I've got to tell you, one of the big questions that I get from men - hands down it's the most asked question - is, "What is God's purpose for my life?" It doesn't matter if I meet a man in his 20's, or in his 80's. Every man asks this question, "What is God's purpose for my life?" I think it's one of those plaguing questions that never goes away.
It's very - it goes hand in hand with the question, "What do I want to be when I grow up?" So there are some vocational aspects to this question. There's also a calling aspect to it though, too - as far as, "What does God want me to do? How does he want me to live my life? How do I integrate my faith and my work? How do I integrate who I am with who I want to be?" Which is a big question. But we must find an answer to, "What is my purpose," at some point. Because otherwise, it results in feeling purposeless and directionless life. And I think a lot of men feel that way. They feel like they're directionless at times.
So I want to take a look at Genesis 2 today. Beginning in verse 8, reading down through verse 25. Fantastic text, which brings us through the beginning of time - and I believe this is where God tells us what our purpose is as men. So here's how the text reads.
"Now, the Lord God had planted a garden in the east, in Eden. And there he put the man he had formed. The Lord God had made all kinds of trees grow out of the ground, trees that were pleasing to the eye and good for food. In the middle of the garden were the tree of life and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil."
"A river watering the garden flowed from Eden. From there, was separated into four head waters. The name of the first was the Pishon. It winds through the entire land of Havilah where there is gold. The gold of that land is good. There's aromatic resin and onyx are also there. The name of the second river is the Gihon, and winds though the entire land of Kush. The name of the third river is the Tigris, it winds along the east side of the Assyria. And the fourth river is the Euphrates."
"Now, the Lord God took the man and put him in the garden to work it and take care of it. And the Lord God commanded the man, 'You are free to eat of any tree in the garden, but you must not eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. For when you eat of it, you will certainly die.' And the Lord God said, 'It is not good for the man to be alone. I will make a helper suitable for him.' Now, the Lord God had formed out of the ground all of the wild animals and all of the birds of the air and the sky. He brought them to the man to see what he would name them. And whatever the man called each living creature, that was its name. So the man gave names to all the livestock, and all the birds of the sky, and all the wild animals."
"But for Adam, no suitable helper was found. So the Lord God caused the man to fall into a deep sleep, and while he was sleeping he took one of the man's ribs and then closed up the place with flesh. And then the Lord God made a woman from the rib he had taken out of the man, and he brought her to the man. The man said, 'This is now bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh. She shall be called 'woman,' for she was taken out of man.' That is why a man leaves his father and mother, and is united to his wife, and they become one flesh. Adam and his wife were both naked, and they felt no shame."
Now, this text is potent. There are all kinds of exciting things happening in this particular text. And right away, I notice a whole lot of moving pieces. For example, I observe that God is doing a lot in this text. That he's planting, he's putting; he's making, he's taking, he's forming. He's engaging in a whole lot of activity here - that's important for us to see because he's the chief or lead character in the story.
Now, there are a couple of other characters in the story. There are Adam and Eve, man and woman. But the center of this particular text is the man. Man is given specific instructions and responsibility. He's told not to do one thing, and yet he's instructed to do another thing. The thing that he's told not to do was to eat of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. He could eat of any other tree. One of the things he's commanded to do is he's moving into the Garden of Eden, and he's called to work it and take care of it.
But then, all of a sudden, God gives the man a special task. It's to name things. And I think this is profound. Because as Adam is hanging out in this gorgeous place - this Garden of Eden, it's rich with produce and rich with nutrients and rich with all kinds of resources. God turns to him and gives him authority to define and to name creatures. I mean, it's profound that God sets back in the great play of life, and turns to the man and says, "I want to see what you do at this moment. I want to see how you handle this authority and this responsibility. I've told you something that you can't do, but I want to tell you something that you can do." And he allows Adam to wield the opportunity to define things and animals around him. It's significant. Now, we have no idea how long it took, and we have no idea exactly what the names were that called them. But it was a significant task and responsibility that Adam was to own.
I think the most interesting thing of all in this text is one thing that God creates that we sometimes miss. God creates in Adam a longing, a desire. What he does is he gives Adam an understanding that there isn't something suitable for a relationship for him in his own life. In other words, God creates a void in Adam's heart. And God knows that he has done it. Because before Adam even looks for a woman, or also looks for a relationship - we see that God notices that he's created the void.
So that as Adam is looking for a suitable helper, he's unable to find one. Which is a fantastic problem for Adam. At that moment, Adam begins a search, and God provides fulfillment in that search. By putting Adam to sleep, he creates - out of Adam, woman, and gives him a suitable helper. A partner in life, a relationship. And God fulfills that desire. Now, the reason why I want to show you this particular point from this text is that God is in the process of creating desires and longings in our heart. The fact that we even ask the question, "What is my purpose in life?" Or, "What should my purpose in life be?" That was placed there by the Almighty God at the very beginning of time, inside of the man. He wants us to have that longing, but he wants that desire and that longing to be fulfilled by God himself. That God can fulfill those desires and longings.
What I've come to learn is that a man who's very unsatisfied in life -who has this desire - has usually found out that everything else that he has tried to fulfill his desires and purposes with results in him feeling void and empty. They leave him in a place where he wants something else because they know they're not satisfied by things like just human relationships. Satisfied by work alone. Satisfied by his career. Satisfied by his degree. Satisfied by how much money is in his account. Satisfied by how big his home, is, how beautiful his car is, what his personality is like - his fame, his fortune.
Anything in his life, none of those things are satisfying. Because none of those things truly fulfill our desire. And that God is in the business of satisfying our purposes, giving us desire, but also helping us to find the completion of our purpose and our desire. But this is very challenging because I think each and everyday gentlemen, our desires wane, and we chase after things that don't even matter. And that brings to light, again the fact that we're looking for purpose and meaning.
And gentlemen, if you're out there listening, you have to know this. Your purpose can only be satisfied in desiring God first and alone, over all things. I think that's one of the great lessons to learn about the man in this text. Is that man has created us to long after God, and allow him to fulfill the desires of our heart. Allow him to give us the desires of our heart. Allow him to fulfill our purposes in meaning. And along the way, as there are things that distract us, as there are things that lure us in, we don't give way to those. We seek after God and his purposes first.
Because we know in the very next chapter, Genesis Chapter 3, the man takes good Godly desires and gives them away to the one boundary that God has given him. And he abdicates his role of leadership in his own life - by ensuring that his purposes are filled, by being obedient to God's. Gentlemen, this is my challenge for you this week, is to dig in. To evaluate your purposes in line with God's purposes, and to talk about those with someone.
