Our Purpose

Intro

Give background from last week.

Normally, this is where we’d talk about us being sinful, but tonight we are going to talk about how things are supposed to be.

We constantly want to know what our purpose it. We want to know what we are here for. I think we hit a problem because we look at our purpose without God. So, what were we created for? Why are we here?

Imago Dei

Imago Dei means the image of God. It means we are created in His image.

Gen. 1:26-27 “Then God said, “Let Us make man in Our image, according to Our likeness; and let them rule over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the sky and over the cattle and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth.” God created man in His own image, in the image of God He created him; male and female He created them.”

God creates us differently from all the rest of creation. he makes us like Him.

Therefore, we are supposed to be His representatives, His people.

Sin has messed that up, but we still have some essence of the Imago Dei.

Stewards over Creation

Because we are His representatives, we are supposed to steward (or take care of) His creation

Gen. 1:28-31 “God blessed them; and God said to them, “Be fruitful and multiply, and fill the earth, and subdue it; and rule over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the sky and over every living thing that moves on the earth.” Then God said, “Behold, I have given you every plant yielding seed that is on the surface of all the earth, and every tree which has fruit yielding seed; it shall be food for you; and to every beast of the earth and to every bird of the sky and to every thing that moves on the earth which has life, I have given every green plant for food”; and it was so. God saw all that He had made, and behold, it was very good. And there was evening and there was morning, the sixth day.”

God gave us creation as His thing to take care of. We are supposed to love and care for all creation, including the people in it, because that is what God would do

If you look at Jesus’ life, He loved creation well, He did things right, because He’s God.

And we should emulate Him!

Relationship with God

God created us, not because He had to, but because He wanted to. He wanted a relationship with us.

Matt. 22:35-40 “One of them, a lawyer, asked Him a question, testing Him, “Teacher, which is the great commandment in the Law?” And He said to him, “ ‘You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind.’ “This is the great and foremost commandment. “The second is like it, ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ “On these two commandments depend the whole Law and the Prophets.””

One of the most important things we can do is to love God, and to love Him with everything

Define what that means further.

This relationship will impact your whole life, and will even change how you view your purpose.

The Westminster Shorter Confession asks the questions we all think of, “What is the chief end of man?”

Their answer is, “The chief end of man is to glorify God, and enjoy Him forever.”

That is your goal in life. To glorify God, and to enjoy Him forever.

Questions

How do you think we are “images of God?”

Read Genesis 1:26-31 again. How do you think we are supposed to care for creation?

How can you grow in your relationship with God?