Power Walk Ministries

Guest (Male): Welcome to the Power Walk Ministries broadcast with Pastor Paul Cannings. Thanks for joining us today. Pastor Cannings continues with the series Reestablish or Rebuild. Today’s message is titled Finding Purpose. We all want to know what God’s purpose for our lives is, and looking at the book of Genesis, how did God take Adam through this process of finding his purpose for himself as a single man and then also with Eve? Let’s listen.

Dr. Paul Cannings: Many times when we lose something and we can't find it, it is a lot easier to find it when we know that we lost it in the house or we lost it in the car. It's a lot less stressful than if we have no idea from moving around from maybe an office, moving around maybe to a family's house, maybe going to the store. It's a lot more complicated to identify where it is.

When we come to our whole relationship with God, it is a lot easier to define our purpose when we start where He started. It is a lot easier to be able to backtrack what He is doing when we are able to know where He started and how He's operating. When we come to Genesis chapter 2, verse 15, we have a single man here. He's not married yet. His purpose is defined before he takes a wife on.

Before he's placed in the garden as a responsible individual, he is called man. Before then, he is a male because as a male, his focus is procreation. When it comes to man, it changes to a responsible focus that God has for him, a responsible decision-making focus. And God is defining the whole process. That helps us to understand our purpose, and that's why it's important when we talk about getting married.

A man, if a man finds a wife, he finds a good thing. That's the next level when a person moves from a woman to a wife, when the man moves from a man to a husband. When we don't have that frame of reference, then it is easy for us to start to figure out, "Well, I believe my purpose is this." And then we may do that for three years and find out it's not really what it was.

Then we say, "I believe this is what God called me to be." And then next thing we know, we're not doing that anymore because that really wasn't our spiritual gift. We're just kind of all over the place. And that's why it's careful for us, before we ever get to marriage, to talk about purpose attached to the man and the woman, and then we could talk about marriage.

So here is the man first, because he is designed by God to headship. Now, here is what He says in verse 15 of Genesis chapter 2. He says, "And the Lord God took the man and put him into the garden of Eden to dress it and to keep it." So here's the first thing we find in the word "took." I know it sounds like just the word took. He went from one place to the next. He took him.

He didn't say, "Adam, what you think, man? You're going to go over here in this garden?" No, He didn't do that. One of the things about the word "took" is the fact that it is in imperfect tense. What's the big deal about all that stuff? What's the big deal about it is that God is saying that this is something He's doing that man would always have to do in order for man to ever find his purpose.

Imperfect tense is a never-ending act that never stops, it just keeps going on and on and on and on. He could have put this in the perfect tense. That means simply that it's a completed act. It's done. It's set in the past and continues this way into the future. It's done, it's set. He doesn't use that. He uses an imperfect tense, meaning it's always like this if a person is going to seek to find their purpose in life.

They have to be willing to surrender to this process that God has put in place. That brings up the second thing: "took." What He's saying is that Adam was not in the garden before He put him in the garden. Adam was outside the garden before He put him in. And He didn't ask his permission. He didn't say, "Adam, let's talk about this. Now that I got you up here now and I made you in My image, so you have a free will."

"I made you in My image, so you can move around and go about doing what you need to do based on the potential and the ability that you have. You could make those decisions and you could function in that way and function based on your capability. So Adam, hey man, could we hang out in the cool of the evening? What you think?" He doesn't do that.

What He does is He says right here in Genesis chapter 2, beginning in verse 8, "And the Lord God planted a garden eastward in Eden, and there He put the man whom He had formed." So this is where He is going to put the man. This is the plan He's giving, just like He says in Genesis chapter 1, "God made the male and female in His image."

He set the premise here. He's giving the introductory statement of what He's going to do. In verse 9, He says, "And out of the ground made the Lord God to grow every tree of the pleasant to the sight, good for food, tree of life in the midst of the garden, the tree of knowledge of good and evil." The whole thing is set up in the midst, smack-dab in the middle.

So He has these trees here. He has all this stuff set up. And in verse 10, He says, "And he went out of Eden to water the garden, and there went up a mist from the earth and watered the whole face of the ground." So he doesn't need irrigation system. "And the Lord God formed the man of the dust of the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and man became a living soul."

Watch carefully: You don't ever hear Him saying that about Eve. That's going to be key, so you got to remember that when we get down the road here. Breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and man became a living soul. And the minute that happens, God says, "Let Me tell you where you're going." That's verse 8 and verse 9.

When He made man, this living soul, made in the image of God, free will, all these things, He then took this man and put him in the garden. Don't forget, Adam is yet to talk. The only time you hear Adam talk is when he sees Eve. "She's bone of my bone, flesh of my flesh." He goes crazy. Adam is yet to talk.

Adam is surrendered his will to God, and therefore the only person that needs to keep talking is God. So here's the point. The fact that Adam is made in the image of God and is free will and he could make his own decisions, and God knows he's given him a decision to make, the tree of life and the tree of good and evil is right there in verse 8 and verse 9.

He then takes him and puts him in that garden with that decision to make, leave him for that decision to be made, and He's given him all the information He needs to give him. God never gave all that information to Eve. So Adam had to have given it to her. And then when you look at that, Adam is saying, "I'm only interested in what You're saying and what You're designing that I work my way into."

