Ecc Sermon Manu Week 14

Intro/Welcome

Riddle:

“What is a multibillion-dollar industry. It fuels the internet. It dominates political campaigns, talk radio, and the evening news. It sits on therapist couches and speaks on Facebook feeds. No respecter of persons, it steals sleep from feeble beggars and mighty kings. It has started wars, yet brought down empires.

What is this pervasive, inescapable, suffocating phenomenon?

Fear.

fear is the currency of the enemy

The Fear Pandemic

We are living in a time of pervasive, rampant and wide spread fear.

Even in America, where knowledge and technology promised us control

they promised us safety

they promised us prosperity

But they have lied to us

They have not delivered

They are false Gods

Perhaps it is no surprise that one of the most frequent commands is scriptures is:

“Fear Not” to “not be afraid”

Yet at the same time one of the most important commands in all of scripture is ‘to fear’

“Fear the Lord”

In our search for Wisdom, we have seen that

The fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge and wisdom (Prov 1:7, 9:10)

What this means is:

misplaced fear will lead to misplaced lives.

godly fear will lead to godly living

This is exactly Solomon’s grand conclusion to the book of Ecclesiastes.

We’ve hit on it through out the series.

but his main point, his grand conclusion is this:

Ecclesiastes 12:13 (CSB)

13 When all has been heard, the conclusion of the matter is this: fear God and keep his commands, because this is for all humanity.

Having searched everything, examined all things, reasoned, applied knowledge and wisdom, experienced power, success, pleasure and achievement

This is the main point, the main purpose of life, the on thing that

brings meaning to the meaninglessness

freedom from futility

and hope in hevel.

Fear God.

So let’s examine what this means, and perhaps more importantly why many of us give into misplaced fears.

Bible/Welcome

We’ll be in Ecc 12:8-14

Go there in your Bibles

My name is Justin, want to welcome you to One Hope Church

Especially if you are joining us for the first time.

And if you are joining Online — we hope you will join us in person as you feel comfortable and ready

Let’s Pray

Pray

pray for fearlessness

Why are we so afraid?

Why are we so afraid?

Is this really something new?

Greater knowledge brings greater sorrow (Ecc 1)

COVID FEAR

We are afraid of getting vaccinated

We don’t what to trust

is it safe, is it not

will there be long term effects

We are afraid it is a vast government conspiracy

We are afraid of not get vaccinated

we are afraid of contracting, transmitting or be responsible for someone’s death

We are afraid of being judged either way

We are afraid of people dying

of loved ones getting sick

We are tired of all the change

We are afraid things will not return to normalcy

When we don’t know

What do we do when we just don’t know?

We need wisdom

When knowledge is deficient, we turn to wisdom.

Information is about facts, and knowledge is about fitting related facts together. But wisdom is about using knowledge well...Wisdom is the ability to make good decisions based on knowledge, and then act on those decisions in a way that’s effective and makes a difference.

What does wisdom tells us today?

misplaced fears lead to misplaced lives

Fear God and Obey Him

Solomon says “Fear God and obey Him”

This is the only thing that matters.

He says “this is for all humanity”

meaning it is binding on all humans.

No one escapes this command.

he says “everything has been heard”

all has been examined and explored

Here is what matters most

He is what the whole purpose of humanity is.

Fear God and keep his commandments.

How does ‘fearing God’ help now?

Why? — Or how does this help me now?

How does this help us in the pandemic of fear we are living in.

Let me give you three ways I think this texts helps us.

Fear God because all the Wisdom and knowledge of the world can’t save you.

Fear God because this is your whole purpose

Fear God because judgment is coming

Wisdom can’t save you.

Isn’t this where we are.

Nobody actually knows how this is going to all turn out.

We don’t if there will be long term effects of the vaccine

We don’t know the impact if we don’t get the vaccine

We don’t know who we can fully trust on any side.

But GOD does know.

he knows exactly how this is going to turn out.

Perhaps for some of are hesitant to get the vaccine, it is b/c God knows that for their particular health or genetic make up it might cause problems.

