Our culture is characterized by ignorance and indifference about the most important matters of truth. But the truth matters and it deserves our careful attention and consideration.
Scripture: Ecclesiastes 12:1-8
Sermon Notes:
- As we lead up to Easter, this sermon series will examine the key questions of the meaning of life.
- In exploring the meaning of life under the sun, the writer of Ecclesiastes identifies that life accomplishments are futile when pursued without reference to God.
- In chapter 12, the author outlines the problems of aging; the time to search for truth is while you are young.
- Our culture is characterized by ignorance and indifference about the most important matters of truth.
- Our mental view, or worldview, is the way we reason about life and dying, meaning and purpose.
- Many people hold to an incoherent worldview and accept absurd beliefs. Prejudice, fear, and ignorance all play a part in what beliefs we accept or reject.
- There are people who will stare the evidence in the face and yet reject the truth.
- The truth matters and it deserves our attention and consideration. If there is no truth, there is no objective context for life, and we can have no true knowledge; we are all swimming in a sea of illusions.
- Truth requires a god and the self-revelation of God Himself as a foundation for knowledge.
- Our view of life (worldview) gives meaning, purpose and value to all we do. Our beliefs govern how we behave.
- If the ultimate context for your life is just chance and matter, you cannot make valid truth claims at all.
- The four ultimate issues are: origin, meaning, morality, and destiny.
- In the end worldview perspectives boil down to idolatry or true worship, an impersonal or a personal universe.
- If God is the author of creation, only His meaning matters.
- To choose our own meaning is at best wishful thinking and at worst willful self-deception.
- Our autonomous culture rejects the authority of God.
- Rejecting God’s authority has lead to rampant family breakdown, sex trafficking, pornography, crime, etc.
- Believing the Word of God is the opposite of escapism; it is total realism.
- Biblical faith is not afraid of thinking and reasoning; God says, “Come, let us reason together.”
- The Christian church and early Christian apologists took the claims of Christ boldly into the public square.
- Jesus’ claims were ultimate and exclusive: “I am the truth”, and “he who is on the side of truth hears My voice.”
- It is impossible to be neutral about the claims of Christ.
- The message of Christ stands unique among all other messages. If it is false, it is of no importance. If it is true, it is of infinite importance.
Application Questions
- Why is it so urgent to find truth while still young?
- Why do people spend almost no time answering the most important questions of life?
- How can so many reject the truth in the face of plain evidence?
- Discuss the claim that the Christian faith is escapism.
- What are the two ultimate perspectives on life?
- Is it possible to be neutral toward Christ? Do our lives reflect total acceptance of Christ’s absolute claims?