Sermon Tone Analysis

Introduction

Introduction

Introduction

For any item we value, we have a reason, or a list of reasons, for why we value it.

The same would be true of people.

This is presupposed when a girlfriend asks a boyfriend, or a wife asks a husband, “Why do you love me?”.

By the way, one reason is not usually sufficient in these cases.

You might want to prepare a list for this potential occasion.

Also, for what it’s worth, this question doesn’t usually go the other way around.

Most guys aren’t asking their significant other, “why do you love me”.

They may wonder, “Hey!

What have I done lately to impress you”.

Either way, we have reasons for why we hold an item or a person as valuable.

At work, you would consider an employee valuable because they have accomplished certain task or displayed a certain level of competency.

You value a friend at school because they don’t make fun of me all the time, they laugh at my jokes, and they have a great personality.

You value a specific pair of socks because they don’t make your feet sweat, they stay up all day, and they aren’t pink.

I feel this way about my computer.

I was about to get rid of it and buy something bigger and better.

If I opened up more than one or two programs, it would often freeze up.

My Bible program requires a ridiculous amount of memory, and anytime it was open, I would struggle doing anything else.

In Microsoft Word, I would be typing two or three words ahead of what I could actually see.

I would try to open up the internet and would have time to do some reading in a book while I waited.

It was extremely annoying, and I had gotten to the point of wanting a better computing experience.

Following some counsel by our computer savvy elders, I switched out the hard drive for an SSD drive and put more RAM in the computer, and all of a sudden, my computer is crazy fast.

My daily routine is all messed up now because as soon as I open a program on the computer, it opens, and I don’t have time to do all those filler tasks.

I can now open my Bible program, a couple Adobe programs, read a book on Kindle, and write notes in Word – all at the same time.

Now I have a list of reasons for why my laptop is amazing, and I’m looking forward to holding on to it.

In , Solomon offers his son a list of reasons for why wisdom is something worth holding on to.

ESV).

Hang on to wisdom.

Hang on to wisdom.

We struggle looking for somewhere to place our confidence and find our security.

Wisdom extends her hand and tells us that security and confidence can be found with her.

What has she done that would assure us that she can keep us secure?

Through wisdom, God established the foundations of the earth (3:19).

The primary meaning of to fix firmly.

The metaphorical usage would signify something which cannot be moved.

“The earth is the Lord’s and the fullness thereof, the world and those who dwell therein, for he has founded it upon the seas and established it upon the rivers” ( ESV).

“He built his sanctuary like the high heavens, like the earth, which he has founded forever” ( ESV).

“The heavens are yours; the earth also is yours; the world and all that is in it, you have founded them” ( ESV).

“Who builds his upper chambers in the heavens and founds his vault upon the earth; who calls for the waters of the sea and pours them out upon the surface of the earth— the Lord is his name” ( ESV).

In an interesting twist to our conception of the foundations of the world, we are told in Job that "He stretches out the north over empty space And hangs the earth on nothing” ().

Through wisdom, God established the heavens (3:19).

Solomon tells us that “The Lord . . .

by understanding established the heavens” ( ESV).

In we read, “In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.”

“Heaven includes all that is above the earth . . .

Heaven and earth together constitute the universe.”[1]

Therefore, this verse poetically communicates that God created everything through wisdom.

Not only did God through wisdom establish, form and found His creation, but through wisdom continues to providentially and sovereignly control and sustain His creation.

This reality brings me a certain level of comfort in the midst of present day discussions about climate change.

God established the earth and it continues to exist due to his supernatural sustaining.

While we ought to care for it, motivated by the command by God and given to Adam to have dominion over and care for the earth, we can have a great deal of confidence in knowing that the earth was founded and continues to be sustained by the power of its creator.

Through wisdom, God broke open the deeps (3:20).

As you consider the idea of deeps being broken open, your mind may go to a couple of places.

In all of them you see the majestic and creative wisdom of God.

First, we see at creation, “God made the expanse and separated the waters that were under the expanse from the waters that were above the expanse.

And it was so” ( ESV).

Maybe instead your mind went to the time of the flood.

“In the six hundredth year of Noah’s life, in the second month, on the seventeenth day of the month, on that day all the fountains of the great deep burst forth, and the windows of the heavens were opened” ( ESV).

Or finally, you may have considered Israel at the Red Sea when God “divided the sea and let [Israel] pass through it, and made the waters stand like a heap” ( ESV).

Regardless of which moment you consider, it was by wisdom that God directed and controlled the waters of the earth.

Through wisdom, God directs the clouds to drip with dew (3:20).

If I were God, and I were to prove to you my value, I’m thinking that I probably wouldn’t lure you in with tales of how I produce dew.

I think I would go bigger than rain and dew.

And yet, Job also references rain as he displays the great, unsearchable, and marvelous things of God.

“As for me, I would seek God, and to God would I commit my cause, who does great things and unsearchable, marvelous things without number: he gives rain on the earth and sends waters on the fields” ( ESV).

Is rain a great and unsearchable wonder wrought by God? Picture yourself as a farmer in the Near East, far from any lake or stream.

A few wells keep the family and animals supplied with water.

But if the crops are to grow and the family is to be fed from month to month, water has to come on the fields from another source.

From where?

Well, the sky.

The sky? Water will come out of the clear blue sky?

Well, not exactly.

Water will have to be carried in the sky from the Mediterranean Sea, over several hundred miles and then be poured out from the sky onto the fields.

Carried?

How much does it weigh?

Well, if one inch of rain falls on one square mile of farmland during the night, that would be 27,878,400 cubic feet of water, which is 206,300,160 gallons, which is 1,650,501,280 pounds of water.

That's heavy.

So how does it get up in the sky and stay up there if it's so heavy?

Well, it gets up there by evaporation.

Really?

… What's it mean?

It means that the water sort of stops being water for a while so it can go up and not down.

I see.

Then how does it get down?

Well, condensation happens.

What's that?

The water starts becoming water again by gathering around little dust particles ...

What about the salt?

Yes, the Mediterranean Sea is salt water.

That would kill the crops.

What about the salt?

Well, the salt has to be taken out.

So, the sky picks up a billion pounds of water from the sea and takes out the salt and then carries it for three hundred miles and then dumps it on the farm?

Well it doesn't dump it.

If it dumped a billion pounds of water on the farm, the wheat would be crushed.

So, the sky dribbles the billion pounds of water down in little drops.

And they have to be big enough to fall for one mile or so without evaporating, and small enough to keep from crushing the wheat stalks.[2]

Therefore, hang on to wisdom (3:21).