"I'm willing to go wherever You tell me because there's no point in me talking. You're the one that needs to give me Your word." In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word became flesh and the Word dwelt among us. It's because of the Word we would have life and life abundantly.

It's because of the Word, if I abide in the word of God, I bear much fruit. Apart from Him, I can do nothing. I cannot find purpose in my life when I close the Bible and I go to common sense, because number one He's telling me that common sense is a sin to use when there's that coming from a concept that He's provided.

In James chapter 3, verse 13 through verse 18, he says human wisdom is demonic. So to walk away from the word of God is to walk in darkness. John would say in 1 John chapter 1, to walk in the light as He is in the light, we have fellowship one with another and the blood of Jesus Christ cleanses us from all sin.

If a person does not get to know God because they choose to walk in God, then they walk in darkness, chapter 2, verse 9 through 10. So the first place in which I find purpose in my life is to so surrender my life to God that the most important person speaking in the room is Him. It's not me.

It's not, "Well, this makes sense to me, so I don't need to do this." No, He's given us everything we need for life and godliness. He doesn't leave out any possibility. So the key thing in finding purpose is to not turn off the Bible. The minute that I get away from the word of God, my life becomes void.

That's the reason why in every decision we need to make, He says, "Seek Me first. Seek Me first." So that's why Bible study becomes important. That's why reading the Scriptures becomes important, because that's where I find the concept upon which I apply myself into life. Let's take a man and a woman who wants to get married.

What's the first thing that God is going to say is critical? "Hey, you can't be unequally yoked." So don't go around trying to find somebody who calls themselves a Christian and you don't see them going to church, no appetite for the word of God. Therefore, I need to back up even though this person may be considered by secular terminologies and evaluations a good person, have a job, they seem to care for family.

The Bible is saying no, you will know them by their fruit. So the person who's making the choice has to commit to walk in the Scriptures to even know who the person is. Because how could all these Christians get married and the same percentage of people getting divorced is the same percent in the church? What is going on?

We turned the lights off, especially when we get educated and we got psychology and philosophy and some people have had a few relationships where they've learned better about themselves and all these different things, looking for the key everywhere but in the room. As a result of that, they go through relationship after relationship after relationship.

Because they're learning more about themselves as they get to know people better. No, we are fearfully and wonderfully made by God. He designed us, attached to His image. So in order for us to know who we are, we need to learn who He is, so that we could learn more about ourselves based on how He operates.

That's why this word seems simple of "took," but that word is what helps in the focus of the purpose for which God called us. And that's why He would say, "And He put into the garden of Eden to dress it and to keep it." I want to finish that up tomorrow. God has established a relationship with him.

He is God, He's sovereign and He's not expecting him to say anything, and that's why Adam has said not a word until he sees Eve who he's going to have headship over. So let us examine that tomorrow as we continue to focus on God defining, designing, establishing our purpose so that Revelation chapter 4, verse 11 would say, "We are made to bring Him glory."

Who could be more right than God? Since there's no one, why not just be like Him? That's why Paul would say, "I no longer live. It is Christ that lives in me." Stay focused.

Guest (Male): Thank you for that vital reminder, Pastor Cannings. There are consequences to choosing a life partner who is not committed to God. It’s difficult to be joined to someone who is going a different direction spiritually than you. Now to obtain this message series or any of our ministry resources, log on to powerwalkministries.org. That’s powerwalkministries.org.

If you’d prefer to write us, our mailing address is Power Walk Ministries, PO Box 920517, Houston, Texas 772092. And of course, we always welcome your phone call at 281-260-7402.

Guest (Male): I am so excited about the pastor’s conference coming up April the 23rd through the 25th. You cannot miss it. There’s going to be such a great group of teachers teaching, well-trained, well-prepared, practice what they’re teaching in their local churches. Here’s some examples, folks: Pastor and deacons functioning under the lordship of Christ; the biblical approach to resolving conflict in the church; traits of successful leaders; effective teaching methods for children.

How do you have a great contemporary worship service that is biblically based; succession planning; social media, how could you make it very positive for your children; how you overcome stagnation in the local church; developing a counseling ministry dealing with mental health issues in the local church; marketing; moving from traditional ministry to bibliocentric ministry; how do you grow the church through evangelism for God’s glory and God’s honor.

You cannot miss this conference. April the 23rd through the 25th, 2026, at 7350 TC Jester Boulevard right here at Living Word Fellowship Church. I pray you’ll go to powerwalkministries.org, powerwalkministries.org and find out more, get into that early bird special where you could bring 10 or more people and get a discount so that you can be a part of an effective, productive conference that will bless your life. Come on, be a part of this, you will not be disappointed. April the 23rd through the 25th. Look forward to seeing you.

Guest (Male): To learn more about surrender and growing in your faith, you’ll find Pastor Cannings’ book Why Can't Mondays Be More Like Sundays very helpful. Once again our phone number is 281-260-7402. And now as we leave you, remember to spend time with God, searching through His word and seeking His direction. That’s the best way to know our purpose as God designed it.