END OF THE MATTER (42)
Scripture: Ecclesiastes 12:8-14
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End of the Matter (42)
Series: Wisdom- Suffering, Thinking, Loving, and Living Authentically
Patrick Edwards
Ecclesiastes 12:8-14
Introduction
It's been quite a journey that we've been on. I mean that both as a congregation over the last four years but also in regards to our study through Wisdom. I wouldn't blame you if when we began this series fourteen months ago you weren't exactly excited about 'Old Testament Wisdom Literature.' I mean right, that sounds like an elective class the nerds take in the Fall semester or during the J term. It certainly doesn't seem very applicable to our daily lives. And yet, I pray that after fourteen months, after five books of the Bible, after almost 200,000 words and eight hundred pages of sermon text you've come to see just how essential biblical wisdom is to you, to your days, and to this world as a whole. Wisdom is real life. Wisdom is ''the skill of living...of knowing how'' to be an authentic, genuine child of God. It is, ''not primarily interested in relating a list of theological truths, an account of history, or a picture of the future. Wisdom is about the ways of things---how they are meant to exist and work.''
We have studied the wisdom of Scripture in order to learn the skill of how to suffer as an authentic child of God, of how to think like an authentic child of God, of how to love as an authentic child of God, and how to live as an authentic child of God. Wisdom is about how our desires, our behaviors, our skills, and our beliefs find their meaning in the whole of God's created order. In other words, this series has shown us how mending a garment or cooking a meal or cutting the grass can be wise when these things are done ''in harmony with God's order for the world.''
But as the Preacher so perfectly and fittingly states this morning in Ecclesiastes 12 we have reached, ''The end of the matter. All has been heard.'' In particular over the past four months or so we've been testing this skill and way ...
Series: Wisdom- Suffering, Thinking, Loving, and Living Authentically
Patrick Edwards
Ecclesiastes 12:8-14
Introduction
It's been quite a journey that we've been on. I mean that both as a congregation over the last four years but also in regards to our study through Wisdom. I wouldn't blame you if when we began this series fourteen months ago you weren't exactly excited about 'Old Testament Wisdom Literature.' I mean right, that sounds like an elective class the nerds take in the Fall semester or during the J term. It certainly doesn't seem very applicable to our daily lives. And yet, I pray that after fourteen months, after five books of the Bible, after almost 200,000 words and eight hundred pages of sermon text you've come to see just how essential biblical wisdom is to you, to your days, and to this world as a whole. Wisdom is real life. Wisdom is ''the skill of living...of knowing how'' to be an authentic, genuine child of God. It is, ''not primarily interested in relating a list of theological truths, an account of history, or a picture of the future. Wisdom is about the ways of things---how they are meant to exist and work.''
We have studied the wisdom of Scripture in order to learn the skill of how to suffer as an authentic child of God, of how to think like an authentic child of God, of how to love as an authentic child of God, and how to live as an authentic child of God. Wisdom is about how our desires, our behaviors, our skills, and our beliefs find their meaning in the whole of God's created order. In other words, this series has shown us how mending a garment or cooking a meal or cutting the grass can be wise when these things are done ''in harmony with God's order for the world.''
But as the Preacher so perfectly and fittingly states this morning in Ecclesiastes 12 we have reached, ''The end of the matter. All has been heard.'' In particular over the past four months or so we've been testing this skill and way ...
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