We do know we can Trust God

Do you think God has an opinion on the vaccine?

I’m sure he does.

Do you think God might lead you one way or another?

I don’t see why not.

So, do you have peace about getting the vaccine?

great

Do you have peace about not getting the vaccine?

great

Could both be true and from God

I don’t see why not.

We’ve all become pandemic experts

we talk about breakthrough cases

and mrna

and other things.

We have more information available to us than in any time in the history of the world.

Information is Good, wisdom is good

but in the end it can’t save you.

Ecclesiastes 12:9–10 (CSB)

9 In addition to the Teacher being a wise man, he constantly taught the people knowledge; he weighed, explored, and arranged many proverbs.

10 The Teacher sought to find delightful sayings and write words of truth accurately.

Good Content

He says the teacher was wise

He taught people wisdom and knowledge

He sought and arranged many proverbs

The book of Proverbs

Well communicated

Not only did he have content but he communicated it well.

these ‘delightful sayings’ are literally “words of pleasure” portray the high aesthetic quality of his writing.

It means he was a good communicate.

He would speak and people would listen.

Wisdom prods us

And these wise sayings had an effect on one’s life:

Ecc 12:11 CSB

11 The sayings of the wise are like cattle prods, and those from masters of collections are like firmly embedded nails.

Do you guys know what a goad/cattle prod is?

[PIC of Goad]

A “goad” is a long, pointed stick used for prodding and guiding oxen while plowing

To get the animal moving you poke him with a stick.

This is what wisdom is like

it pokes you (sometimes painfully) to get you going in the right direction

We’ve all experienced this at some point

they are the natural consequences of being foolish.

Wisdom is fixed

But wisdom is also fixed like nails it says

Wisdom is firm, it won’t budge

you can trust wisdom.

Wisdom from God

So Wisdom and knowledge are good.

because they are from God.

Ecc 12:11b-12 CSB

The sayings are given by one Shepherd (God)

12 But beyond these, my son, be warned: there is no end to the making of many books, and much study wearies the body.

Can’t save you

So the pursuit of wisdom and knowledge are good

But…they cannot save you.

Illustration: my bookshelves falling — too much weight

Wisdom prods you, and it is firm

but don’t put too much weight on it or it will come crashing down.

Th is what Solomon is saying.

Pursuit of knowledge can Consume you

You can become buried in knowledge

this is a real danger for us today.

The amount of information available today is staggering.

Forbes: 2013

There are somewhere between 600,000 and 1,000,000 books published every year in the US alone, depending on which stats you believe

That was 8 years ago

Books -

I’m completely overwhelmed by the number of books I could find just on the book of Ecclesiastes

I would have never gotten through them.

Internet

1. Google gets over 3.5 billion searches daily.

2. The estimated amount of data we had in 2020 40 zettabytes (1 zettbyte = a trillion gigabytes)

3.Today it would take a person approximately 181 million years to download all the data from the internet.

We have more information than we know what to do with

Can’t save you

Information is not bad, but it cannot save you.

We’ve all become experts at COVID 19

But that knowledge can’t save you.

because God is interested in something more than just sparing you from COVID 19

he wants your heart.

This is what Solomon says.

Ecclesiastes 12:12 (CSB)

12 But beyond these, my son, be warned: there is no end to the making of many books, and much study wearies the body.

It’s your whole purpose

Ecclesiastes 12:13 CSB

13 When all has been heard, the conclusion of the matter is this: fear God and keep his commands, because this is for all humanity.

The second reason we should fear god and obey him is because it is our whole purpose

ESV “it is the whole duty of man”

CSB “this is for all humanity” it is for everyone.

So what does this mean?

What does it mean to fear God?

Terror

to be in awe, reverence, respect

At some level terror.

We fear God because God is glory.

Are we supposed to be terrified of God?

At some level yes.

If you and I could see God in all of his majesty and glory and splendor and holiness in our current condition

one of sin

We would be utterly terrified

This is what happened to Isaiah in Isa 6.

