus knowing that his beloved wife is now with the

Lord and that he too will one day be joined with her alongside the Lord Jesus Christ. We hold also steadfastly that life does not end at the grave, but indeed there is a life to come in which we will be in the fullness of our master's joy.

And this is only through faith in Jesus Christ. Only by knowing him can we have an assurance of everlasting life and knowing that we are children of the most high

God. In order to understand, however, the power of Jesus's ministry, we need to also see the promises that were made about him in the

Old Testament. God's kingdom rule will one day fully eliminate all sicknesses and believers will all benefit from that, from the fulfillment of Christ's ministry in the world to come.

World to come being the coming state of a new heavens and new earth.

But we get to enjoy many of those promises, even when we die and we are united with the

Lord in death while we are awaiting the resurrection of the dead in which righteousness will dwell in this new heavens and new earth.

Again, I want to point your attention to our main text in Luke chapter four. Now in verse 40.

Now when the sun was setting and all those who had, all those who had any who were sick with various diseases brought them to him and he laid his hands on every one of them and healed them.

I want you to notice the compassion and loving kindness of the

Savior. Notice his compassion. People come to him, lines are forming, masses of people are coming to him who are sick or have other oppressions and the

Lord Jesus touches every single one of them. Every single one.

Now Jesus is a pretty important person. Consider what we would look like if the president of the

United States took his time to speak to you, to lay hands on you, or maybe not this president, but any president or any person of magistrate, any person of authority come to you and want to lay hands on you, pray with you, spend time with you, give attention to you, you would feel honored, would you not?

Well here the Lord Jesus Christ spends his time uniquely with every single person in all of their circumstances.

I want you to know this, beloved, Jesus knows your circumstances. Jesus knows your circumstances and he's willing to invest time in you because he loves you.

He took time to invest in all those who were coming to him with various diseases and he laid hands on every single one of them and they were all healed.

In verse 41 it says, and demons also came out of many, crying, you are the son of God and he rebuked them and would not allow them to speak because they knew that he was the

Christ. I want you to write this in your notes, Jesus demonstrates the arrival of the kingdom by exercising authority over the kingdom of darkness, proving this very important crucial point that the kingdom has,

I want you to put in that present tense, has come upon us. How so?

How has the kingdom of God come upon us, beloved? It has come upon us by binding, by Jesus binding the power of the enemy, which is how he begins to heal the sick, open the eyes of the blind and deliver those who are oppressed by demons.

I want you, if you can, turn to Matthew chapter 12 for a moment and notice what the

Lord Jesus Christ says in Matthew chapter 12, starting in verse 22. We have a similar instance where Jesus is healing the blind and the mute and he's also casting out demons and notice what it said, that a demon possessed oppressed man who was blind and mute was brought to him, he healed him, so that the man spoke and saw and all the people were amazed and said, can this be the son of David?

But when the Pharisees heard it, they said, it is only by Beelzebub, the prince of demons, that this man cast out demons.

Knowing their thoughts, he, that's the Lord Jesus, said to them, every kingdom divided against itself is laid waste and no city or house divided against itself will stand.

And if Satan casts out Satan, he is divided against himself. How then will his kingdom stand?

And if I cast out demons by Beelzebub, by whom do your sons cast them out?

Therefore, they will be your judges. But, this is the crucial part, beloved, but if it is by the

Spirit of God that I cast out demons, then the kingdom of God has come upon you, has come upon you.

The Lord Jesus Christ is contending here in this text, saying to his opponents, to the Pharisees, who were accusing him of doing the miraculous by using the powers of darkness, and rather he refutes them and rebukes them.

He says, if it is by Beelzebub, another name for Satan, prince of demons, that I cast out demons, then

Satan's kingdom is divided. And if Satan's kingdom is divided, how can he possibly stand?

But he goes on to share an important truth here. If it is by the Spirit of God, that same

Spirit that was anointed upon the Christ at his baptism, the same Spirit that led him into the wilderness to confront the devil, the same

Spirit that empowered his ministry to preach to the poor, the same Spirit that enabled him to heal the sick, to open the eyes of the blind, to open the ears of the deaf, the same

Spirit that was working in Jesus was now an evidence that the kingdom of God had indeed come upon them in that day.

