Matt Chandler - Man's Purpose

Well, how are we doing? Well, yeah, excellent. If you have your Bibles, go ahead and grab them. Genesis chapter 2 is where we’re going to camp out today. While you’re turning there, just a couple of things. We are in week three of our fall series entitled «A Beautiful Design,» and what we’re looking at is really what the Word of God has to say about origin: What are we? What is our purpose? Why are we here? How are we designed? So, what we’ve said is that if there is a Creator, then that Creator knows about purpose and design far better than anything that is created itself. If we are creation, then there will be times when we think we know what is best for us, but in reality, the Creator Himself knows what is best for us. We’ve been examining the design of God specifically in light of what it means to be a man and what it means to be a woman. Ultimately, the series is about how God designed manhood and womanhood to work, both as singular units—men and women—and as the kind of complementary relationship that He intended in our relationships with one another. Over the last couple of weeks, we’ve established origin: What are we? I preached last week on the Imago Dei, the elevated worth of man and dignity above the rest of Creation. In fact, if you were here last week, I received a text message from my mom. My mom is actually a member of this church, and she texted me, «It’s good to know that you won’t put me down if I grow old and decrepit.» I just replied, «It was just an illustration, Mom. I might actually put you down!» I’m kidding; I didn’t say that. But we said that the Imago Dei is God’s investment in humanity of God-like glory and moral capacity to reign and rule the Earth as His representatives. What we stated is that you and I, as human beings, have elevated worth, regardless of what we bring to society, regardless of whether what we contribute is helpful at all. I used the illustration of my good friend Darren Payne. He usually attends the 9:00 a.m. service; yesterday, he was at the 5:00 p.m. He sits right there. He is highly autistic—he’s never going to know the alphabet, never going to work a job, never going to receive a paycheck, and won’t bring anything to society and culture that is of tangible value. And my friend Darren is worth more than Secretariat. I use Secretariat, the racehorse, because if you pay attention in the Bible, it appears that God is quite proud of the horse. He seems to pat Himself on the back regarding how majestic this creature is. If you look at Secretariat’s worth, the amount of cash that horse brought in stud fees because of how he was physiologically built and what he accomplished, Darren—who will never know his ABCs and will never contribute in the way we’ve defined contribution—Darren is worth far more. It would be a far greater tragedy for anything bad to ever happen to Darren than for anything bad to happen to that horse. Not that we want bad things to happen to the horse; it’s just that Darren is more valuable and always will be, as he carries within himself the God-like deposit— the Imago Dei made in the image of God. Therefore, male and female, made in His image, are distinct and equal in value and importance and worth, and should be seen as such. So, we began to walk through all the implications of misunderstanding the Imago Dei. That list was extensive last week, showing that when you do not understand that people are made in the image of God, there will be all sorts of temptations to consume, use, belittle, and rob them of dignity. Almost all of the massive systemic issues in the world are owing to a failure to understand the Imago Dei. Now that we’ve established origin, I want to address purpose and design. Here’s how I’ve structured the series: starting this week and over the next two weeks after this one, we’re going to talk about manhood. What does it mean to be a man? Not biologically, because we know that biologically, males have penises. For the first time you heard that word in church, anyone? Right now, my eight-year-old has one, and he’s not a man. No one is going to look at eight-year-old Reed and say, «He is male, so he’s a man.» No one would make that assertion. He is biologically male, but he is a boy. Therefore, what it means to be a man cannot simply be biological; what it means to be male can be biological, but what it means to be a man cannot simply be biological. Now, I’m going to put all my cards on the table. I feel that to have this kind of conversation, we need to know each other better than we do right now. So, let’s talk about a couple of quick things. When women go off to women’s retreats, they get encouragement. You guys are awesome!