Serving Challenge: An 11-Day Life-Changing Journey to Serve Like JesusSample

Serving Like Jesus: Jesus's Ability

A recent study claimed that 75 percent of Millennials are unsure of the purpose of their lives. Jesus came to earth with a purpose: to rescue us and, therefore, to make us right before God. Jesus's daring rescue mission sadly cost Him His life. The next stanza of the Christ Hymn from Philippians 2 includes these words:

"By becoming obedient to death—even death on a cross!"

Before He stepped foot on this planet, Jesus knew that to give us life, He would have to give up His life by dying on the cross. At the time, they didn't even have a word to describe the pain and torture experienced in this kind of death. Later, the Romans created the word "excruciating" to capture this kind of suffering. In Latin, the prefix "-ex" means "out of," and the word "crux" means "cross." Put together, and it becomes "out of the cross," an adjective to describe "extremely painful."

As dark as the death of Jesus was, darkness would not get the last word. Jesus knew from the onset that He was a Savior. Because He lived a perfect life, only Jesus could make us righteous before God. Our sins had separated us from God. We owed a debt to God that we could never repay. So, God came down into the flesh and died in our place. When we believe that Jesus did this for us on our behalf, we receive eternal life in the presence of our God and are invited into a life of following Jesus as the Way.

Do you know what you are here in this world for? Do you know why God created you?

As we serve best in this world, it's important to know who we are in Jesus, how we are uniquely made, and in what ways God calls each of us to serve to the best of our ability.

When we commit to follow Jesus, we continue God's rescue mission. God has now entrusted us with this Good News. As we live out our callings, we play a major role in bringing others to faith in Jesus. While we are not called to pay for the entire world's sins like Jesus, we live with purpose.

Challenge:

Your challenge today is to find your top three spiritual gifts. Share those with a friend, mentor, or pastor. Then use a spiritual gift to serve someone else today.