What's the Point?
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8 “Vanity of vanities,” says the Preacher, “all is vanity!”
13 The conclusion, when all has been heard, is: fear God and keep His commandments, because this applies to every person. 14 For God will bring every act to judgment, everything which is hidden, whether it is good or evil.
Now Soloman lived quite the life. He had every
But when it came down to the end he looked back over it and came to a great conclusion
ALL IS VANITY
The last couple months of life I am reminded of how quickly it could all be over,
14 Yet you do not know what your life will be like tomorrow. You are just a vapor that appears for a little while and then vanishes away.
The question is if it a vapor and all is vanity what is the point
I READ OF A MAN WHO STOOD TO SPEAK AT THE FUNERAL OF HIS FRIEND.
HE REFERRED TO THE DATES ON HIS TOMBSTONE FROM THE
BEGINNING TO THE END
HE NOTED THAT FIRST CAME THE DATE OF HIS BIRTH AND SPOKE OF
THE SECOND WITH TEARS,
BUT HE SAID THAT WHAT MATTERED MOST OF ALL WAS THE DASH
BETWEEN THOSE YEARS.
FOR THAT DASH REPRESENTS ALL THE TIME HE SPENT ALIVE ON
EARTH,
AND NOW ONLY THOSE WHO LOVED HIM KNOW WHAT THAT LITTLE
LINE IS WORTH.
FOR IT MATTERS NOT, HOW MUCH WE OWN; THE CARS, THE HOUSE,
THE CASH.
WHAT MATTERS IS HOW WE LIVE AND LOVE WHEN WE'RE LIVING
OUT THE DASH
IF WE COULD JUST SLOW DOWN ENOUGH TO CONSIDER WHATS
TRUE AND WHAT IS REAL,
AND ALWAYS TRY TO UNDERSTAND THE WAY OTHER PEOPLE FEEL.
AND... BE LESS QUICK TO ANGER, AND SHOW APPRECIATION MORE,
AND LOVE THE PEOPLE IN OUR LIVES LIKE WE'VE NEVER LOVED
BEFORE.
IF WE TREAT EACH OTHER WITH RESPECT, AND MORE OFTEN WEAR A
SMILE,
REMEMBER THAT THE SPECIAL DASH MIGHT ONLY LAST A WHILE.
SO, WHEN YOUR EULOGY IS BEING READ WITH YOUR LIFE'S ACTIONS
TO REHASH...
WILL YOU BE PLEASED WITH WHAT THERE'S TO SAY ABOUT HOW
YOU SPENT YOUR DASH?
Soloman had the same question and come to the conclusion that is about 3 things
13 The conclusion, when all has been heard, is: fear God and keep His commandments, because this applies to every person. 14 For God will bring every act to judgment, everything which is hidden, whether it is good or evil.
1. to fear God. To walk under his Lordship and live in reverence of Him
2. To keep his commands
3. To live for eternity
Number one
1. To fear God.
To live in reverence and under his lordship
9 that if you confess with your mouth Jesus as Lord, and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved; 10 for with the heart a person believes, resulting in righteousness, and with the mouth he confesses, resulting in salvation. 11 For the Scripture says, “Whoever believes in Him will not be disappointed.”
All of life is about knowing God.
John 17:1–3 (NASB95)
1 Jesus spoke these things; and lifting up His eyes to heaven, He said, “Father, the hour has come; glorify Your Son, that the Son may glorify You, 2 even as You gave Him authority over all flesh, that to all whom You have given Him, He may give eternal life. 3 “This is eternal life, that they may know You, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom You have sent.
Number two
2. To keep his commandments what is that?
Mark 12:28–31 (NASB95)
28 One of the scribes came and heard them arguing, and recognizing that He had answered them well, asked Him, “What commandment is the foremost of all?” 29 Jesus answered, “The foremost is, ‘Hear, O Israel! The Lord our God is one Lord; 30 and you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind, and with all your strength.’ 31 “The second is this, ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ There is no other commandment greater than these.”
Jesus say to love is the greatest commandment to love God first and to love other
You can’t love other without first loving God.
Love causes us to endure. To think differently about.
Love changes everything.
You shall Love the Lord with all you heart mind soul and strength.
In Christ we find the chief example of what love is and how it works.
1 John 4:10 (NASB95)
10 In this is love, not that we loved God, but that He loved us and sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sins.
During the 17th century, Oliver Cromwell, Lord Protector of England, sentenced a soldier to be shot for his crimes. The execution was to take place at the ringing of the evening curfew bell. However, the bell did not sound. The soldier's fiancé had climbed into the belfry and clung to the great clapper of the bell to prevent it from striking. When she was summoned by Cromwell to account for her actions, she wept as she showed him her bruised and bleeding hands. Cromwell's heart was touched and he said, "Your lover shall live because of your sacrifice. Curfew shall not ring tonight!"
7 Beloved, let us love one another, for love is from God; and everyone who loves is born of God and knows God. 8 The one who does not love does not know God, for God is love.
And the 3rd thing he says is
3. to love for eternity
11 He has made everything appropriate in its time. He has also set eternity in their heart, yet so that man will not find out the work which God has done from the beginning even to the end.
The reality of eternity should change the way we live our lives and the way we love
In hard time in the darkest and most difficult day.
Knowing that we live for eternity changes our today
5 How blessed is the man whose strength is in You, In whose heart are the highways to Zion! 6 Passing through the valley of Baca they make it a spring; The early rain also covers it with blessings. 7 They go from strength to strength, Every one of them appears before God in Zion.
Baca means the valley of weeping
Adam Clarke's Commentary says this
though they pass through this barren and desert place, they would not fear evil, knowing that thou wouldst supply all their wants; and even in the sandy desert cause them to find pools of water, in consequence of which they shall advance with renewed strength, and shall meet with the God of Israel in Zion.
Eternity changes the way we love
9 For we know in part and we prophesy in part; 10 but when the perfect comes, the partial will be done away. 11 When I was a child, I used to speak like a child, think like a child, reason like a child; when I became a man, I did away with childish things. 12 For now we see in a mirror dimly, but then face to face; now I know in part, but then I will know fully just as I also have been fully known. 13 But now faith, hope, love, abide these three; but the greatest of these is love.
I want us to focus on verse 11
Paul says here GROW UP!!!!
11 When I was a child, I used to speak like a child, think like a child, reason like a child; when I became a man, I did away with childish things.
Stop being a hater.. get the hate out of your heart. Learn to love. Be like Jesus
12 For now we see in a mirror dimly, but then face to face; now I know in part, but then I will know fully just as I also have been fully known.
For now we see in a mirror, dimly, (normal people struggle to love)
but then face to face. Now I know in part, but then I shall know just as I also am known.
13 But now faith, hope, love, abide these three; but the greatest of these is love.
Surely at the end of the age when all things pass away.
The question is not did you learn to prophecy?
Did you speak in Tongues?
But did you learn to do the greatest thing and that is to love