If someone asked you the question “What are you living for?” how would you answer? What gets you up in the morning, what keeps you going through the day? Everybody is living for something, although not many have even pondered the question “What are you living for?” Good question to ask someone to start a discussion about life’s important issues.
Second related question, we want to think about this morning “Who are you living for?” Actually, this is the more fundamental question. Because when you answer who you are living for, you can also answer what are you living for. Now according to the Bible, there are only two possible answers to this question, “who are you living for?” For a believer in Jesus Christ, the only answer is that I am living for Jesus. For the unbeliever, the answer from the Bible is that they are living for Satan. Now, most unbelievers don’t understand that or even believe in Satan, so what makes sense to them is that they’re basically living for themselves, living to please themselves. As a human being, created by God, can only be fulfilled in life by living for God, those who live for themselves will live lives that miss God’s purpose.
Today, we’re going to be talking about “Jesus Your Life.” If you’re a believer, God doesn’t just want you to live for Him 50% of the time, or 80 or 90%, His plan for your life is 100% for Jesus. Now, how can you live for someone you can’t see? How can you live to expand a kingdom that is not visible?
Colossians 3:2 (NIV) Set your minds on things above, not on earthly things.
United States runner Marla Runyon was legally blind for 22 years. Yet she trained for and competed in the 2000 Summer Olympic Games in Sydney, Australia, along with other runners who could see. She ran so well, she qualified for the finals in the 1500 meter race and finished eighth, just three seconds behind the medal winners. How does she do it? Marla can’t see in color, and what she does see is just a fuzzy blob. In a race she just follows the blob of figures in front of her. She said that the real difficulty was in rounding the final turn and “racing toward a finish line that I can’t see. I just know where it is.”
As believers, you and I are racing toward a finish line above that we can’t see clearly, but we know it is there. The earthly things around us seem so much more real and clear, but they are not going to last, they are not eternal.
Colossians 3:4 (NIV) When Christ, who is your life, appears, then you also will appear with him in glory.
We fix our eyes on Jesus, who is seated in heaven. We live for Him, He is our life. One day, He is going to come again and that which was invisible will be made visible to all. The Bible tells us that every eye will see Jesus when He comes again. And we as believers, will also live forever with Him in glory, that is our destiny. So, today, we’re going to talk about how we should live our lives on this earth, if Jesus is indeed our life. How can we love and serve Him on this earth with our whole hearts.