Hugo tells the story of an orphan boy, who secretly maintains the colossal train station clocks in 1930s Paris. Hugo had a tender relationship with his father, until his father died tragically in a fire. Now Hugo is struggling to survive, scrounging for scraps of food.
Hugo and his friend Isabelle, another orphan, both about 12-years-old, are up in the tower surrounded by the massive and intricate workings of the train station clock. They walk to the inside face of the giant clock through which they see a breathtaking view of Paris at night. Take a look (show video: Hugo, Big Machine Clip).
Right after my father died, I would come up here a lot. I'd imagine the whole world was one big machine. Machines never come with any extra parts; you know. They always come with the exact amount they need. So I figured, if the entire world was one big machine… I couldn't be an extra part. I had to be here for some reason. And that means you have to be here for some reason, too (Hugo. Directed by Martin Scorsese, 2011, 1:19:52 to 1:20:52, Hollywood, CA: Paramount Studios, 2012; www. PreachingToday.com).
I have to be here for some reason. You have to be here for some reason even in the midst of all the trouble. The question is, “What is that reason?” For what purpose did God make you and me? Well, if you have your Bibles, I invite you to turn with me to Genesis 2, Genesis 2, where the Bible tells us why God created man.
Genesis 2:4-6 These are the generations of the heavens and the earth when they were created, in the day that the LORD God made the earth and the heavens. When no bush of the field was yet in the land and no small plant of the field had yet sprung up—for the LORD God had not caused it to rain on the land, and there was no man to work the ground, and a mist was going up from the land and was watering the whole face of the ground... (ESV)
On the sixth day of creation, the day God made man, there was no “bush of the field” and no “small plant of the field.” Now, there were plenty of bushes and plants, because God created all vegetation on the third day of creation (Genesis 1:11-13). But there was no cultivated bushes or plants, no bush OF THE FIELD nor plant OF THE FIELD, because there was no man to cultivate the ground yet. It all grew “wild,” so to speak before man could “work the ground”—a hint at man’s purpose.
Genesis 2:7 then the LORD God formed the man of dust from the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and the man became a living creature (ESV).
Like a great artist, God took some clay and sculpted out the form of a man. This is different than the rest of His creation. With everything else, God spoke, and it was so. Here, God gets intimately involved with His creation, forming man, so-to-speak, with His own hands.
Just this last week, I came across a TED talk by mathematician Alexander Tsiaras, called Conception to Birth—Visualized (www.youtube.com/watch?v=fKyljukBE70). In the talk, he shows a powerful, medical visualization of human development from conception to birth, which he describes as a “mystery,” as “magic,” as “divinity.” Take a look (show video: Conception to Birth—Visualized).
Tsiaras refers to what he calls the "marvel" and the "miracle" of an unborn baby's development. Tsiaras highlights the miracle of life with the following examples:
At 44 days the fetus has become "something that you can recognize."
At nine weeks it "is really like a kind of little human being."
At 25-28 days, the baby's heart, which resembles a "magnificent origami," is developing at a rate of one million cells per second.
At 32 days the arms and hands are developing.
Within five weeks you can start to see the heart's early atrium and ventricles. A week later the baby's heart is actually becoming mature.
At 52 days the retina, nose, and fingers are developing.
By the time the fetus is full-term, it has 60,000 miles of vessels inside its body—although only one mile of vessels are visible. The other 59,999 miles of vessels are quietly working to bring nutrients and dispose of waste (Alexander Tsiaris, "Conception to Birth—Visualized," TED.com, December 2010; www.PreachingToday.com).
You formed my inward parts; you knitted me together in my mother’s womb. I praise you, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made. Wonderful are your works; my soul knows it very well. My frame was not hidden from you, when I was being made in secret, intricately woven in the depths of the earth (Psalm 139:13-15).
God sculpted the form of a man. Then God breathed life into that man.
Michelangelo, the great Renaissance artists, had just completed one of his greatest masterpieces—the towering statue of Moses. He walked around that statue, surveying his work. Then suddenly, in anger, he struck its knee with his chisel and cried, “Why dost thou not speak?” (Paul Lee Tan, Encyclopedia of 7700 Illustrations, #7692)
Michelangelo could not breathe life into His masterpiece, but God did.
GOD MADE HIS CREATION LIVE!
God breathed His own spirit into man, which gave him life. God’s own breath energized Adam so that he bore God’s own image within (Genesis 1:26-27).
