Study

How To Cultivate A Meaningful Life

Ben Stuart

4 Days

Why Were You Born?

Day 1

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Welcome to day one of How to Cultivate a Meaningful Life.

There are two great longings in the human heart–belonging + mattering. We want to be a part of a community that cares about us and part of a cause that’s worthy of our lives.

We must understand why we’re here. We must understand the created intent.

So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them.

Genesis 1:27

In three days, God builds a structure that allows life to flourish. That’s what a good parent does, they build a structure that their child flourishes in.

We are going to be looking at how we can structure our own lives for the world around us to flourish.

Summary

Many in today's world feel like meaninglessness is stalking them. That's a problem, considering we all want to matter: be part of a community that cares about us and part of a cause worthy of our life.

Colossians 1:16 assures us that we are not meaningless and have been created by Jesus and for Jesus. Our greatest commandment is to love God. We were created to love and enjoy our maker.

How does that work out for our 9-5 though? Why were we born? We must look at the Creator's intent to find the answer. Genesis tells us that we weren't just created by God; we were created in His image.

Genesis allows us to see what God is like. In the beginning, the world lacked form and fullness. But God created in 3 days the sea, air, and land. He built structure. The teleological support structures for life. In the next three days, He fills those structures with life: birds, sea creatures, animals, and humanity. God put us in the Garden to cultivate it. Cultivating is creating structure. It's not stifling; it's structure for the sake of flourishing, form for the sake of fullness, and order for the flourishing of all life.

We are meant to be like God in this manner. Parents create a structure for their kids to flourish. Husbands do this for wives just as wives do this for their husbands. Bosses do it for businesses and kings for their kingdoms.

King Jesus did that for us. When chaos came back because of our sin, He brought the Kingdom into the chaos.

What's Next?

Do you feel a sense of meaning or meaninglessness when it's quiet? Anytime we want to learn or grow, we must start with our present reality.

This isn't an exercise of shame, it's a check-in to see where your sense of meaning, or meaningless, may be rooted.

Are you living inside of the ordered structure God created for you, or have you wandered outside of it?
Take stock of your days. What choices did you make yesterday that honored the creator of life?
Which choices did you make that didn't?

Scripture References

16For in him all things were created: things in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or powers or rulers or authorities; all things have been created through him and for him.

27So God created mankind in his own image,

in the image of God he created them;

male and female he created them.

24Diligent hands will rule,

but laziness ends in forced labor.

35Very early in the morning, while it was still dark, Jesus got up, left the house and went off to a solitary place, where he prayed.

36Simon and his companions went to look for him,

37and when they found him, they exclaimed: “Everyone is looking for you!”

38Jesus replied,

“Let us go somewhere else—to the nearby villages—so I can preach there also. That is why I have come.”

3He did what was right in the eyes of the

Lord

, just as his father David had done.

4He removed the high places, smashed the sacred stones and cut down the Asherah poles. He broke into pieces the bronze snake Moses had made, for up to that time the Israelites had been burning incense to it. (It was called Nehushtan.)

5Hezekiah trusted in the

Lord

, the God of Israel. There was no one like him among all the kings of Judah, either before him or after him.

6He held fast to the

Lord

and did not stop following him; he kept the commands the

Lord

had given Moses.

7And the

Lord

was with him; he was successful in whatever he undertook. He rebelled against the king of Assyria and did not serve him.

Ben Stuart

Ben Stuart is the pastor of Passion City Church D.C. Prior to joining Passion City Church, Ben served as the executive director of Breakaway Ministries on the campus of Texas A&M. He also earned a master’s degree in historical theology from Dallas Theological Seminary. He and his wife, Donna, live to inspire and equip people to walk with God for a lifetime.