Welcome to the Daily Blade . The Word of God is described as the sword of the Spirit , the primary spiritual weapon in the Christian's armor against the forces of evil . Your hosts are Joby Martin and Kyle Thompson , and they stand ready to equip men for the fight . Let's sharpen up .
Speaker 2All right , welcome back day two . Today we're gonna talk about the purpose of a man . What is the purpose of man ? I mean , did God create man because he needed us ? The answer is no . Was he lonely walking around in heaven thinking man , I got all this time and space . What do I do with it ? The answer is no . That is not why God created us . Ultimately , like I said yesterday , out of an overflow of God's love for God's self , he creates image bearers of him and overflow God's love for God's self . He creates image bearers of him , both male and female for sure . And ultimately , the purpose of man is to bring glory to God .
Speaker 2Now here's the question how do we do this ? Well , post-resurrection , post the life , death and resurrection of Jesus , the way that we are to bring glory to God is ultimately through the Great Commission and the Great Commandment . The Great Commission is going and make disciples of all nations , baptizing them in the name of the Father , the Son and the Holy Spirit . The Great Commandment is to love . That's right . It's to love God and love people . But what was the original design ? Because the Great Commandment and the Great Commission . It doesn't make sense . Before sin entered the world , like Adam and Eve didn't have to go out and tell people about Jesus because they were walking around in the garden with God himself . So , originally , what was the purpose of man ? And the ultimate purpose was to bring God glory . And what we're going to do is we are going to look at three things over the next three days that God gives to man to bring glory to God .
Speaker 2We'll pick it up in verse 8 of chapter 2 . It says this and the Lord , god , planted a garden in Eden , in the east , and there he put the man whom he had formed . Now here's what I want you to notice is that the man was not created in the garden . Now Eve will be created in the garden , but Adam was created out in the wilderness . The first time I've ever heard this was John Eldredge's very famous book Wild at Heart . As you know , kyle and I are big fans of John Eldredge , and he is the one that pointed out the Lord is a warrior , the Lord is his name , and that you and I , as men , image bearers of God , have been created in his image . And maybe this is why we come alive in the outdoors , we come alive in the wilderness , we come alive in the adventure , because we were created in the wild , it goes on to say . And out of the ground the Lord God made to spring up every tree that is pleasant to the sight and good for food . The tree of life was in the midst of the garden , and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil . A river flowed out of Eden to water the garden and there it divided and became four rivers . And then the next bunch of verses just list those rivers .
Speaker 2Verse 15 , the first thing that God gives to Adam , to man , is work to enjoy , it says the Lord . God took the man and put him in the garden of Eden to work it and keep it . This is known as the cultural mandate . The King James says that we are subdue and cultivate . That's what we are called to do . You see , work is not a result of the fall . Work is a part of God's original design for man .
Speaker 2In fact , when I felt called to ministry and I went to my dad and said , daddy , I think I'm gonna go to seminary and be a pastor , be a youth pastor First of all , he and he said why in the world do you need a school for that ? You only work half a day a week and study one book . And I was like I don't know , but I'm going . And then he said what do you want to do ? And I said I'm going to be a youth pastor . And he thought I just wanted to play games my whole life . And he said something very profound . He said , son , as a man you don't get up and go to fun . You get up to us , and one of the things that he has given us is work to enjoy .
Speaker 2Now , what I need you to understand is that , from God's perspective , there is no sacred secular divide when it comes to work . It's not like what I do is holy because I teach the Bible for a living , but what you do is somehow less than because you build houses . You see , actually every good and perfect gift is from above , and what we have been called to do as men is rearrange the things that have been created for human flourishing . So , first of all , you've got to understand regardless of what your job is , you've got to do it as unto the Lord , because you are a part of the cultural mandate . You see , you're not just building a house out of sticks and bricks , but God is using you to create an environment whereby he can raise up a family .
Speaker 2You see , my daddy used to always say this too . He'd say men are like flatbed trucks they drive straighter with a heavy load , and a bored man is a dangerous , dangerous thing . And so we live in a world today that tries to get you to follow your passion . We're not even using that word , right ? Passion is a Latin word which means to die on a cross , to crucify , to bleed for . So listen , you don't get up and go to fun . You get up and go to work . You need to figure out what God has called you to do in this world and be a part of the advancement of his kingdom by working as unto the Lord . The first thing in the garden that God gave this man was work to enjoy . Come back tomorrow , we'll keep going .
Speaker 1Thank you for listening to today's episode Before you go . If you want to help equip other men for the fight , share this podcast around and leave us a five-star rating and review . Stay sharp .