Unfortunately, many people have no idea what their purpose in life should be. When the former Soviet Union collapsed, my wife and I were traveling to Siberia and had to overnight in Moscow. We stayed in the home of a lady who was an atheist. She was a professor in the university. She asked us what we would be doing in Siberia. When I told her that we were going to speak to people about Christ, she asked what subject I would speak on. When I told her that I was going to speak the first day on the purpose of life, she became very animated and exclaimed, "Oh, I wish I could go to hear you. I don't have any purpose in life."

That lady is like most people that I have met. They have no idea why they were created. They were born, grow up, get a job, get married, have children, grow old, and die. Yet, many have never even considered why they were created. They are some of the most disillusioned people in life. They are like a man in the center of New York City who is lost. He walks up to a policeman and asks him for help. The policeman then asks the man where he wants to go. The man replies, "I don't know." Many people are just like that in life. They don't have any idea where they are headed in life.

But others have a purpose. It's just the wrong purpose. They're frantically trying to climb the ladder of success, popularity, or power. They think that their accumulation of wealth, fame, or position is the true purpose of life. However, they will be the most disappointed in life. They won't be able to take their money, houses, cars, or friends with them into eternity. They are like a person who has a ladder, and he puts it against a wall and climbs it as fast as he can. However, when he gets to the top of the wall, he discovers that he put his ladder against the wrong wall.

But there's a third kind of person when it comes to the purpose of life. It's the person who has found the true purpose of life. This person is the most fulfilled. But that brings up an extremely important question. What is the real purpose of life? When life is over, what should we have accomplished? Jesus gave the simple but profound answer to that question when He said, "Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it: 'Love your neighbor as yourself" (Matt. 22:37-39 NIV).

The real purpose of life is as simple as that - love God with all your heart and love your neighbor as yourself. The world would be a much better place in which to live if all did those two things. Ultimately, the victorious Christian life will be judged by how we loved God and loved others. It's out of that sense of purpose that the rest of our victory flows.