This has eschatological expectations and implications for us even today.

For many Christians in their eschatological framework are waiting for a future kingdom to arrive.

I say to you, that which the Lord Jesus has said in His Word, that the kingdom of God has come and it's now.

It's now. It's not later. It's not for tomorrow. It's for today.

It is now, here, present. God's kingdom is ruling. Christ is

King of kings and Lord of lords. Today, we're not waiting for a future enthronement. He is enthroned at the right hand of majesty, at the right hand of God, interceding for His people today.

Amen? We're not waiting for a future enthronement. We're not waiting for a future kingdom.

The kingdom has come in Jesus. And because of this, notice what

He goes on to say in verse 29 of Matthew 12. Or how can someone enter a strong man's house and plunder his goods unless he first binds the strong man?

Then indeed, he may plunder his house. Whoever is not with me is against me. Whoever does not gather with me scatters.

Notice what Jesus is saying here. How then is He accomplishing this work of casting out demons, healing the sick, opening the eyes of the blind?

It's because in His coming, in the coming of the kingdom of God, He is now binding the strong man.

Who is the strong man? The one who was just mentioned before. Beelzebub, Satan, the accuser, the adversary has been bound by the authority of Christ and His kingdom.

Let me tell you something. The enemy, Satan, the devil, is still indeed the

God of this age who is buying the minds of unbelievers. Satan, the devil, is still like a roaring lion waiting to devour and seeking to kill, steal, and destroy

God's people. But I can also tell you this with full assurance that this

Satan, his days are numbered. This enemy has been weakened, mortally wounded by the coming of Jesus Christ, by His perfect obedience, by His work on the cross, by His salvific work, by His death, birth, and resurrection.

Satan is all but underneath our feet. Amen? For it is promised to us in Romans 16 that the

God of peace will soon put Satan where? Underneath your feet.

The same place that is promised to the Messiah in Genesis 3, verse 15 and onward where it says, the seed of the woman will come and crush the head of the serpent and crush

Him and destroy Him. So too, we as the body of Christ know that Satan's proper place is beneath our feet.

Jesus makes this stunning statement though, and I want to read to you because it has implications for the future and for the purpose of our lives, and it's this, therefore

I tell you, every sin and blasphemy will be forgiven people. Praise God. There's forgiveness of sins through Jesus, but the blasphemy against the

Spirit will not be forgiven. And whoever speaks a word against the Son of Man will be forgiven, but whoever speaks against the

Holy Spirit will not be forgiven, either in this age or in the age to come.

Jesus often refers to His eschatology as being this age, the age in which

He lived in, the eon, and also there is one to come.

Beloved, I believe that that is the simplest way to understand the future, that there is this age, the age in which we share with Christ, the age in which we share with the apostles, the age that is now and the age that is to come.

There is only two ages of which the scriptures speak of, this age and the one to come.

The one to come being the place in which there will be new heavens and new earth where righteousness will dwell.

Christ's eschatology was crystal clear and simple, this age and the age to come.

Therefore, we know that in the advent of Christ, in His coming, in His first coming, He is bringing forth

God's kingdom into the world and it's going to be fully culminated in the age to come.

In that future state, all the effects of sin, all the effects of illnesses, all the effects that we deal with today will be done away with and be but a memory and will be gone.

Christ in His coming is demonstrating in Luke chapter four and throughout all the gospels that His coming is to come to destroy the works of the devil, including sickness, illnesses and death itself.

Jesus is demonstrating in His ministry through all these miraculous works that the kingdom of God has indeed come.

Again, Jesus demonstrates the arrival of the kingdom by exercising authority over the kingdom of darkness, proving that the kingdom has come upon us by binding the power of the enemy.

Now, all of this is good theology and good things to know, but what does this do for me today?

How does this help me answer the question, what is my purpose? Why am

I here? Beloved, after doing all these works and more, Jesus goes in verse 42 of Luke four and it says, and when it was day,

He departed and went to a desolate place and people sought Him and came to Him. It would have kept

Him from leaving them. The crowds came to Jesus, they saw Him, they wanted Him to stay longer, they wanted to have more time with Jesus, but Jesus was a man on a mission because He said to them in verse 43,

I must preach the good news of the kingdom of God to the other towns as well.

