Achieving Results Vs

Serving a Purpose

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Compare and ContrastResults and Purpose

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What then is the purpose of humankind in general and Christians in particular?

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Marketplace Christian Network

Need TodayWe live in a post-vocational age. Without any theology of vocation we lapse into debilitating alternatives: fatalism (doing what is required by “the forces” and “the powers”); luck (which denies purposefulness in life and reduces our life to a bundle of accidents); karma (which ties performance to future rewards); nihilism (which denies that there is any good end to which the travail of history might lead); and, the most common alternative today, self-actualization (in which we invent the meaning and purpose of our lives, making us magicians). In contrast the biblical doctrine of vocation proposes that the whole of our lives finds meaning in relation to the sweet summons of a good God.

R. Paul Stevens (The Other Six Days)

Genesis 2

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GE 2:10 A river watering the garden flowed from Eden; from there it was separated into four headwaters. 11 The name of the first is the Pishon; it winds through the entire land of Havilah, where there is gold. 12 (The gold of that land is good; aromatic resin and onyx are also there.) 13 The name of the second river is the Gihon; it winds through the entire land of Cush. 14 The name of the third river is the Tigris; it runs along the east side of Asshur. And the fourth river is the Euphrates. GE 2:15 The LORD God took the man and put him in the Garden of Eden to work it and take care of it. 16 And the LORD God commanded the man, "You are free to eat from any tree in the garden; 17 but you must not eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, for when you eat of it you will surely die."

GE 2:18 The LORD God said, "It is not good for the man to be alone. I will make a helper suitable for him."

Genesis 2

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Call to stewardship

To ‘Work’ it and ‘Guard’ it – same words used for to ‘Worship’ God and ‘Keep’ His commands.

A call to community and family.

“Voco” or “Vocatio”

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To be called or to have a calling

Vocation

Vocation is our divinely given life purpose embracing all

dimensions of our human existence and the special

dimensions of service Christians undertake in the church and

world.

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What then is the purpose of humankind in general and Christians in particular?

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SonSonEvangelistic Commission

FatherFather Creation

Commission

Holy Holy SpiritSpirit

RelationalCommission

MarketplaceMinistry

Three Great Three Great CommissionsCommissions

Means for which to achieve the Three Great Commissions

Call to Family and Community

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'I believe God made me for a purpose, but He also made me fast. And when I run I feel His

pleasure.' Eric Liddell (Ian Charleson) in Chariots of Fire

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Reading From “Rumours of another world”

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Page 65

Consider your daily activities and short terms goals. Do

they point to any Purpose or Purposes?

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Marketplace Christian Network

Thank You