You Are a Billboard for the Kingdom
“You are the light of the world...you are the salt of the earth”
Billboards are big! They’re public. They’re impossible to miss. They have a message to tell.
I guess we as Christians are billboards. Our lives send a message to those around us. Our message is bigger than you might think. More people are reading the message of our lives than you might think. They’re reading your billboard.
So, what does your billboard say? It is saying something whether you’re very quiet and reserved or very out spoken and gregarious. Your life is saying something.
The message of our life’s billboard is big and impossible to miss. It’s not hard for others to read it. There it is right along the side of life’s road for everyone to see and they do see it. And you may think, “Why would they take the time to read my billboard?” But they do. Everyone you know does. Everyone you rub shoulders with does. Everyone you live with does. Everyone you work with does. Everyone you meet does.
Is this intimidating? In a way, it ought to be. I mean, wow, everybody is reading my billboard and they are being affected by it. So, yeah, it’s intimidating to know we’re billboards. And if we know Christ then our billboard sends a message about the kingdom of God. Paul expressed a very interesting thing when he said, “our citizenship is in heaven” (Philippians 3:20).
But there’s another way to look at it. We could see that as billboards for the kingdom of God we can truly make a difference in the lives of all those people who are reading us. We begin to see that our lives have significance. Our time here on this earth has great meaning. And when I gain this understanding being a billboard becomes exciting. It becomes the core reason for my existence.
I summarize my life purpose this way: My purpose in life, my reason for being on the planet is to bring glory to God and influence people to Christ. I would challenge you to come up with a purpose statement for your life. It should be Biblically based and Christ centered. It should become the heart motivation for all you do in life.
No one’s billboard sends a perfect message about Christ and His kingdom. We all fail at times to live as Christ wants us to. But, even then, if we acknowledge our failure and confess our sin then our billboard can still send a good message to others. It tells them that imperfect, fallible people can be citizens of His kingdom. As a matter of fact, only imperfect, fallible people enter His kingdom through the grace of Christ.
From one billboard to another, let me encourage you to think deeply about your life and its purpose. We only have one life to live and we have only one opportunity to send an accurate life changing message to others. It will surely take the grace of God to do it and the good news is this. The grace that we all need is abundant and freely given by our gracious King.
May the grace of God be so great in your life that you might even consider putting lights on your billboard!
Pastor Dan