Why? For I was sent for this purpose.

I was sent for this purpose. The healing of the sick, the binding up of demonic powers, all of these were part of His purpose in bringing forth the kingdom of God into the world.

And His purpose is to proclaim, to preach the good news of the kingdom of God.

So if you wanted to know, what was Jesus' purpose? Why did He come into the world? Why was

He sent forth from the Father, from eternity past into this state and time in the incarnation?

Why was He so self -humiliated in that incarnation? It was for this purpose, so that He may preach the kingdom of God.

Beloved, ask yourself the question, what is my purpose?

Jesus lived the highest purpose that one can live. Service to His Father.

What is your purpose? Your purpose is to serve the same God and Father of our

Lord Jesus Christ, and to proclaim His kingdom. Oftentimes, as human beings, we find our purpose in our work.

Whether we're a firefighter, a police officer, whether we're a software engineer, we find great purpose in the labor, in the works of our hands.

And so when people ask you, what are you? You'll say, well, I'm a firefighter. I'm a police officer.

I'm a software engineer. And we identify with that thing that we do. Beloved, I want you to change your mindset just a little bit, and find your identity as a kingdom proclaimer.

When someone asks you, what are you? I'm a Christian. And I've been brought forth.

I have been saved from the mire of the dirt to be a proclaimer of God's kingdom.

That is my purpose. Is to proclaim the kingdom of God. Amen?

Beloved, find your purpose in that in which

Jesus found purpose. Jesus reveals His purpose, if you're following the notes, in being sent from the

Father to preach the gospel of the kingdom. You may be asking yourself, beloved, preach?

That's not my gifting. I haven't been called to preach. I'm not, that's not my strength, is to preach the good news.

That's why we've got you, pastor. That's why we brought you here all the way from Wisconsin, so you can be our preacher.

Well, friends, can I tell you? You have been called to be a preacher.

You have been called to be a minister. You've been called and selected by heaven.

Why? Because He who has all authority in heaven on earth has said,

Go ye therefore and baptize in the name of the

Father, Son, and Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I commanded you.

And if you're afraid, don't be afraid. Why? Because He also promised and behold, I will be with you always, even to the end of the age.

The age that is now, in which we are now in. He promises to be with us until the very end, because what is on the other side of this age is the age to come, eternal life in paradise, eternal life in a new heavens and a new earth.

This is our purpose, to know Him, to proclaim Him, to preach

Him until the end of this age, so that the age to come, we may fully enjoy

Him forever. This is our chief end. This is our highest end.

Beloved to you, as a believer in Jesus Christ, you have been called to have the same mind as Christ.

I want you to write this in the notes. Believers are to have the same mind as Christ. For it says in Philippians chapter two, verse five, have the same mind that was in Christ Jesus, that though He was in the form of God, He did not count equality of God as something to be held on to or grasped, but He humbled

Himself by taking the lowly state of a servant. Have the same mind that was also in Christ Jesus, that you will do not what you want to do with your life, but what

He wants you to do for your life. Submit to His calling to preach the good news of the kingdom.

So you may ask yourself the question again, okay, pastor, I'm hearing you. I get that you're saying that we all have to preach the kingdom of God, but what does that mean for me?

What does that look like day to day life? That means this, whatever vocation you have, whatever vocation

God has called you to, whether you're a stay -at -home mom or you're homeschooling your children, whether you work at Walmart, whether you work for Google, whether you work for Apple, whatever vocation

God has placed you in, be a proclaimer of God's kingdom there. Why?

Because I'm sure you've encountered people that you work with, that you live with, that you do life with, who've gotten sick, that have needed prayer, they have needed a shoulder to lean on.

And brothers and sisters, that is our job. That is what we do. We are Christians. We are to be that person people can lean on.

We are to be that person who prays with people when they're sick. We are to be the hands and feet, the agents of God's kingdom wherever it is that we live, wherever it is that we work, wherever it is that we are.

That is your mission field. So I want you to think every single time you come here on church, to church on Sunday, this is the place of education.

This is the place of equipping. And when you go out from these doors, everything outside of these walls, that's the mission field.