The Hebrew word for “breath” in verse 7, primarily refers to breath; but it can also refer to the human spirit or to the Spirit of God, depending on the context (Magnum, Brown, Klippenstein, and Hurst, Lexham Theological Wordbook). And certainly, this context allows for God imparting His own Spirit into man, so that man bears God’s own image within.
University professor Dr. Chris Gabbard used to believe that some human beings were not “persons,” at all. He had adopted the ethics of the contemporary philosopher Peter Singer, who argues that society has a right to kill severely disabled people or allow them to die.
But the birth of Gabbard's son radically changed his viewpoint. During childbirth, his son experienced permanent brain damage, and today he is a blind quadriplegic with cerebral palsy. Gabbard writes movingly about the first time he saw his newborn son in the intensive-care unit:
“After his birth… I was deeply ambivalent, having been persuaded by [Peter Singer's] advocacy of… infanticide. But there was my son, asleep or unconscious, on a ventilator, motionless under a heat lamp, tubes and wires everywhere, monitors alongside his steel and transparent-plastic crib. What most stirred me was the way he resembled me. Nothing had prepared me for this shock of recognition, for he was the boy in my own baby pictures, the image of me when I was an infant.”
Today Gabbard is an advocate for the inherent dignity of severely disabled human beings. After pointing to a recent Gallop poll (2010) that says that nearly half of Americans (46 percent) support assisted suicides, Gabbard writes, “Many such well-meaning people would like to end my son's suffering, but they do not stop to consider whether he is actually suffering. At times he is uncomfortable, yes, but the only real pain here seems to be the pain of those who cannot bear the thought that people like [my son] exist” (Karen Swallow Prior, “A Peter Singer Sympathizer Changes His Mind,” Her.meneutics, 12-7-10; www.PreachingToday.com).
All of us, no matter how disfigured and deformed, bear God’s image. That’s why God cares so much for human beings. Glenn Stanton put it this way: We serve a God who created our humanity, weeps at the fall of our humanity, became our humanity, and is redeeming our humanity (Glenn Stanton, “The Conservative Humanist,” www.ChristianityToday.com, 4-1-06; www.PreachingToday.com).
God wants to redeem you! Please, let Him do it by putting your faith in Christ, who died for your sins and rose again. No matter how messed up your life is, God can make it new. God can breathe His Spirit into you again, transforming you from the inside out. All you have to do is trust Christ with your life. Surrender everything to Him, and He will make all things new. God will also energize you to fulfill His original purpose for you.
Verses 8-14 describe the place where God put the man, but verse 15 describes the purpose why God made the man. Look!
Genesis 2:15 The LORD God took the man and put him in the garden of Eden to work it and keep it (ESV).
God made a man to work His creation and to keep His creation. So first of all...
GO TO WORK.
Exert some effort in caring for the world. Get your hands dirty in bringing some order to your environment.
Such work reflects God’s image back to God as an act of worship. Work is worship!
Now, you see that in the Hebrew word used for “work” here in Genesis 2:15. It’s the same word Moses and the prophets use to describe worship in other contexts. In Exodus 3, God told Moses, “When you have brought the people out of Egypt, you shall SERVE God on this mountain” (Exodus 3:12), i.e., you will worship or work for God. In Numbers 3, Moses used the word again when he talked about the priests who “MINISTER at the tabernacle” (Numbers 3:7-8). I.e., they work or serve God in the place of worship. And in Isaiah 19, Isaiah used the same word when he describes the Egyptians, who will one day “WORSHIP with sacrifice and offering” (Isaiah 19:21).
Work is worship in the Bible. Your work on Monday is just an extension of your worship on Sunday. There is no separation between the two, no distinction in the Bible between work and worship. Now, that realization will revolutionize your work!
There’s an old story about a pedestrian who walked by three bricklayers at work. He asked each one, “What are you doing?”
The first one replied, “I’m mixing mortar.”
The second one replied, “I’m building a wall.”
The third one replied, “I’m building a cathedral to the glory of God!”
Who do you think found meaning and joy in his work? The third one, of course! For when you see your work as an act of worship, you fulfill the purpose for which God made you.