He saw the Lord and he said

“woe to me. I am undone, I am ruined.

I’m done for.

Grace

But God

made a way for us to be prepared for his glory.

God forgave Isaiah’s iniquity right there

atoned for it through the burning coals.

Because part of his glory is his grace and goodness.

God’s Glory

You see a proper — biblical Fear of God is seeing the whole picture

his glory and grace

His greatness and his goodness

Two ways to obey

You see there are two ways we can obey God

One is our of sheer fear — terror of what he might do if we don’t obey

This is not God’s heart

This is not what he wants.

The others is our of love

1 John says ‘perfect love casts out fear, becuase fear has to do with punishment.

When we see God as he is

we see his righteousness, his purity his goodness and simultaneously see our unrighteousness, our impurity, our badness

but through the cross we see his love

his goodness, his mercy

When we begin to truly see how bad we are, are far we are or were from God and how near he has come to us

the response is obedience.

It’s not hard to obey someone you love

This is what God is after

but he had to show us his glory in a way that wouldn’t destroy us becuase of sin.

So he came in a way that we could understand, that we could relate with

He came in the man Jesus Christ

he experienced all that we do

and instead of us paying the price for our sin against so great a god

Jesus take our penalty for us

takes what we deserve

And he rises from the dead to give us new life

a life that can obey God, that wants to obey God, that delight sin obeying God.

Judgment is coming

But if that is not enough, then listen to what god’s word says.

Fear God and obey him…why?

Ecclesiastes 12:14 CSB

14 For God will bring every act to judgment, including every hidden thing, whether good or evil.

It is an apt way to end the book

And it is the same way that our bibles end.

with picture of what is to come.

A final judgment.

a judgment of deeds, actions and behaviors

but also a judgment of desires, thoughts and willful decisions

Know this — this is the ultimate wisdom

God will judge every act, every thought, ever desire

good or evil.

That should concern us if we are honest with ourselves and it should comfort us at the same time.

Application

So why does all this matter in a culture of fear?

Because wisdom and knowledge has it limits

it cannot save you

But God can and desires to.

What God cares about is how we live

how we are loving one another.

Pride and Love

And in an climate where fear of anything less than the fear of God reigns — pride will be produced

But in a climate where fear of God reigns, b/c of his glory and grace — love will be produced.

why? — why the cross matters today

When you fail, and you will fail, to love perfectly

you are already forigiven

it is not held against you.

1 john 1:7-8 “7 If we walk in the light as he himself is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus his Son cleanses us from all sin. 8 If we say, “We have no sin,” we are deceiving ourselves, and the truth is not in us.”

2. Becuase of the Resurrection we now how the power of Christ, his very spirit living inside of us giving us the power to obey God, giving us the power to love others, to live as jesus lived, albeit imperfectly

In Christ, we have a power that we did not have before

It is the power to love others as Jesus loved us.

Are you relying on this power? or the power of knowledge? the power of information? the power of google?

3. Death cannot hold us.

Christians of all people have no reason to fear death, in fact, becuase of Christ we long to arrive Home

Paul says looking at death — man that’s better, that is gain, then I will be with Christ.

So you and I we don’t need to fear death, it will be the greatest moment in any of our lives

when we are brought into the perfection of Christ

welcomed home to heaven

where there is no more death, destruction or despair

just joy, eternal relationships, the best food and wine

rivers of living water

supernatural light that pervades everything.

We don’t have to fear death.

more important that a vaccine for covid is the cure fo sin.

The mission of the church is an entirely different mission than the world.

The world is trying to save this life and make it as good as possible becuase there is no hope beyond.

But the Church is trying to save those onto eternal life b/c one day it will be so much better than we can imagine.

Are we loving?

So the question is

What is being produced in your life?

is fear driving you to obsessive knowledge that leads to pride?

or fear of God leading to obedience to God’s ways that produces a genuine love for others.

Maybe what God is up to is forming and shaping us to be people that are more like Jesus

dependent on the God for everything.

Right here in the church

we have very different opinions

we are a model for the world

how are we loving one another.