Wherever it is you work, wherever it is you go, wherever it is you go and play, that's your mission field. When you see opportunities to witness, witness of the grandeur and greatness of Jesus and be a proclaimer of this kingdom that which our

Lord Jesus Christ told us to pray for when He said, Our Father who art in heaven, hallowed be Thy name.

Thy kingdom come. Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven. That is your call.

That is your duty. That is your purpose. That is to proclaim the kingdom of God.

Have the same mind that was also in Christ Jesus for as such, as such our purpose in life should be the same as that which was in Christ.

So how can we, beloved? How can we realize our purpose in life?

I want to give you three things, three words that will help you realize your purpose in life.

The first one is of such great importance, beloved. All of us have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God.

Every single one of us. There is no one alive, no one who's ever lived except for one who has not been touched by sins, by the tentacles of sin.

And therefore, what is the antidote to sin? The antidote to realizing our full potential and purpose in life?

It's number one, receive the Lord Jesus by faith.

And repent of your sins and trust fully in Him. It says in Romans 10, verse 9, it gives us the answer of how it is that we can be made right with God.

For if you confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus and believe in your heart that God has raised Him from the dead, thou shalt be saved.

Not that I might be saved, not that I could be saved, not that I may be saved, but that you shall be saved.

It is with the mouth and the heart that we make proclamation of faith and we also receive regeneration in the heart resulting in salvation.

We proclaim with our mouth the Lord Jesus Christ, believe in our heart that God raised Him from the dead and we will be saved.

And there is salvation in no one else. There is no other name given among men by which we might be saved, but by the name of the

Lord Jesus Christ. There's an exclusivity to salvation and it's in Jesus, but there's an inclusivity in salvation and that it's for everyone.

Men, women, children of all races, of all colors, of all backgrounds, all can come to this fount of blessing called

Jesus and receive everlasting life. You must receive the Lord Jesus should you want to realize the purpose of life.

Number two, obey the Lord Jesus by reading and keeping

His Word. For the Lord Jesus says, thou must not just be a listener or hearer of the

Word, but be doers of it so that we do not deceive ourselves. We are to obey the

King. If we're to be ambassadors of the kingdom, we must obey the words of Him who sent us out and that is the

Lord Jesus Christ. Then the third thing that we must do in order to realize our purpose in life is very simple.

Go. Go in the authority of Jesus reaching and teaching the world with the

Gospel of the Kingdom of God. Go. Jesus doesn't say, sit in the pews and stay there.

He says, go ye therefore into all the world, into all the nations, teaching and preaching and baptizing in the name of the

Triune God. And the Apostle Paul gives us like admonition in 2 Corinthians 5 .17

-21 where he says that we are a new creation in Christ Jesus and that new creation work begins when we become ambassadors of Christ imploring, begging men to be reconciled to God for He made

Him who knew no sin, the Lord Jesus Christ, the righteous One, to be sin on our behalf so that we might become the righteousness of God in Him.

This is our purpose. We are ambassadors. We are kingdom proclaimers.

We are Christians. Therefore, go and shake up this fallen world.

Amen? Amen. Let me pray. Lord Jesus, You are indeed the

Great Shepherd of the sheep. You are indeed our Great and High Priest, the

King and Prophet of Your people. We ask now, Lord, that You would strengthen us through the

Word that has been preached and through the Spirit that dwells in us, the same Spirit that was in You that operated in Your miraculous workings by healing the sick, raising the dead, opening the eyes of the blind, opening the ears of the deaf and opening the tongue of the mute.

We pray, God, that You would use that same Spirit to work in us that which is pleasing in Your sight so that in You and in You alone we may find our purpose, our end, and our highest goal and end, which is to know

You, to be found in You, to glorify You and to enjoy

You forever. And we do so by being ambassadors and kingdom proclaimers unto the end of the age until You return.

Lord Jesus, we pray, God, that You'd strengthen everyone in the inner man to be a proclaimer of Your kingdom, a minister of the gospel of hope.

And Lord, that we would live this out in such a way that we would entice the nations to jealousy for the hope that we have within us and help us,

God, to live lives authentically onto that end, onto the chief end, to know

You, to love You, to glorify You and to enjoy You forever. In Your name we do pray.