In the early days of his Christian life, Os Guinness believed that he had to prove his commitment to Christ by becoming a minister or missionary. So, he worked for a well-known church for a while, but he was miserable. Then God changed his heart and refined his calling through a random encounter with a gas station attendant. This was in the days before self-serve gas stations. Here's how Guinness described it:
I had just had my car filled up with gas and enjoyed a marvelously rich conversation with the pump attendant. As I turned on the key and the engine to [my car] roared to life, a thought suddenly hit me with the force of an avalanche: This man was the first person I had spoken to in a week who was not a church member. I was in danger of being drawn into a religious ghetto… Ten minutes of conversation with a friendly gas pump attendant on a beautiful spring evening in [England], and I knew once and for all I was not cut out to [work full-time in a church] (Os Guinness, The Call, W Publishing Group, 1988, pp. 5-6; www.PreachingToday.com).
Instead, God led him to work as a free-lance reporter for the BBC, to write more than 30 books, and to serve with several think tanks, influencing western culture on many different levels (“Os Guinness,” Wikipedia, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Os_Guinness).
As such, Os Guiness has a far greater impact for God’s Kingdom than he ever could as a minister or missionary. The same can be true for you! Just do your work, whatever it is, as unto the Lord, Go to work and so fulfill the purpose for which God made you. Then 2nd...
WATCH OVER YOUR FAMILY.
Keep them safe. Protect and guard your home.
It’s the second reason God made a man. Look at verse 15 again.
Genesis 2:15 The LORD God took the man and put him in the garden of Eden to work it and keep it—i.e., to guard it, to watch over it, to protect it. Now...
What would Adam have to guard against in the Garden of Eden? It was paradise! What harm could come? What dangers existed in the perfect environment? Only one—the danger of sin.
Genesis 2:16-17 And the LORD God commanded the man, saying, “You may surely eat of every tree of the garden, but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat of it you shall surely die” (ESV).
Disobedience would bring death to Adam AND to God’s entire creation. So God charged Adam to protect his home against sin and ruin, and God charges every man to do the same. I don’t mean to exclude the women here, but men, you are the key to protecting your home from “snakes in the grass.” You are the key to your family’s spiritual health.
According to data collected by Promise Keepers and Baptist Press, if a father does not go to church, even if his wife does, only 1 child in 50 will become a regular worshiper. However, if a father goes to church regularly, and the mother does not, a minimum of two-thirds of their children will end up attending church.
Another survey found that if a child is the first person in a household to become a Christian, there is a 3.5% probability everyone else in the household will follow. If the mother is the first to become a Christian, there is a 17% probability everyone else in the household will follow. However, when the father is first, there is a 93% probability everyone else in the household will follow (Nick Cady, “The Impact on Kids of Dad’s Faith and Church Attendance,” Theology for the People¸ June 20, 2016).
Men, your impact on your family’s faith is huge! Take advantage of your influence and lead them in the right direction. Don’t SEND your family to church. BRING them to church! Spend time with your family and set the example. That’s how you protect them from Satan’s influence.
Six years ago (2015), an unmanned military surveillance blimp came loose from its mooring at the Aberdeen Proving Ground in Maryland. It eventually crash-landed in a “rugged, wooded area” in northeast Pennsylvania, but not before doing some extensive damage. The blimp, a giant 240-foot aircraft, was designed to protect the Washington, D.C. area from potential enemy attacks. But when it got loose, dragging its tether made of “super-strong cables,” it ripped through power lines, causing 30,000 people to lose power in Bloomsburg, PA, and schoolchildren to stay indoors. (Greg Clary & Barbara Starr, “Pentagon personnel on site to investigate loose blimp,” CNN, October 29, 2015; www.PreachingToday.com).
How tragic when something designed to protect wreaks havoc instead. Guys, please, stay tethered to Christ and your family, so you can be there to protect them from harm. It’s part of the purpose for which God made you.
God made a man to work and to watch over his family, so do it! Go to work and watch over your family. Avoid other pursuits, no matter how good they seem, and stay true to your God-given purpose.
In the Superman movie, Clark Kent was upset when his high school football coach reduced him to being a manager after a game. Clark possesses supernatural powers, but he must hide them from his peers. As a result, they disrespect him because he is only a team manager, not a star.
That’s when Clark’s father slips an arm around the soon-to-be Superman and says, “Son, you are here for a special reason. I don't know what that reason is, but I know one thing—it's not to score touchdowns” (The Accountability Connection, Victor Books, 1992; www.PreachingToday.com).
My dear friends, you are here for a special reason, too! It’s not to score touchdowns, nor to be rich and popular. So reject those pursuits for the pursuit of God in all that you do. For the most fulfilling life is a life full of Him!
