What is the "Search for Significance"?

Good morning and welcome to class. Today we begin our new study, “The Search for Significance” and it is now expected to run from today until December 14th, with a one-week break on Thanksgiving weekend. We have covered many books and had some healthy and productive discussions about what scripture has to say about us as people and how we relate to one another. This study, in my opinion, is going to be the single most important one we have ever done. If this doesn’t impact you and how you think about yourself in a major way, I will be surprised.

I want to start by asking the open question, “What is the Search for Significance”? (Discuss) I believe the best answer to this question can be discovered by first looking at Adam, the man, and his situation as he was created. Then we will see what God did for him with the giving of Eve, the woman. After that we can look at what happened in the garden, and see what the results of the choices and actions involved were. Then our question will be answered.

I want to start with one of the most poetic Psalms there is, let us read the whole of Psalm 8. Now let us reread just verse 4:

What is man that You take thought of him, and the son of man that You care for him? NASU

What is God, through David who wrote this, saying in this verse? (Discuss) Does anyone have the KJV; it uses a different, and more enlightening, word in the place of the active verb “care”. It is translated “visit”. I think this verse speaks to us about how important we are. It says that God thinks of us constantly and is always with us, because He visits us. I believe that this is one of the seemingly obscure references to the Holy Spirit found in the Old Testament. Let us keep all this in mind as we unwind the meaning of the search.

I am going to assume that we are all familiar with the account of creation found in Genesis 1, with further details provided about the creation of man and woman in Genesis 2. So I only want to highlight a couple of points for our use today.

First, in Gen 1:27, God says:

God created man in His own image, in the image of God He created him; male and female He created them. NASU

We were created on the sixth day, we were the last being created, and we were the only being made in God’s image. Next we look at Gen 2:7, it says:

Then the Lord God formed man of dust from the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living being. NASU

This says that we were not created from nothing, but we were made from other things God had created previously, and that when we were made, God breathed life into us. When the Scripture talks about God’s breath it is referring to the Holy Spirit. So this act of “breathing life into us” by God is the moment he gave us a Soul with a live spirit, and that is why the word says “and man became a living being”. Next let’s look at Gen 2:18, 21, 22 and 25.

Then the Lord God said, "It is not good for the man to be alone; I will make him a helper suitable for him." (18) NASU

So the Lord God caused a deep sleep to fall upon the man, and he slept; then He took one of his ribs and closed up the flesh at that place. The Lord God fashioned into a woman the rib which He had taken from the man, and brought her to the man. (21-22) NASU

And the man and his wife were both naked and were not ashamed. (25)
NASU

God saw that it was not good for the man to be on his own, so he made the woman out of his side. The Hebrew word translated here as rib is “tsela”, pronounced, “tsay-law”, and is better translated as a side of the body, meaning both flesh and bone. This indicates a “designed in” intimacy, as they were “one flesh” from the beginning. Finally when the word says they were naked and not ashamed it means that they were totally innocent (naked and didn’t know it) and secure in whom they were (not ashamed). From back in chapter 1 we also know that God would spend time with them in the garden as they learned about the world He had created for them, directly from Him, from Him in the physical sense. (Ask if the implication of this is apparent, it was Jesus Himself that was present there!) Everything was in order, they were in a right and intimate relationship on a person-to-person basis with God and were secure in Him and because of all these things they knew they were important to Him.

As described in Genesis chapter 3, in steps the serpent, and you all know the story. He tricked the woman into disobeying God, the man then made a free choice to follow in this disobedience. The pair of them lost their innocence, they lost their security, they lost their intimacy with God, they lost the person-to-person relationship and therefore they lost their sense of importance.

From that day on all mankind has been on a quest. A quest to recapture what they lost. A quest to find the sense of importance they lost that infamous day. A quest to regain the knowledge and feeling that we have real value, which our culture calls self-worth or self-esteem. That is what we are calling “The Search For Significance”. Does anybody have any questions about this, it is fundamentally important that we all grasp this point.

I want to point out now what God says the “search” we are on looks like from His perspective, and this is not in the book. Let’s look at Isa 53:6:

All of us like sheep have gone astray, each of us has turned to his own way; but the Lord has caused the iniquity of us all to fall on Him. NASU

This is from that amazing piece of Scripture, Isaiah chapter 53, which prophesies about Jesus so vividly. For me this is one of those rich verses that is often overlooked during a typical Bible study. We are not going to do that today.

First I think we can all agree that this verse identifies that it refers to all of mankind, there are no exceptions. Then it speaks very loudly to us when it says “like sheep”, it tells us that from God’s perspective we look like sheep. He, God, is not talking about how we look; he is addressing how we act. To Him we act like sheep! To gain a better perspective and understanding of what God sees, let’s look at how sheep behave.

Does anybody have thoughts on how sheep behave?

· Mostly they tend to stay where they are put, with the herd.
· When they do drift, they wander aimlessly, and end up out of the sight and security of the herd, becoming unprotected.
· When scared they run in all different directions, and can become lost.
· When unsupervised they follow a few select herd members, even if that means running off a cliff.
· They will follow a shepherd who uses his voice to guide them and soothe them in times of uncertainty, but they will still ignore the shepherd when it suits them.

I don’t know if we can all agree, but I think that is a good description of how humans behave too! These things are some of what God sees in all humans. Our verse describes this behavior as “each of us has turned to his own way”.

So God sees our “search” as though we are sheep who have wandered from the safety and security of the supervision of the shepherd, and are looking for him. We are sheep who need to regain their status with the shepherd as loved and cherished individuals. Does anybody have anything to add?

Let’s now move on to the central tenet of the book, which is found in chapter 2.

The author lays out a basic theory for us in chapter two when he says that in our fallen state we all attempt to get our sense of importance, our significance, from two inappropriate sources. Can anybody remember what the author said they were? Yes, they are; the approval of others and our personal performance. He gives us a simple equation to consider, it can be found on page 21:

· Self-Worth = Performance + Others Opinions

The author correctly identifies this as a lie of Satan. When we start to believe this lie, as we all do to one extent or another, it leads us into thoughts, feelings and actions that hurt us. The rest of our study breaks this lie down into its component pieces and shows us God’s solution to the problem of the false beliefs generated by this lie.

This is where I want to end the lesson today, are there any thoughts, observations or questions that someone might have?

Now I want to talk a little about the devotional for those that are going to go through it. First, please commit to finishing what you start. It will only take a few minutes each day for 60 days. Second, if something interesting strikes you in this daily journal, please choose to share it in class. Lastly, be disciplined as much as possible by doing it one day at a time, and allow the Holy Spirit to touch your heart as you work through it.

That’s it for today; next week we cover the subject “Approval Addict”, which is chapter 3 in the book.