Sermon Notes
I exist to . . .
“The two most important days of your life are the day you were born and the day you find out why.”
- Mark Twain
If we desire to know why we exist, we must begin with the one who provided our existence.
Genesis 3:7–8
Then the eyes of both of them were opened, and they realized they were naked; so they sewed fig leaves together and made coverings for themselves. Then the man and his wife heard the sound of the Lord God as he was walking in the garden in the cool of the day, and they hid from the Lord God among the trees of the garden.
Genesis 3:16–19
To the woman he said, “I will greatly increase your pains in childbearing; with pain you will give birth to children. . . . To Adam he said, “Because you listened to your wife and ate from the tree about which I commanded you, ‘You must not eat of it,’ “Cursed is the ground because of you; through painful toil you will eat of it all the days of your life.
Genesis 3:23
So the Lord God banished [humanity] from the Garden of Eden to work the ground from which he had been taken.
Romans 7:15
I do not understand what I do. For what I want to do I do not do, but what I hate I do.
Hallelujah — Praise God
Matthew 24:30
“At that time the sign of the Son of Man will appear in the sky, and all the nations of the earth will mourn. They will see the Son of Man coming on the clouds of the sky, with power and great glory.
Revelation 19:1
After this I heard what sounded like the roar of a great multitude in heaven shouting: “Hallelujah! Salvation and glory and power belong to our God...
Revelation 19:2-3
…for true and just are his judgments. He has condemned the great prostitute who corrupted the earth by her adulteries. He has avenged on her the blood of his servants.”And again they shouted: “Hallelujah! The smoke from her goes up for ever and ever.”
Revelation 19:4-5
The twenty-four elders (CHURCH) and the four living creatures fell down and worshiped God, who was seated on the throne. And they cried: “Amen, Hallelujah!” Then a voice came from the throne, saying: “Praise our God, all you his servants, you who fear him, both small and great!”
Revelation 19:6
Then I heard what sounded like a great multitude, like the roar of rushing waters and like loud peals of thunder, shouting: “Hallelujah! For our Lord God Almighty reigns.
The whole of creation is in on the act—the sun and moon, the sea, fire and snow, Holstein cows and white throated sparrows, old men in walkers and children who still haven’t taken their first step. Their praise is not chiefly a matter of saying anything, because most of creation doesn’t deal in words.
Instead, the snow whirls, the fire roars, the Holstein bellows, the old man watches the moon rise. Their praise is not something that at the most complimentary they say, but something that at their truest they are.
We learn to praise God not by paying compliments, but by paying attention. Watch how the trees exult when the wind is in them. Mark the utter stillness of the great blue heron in the swamp. Listen to the sound of the rain. Learn how to say “Hallelujah” from the ones who say it right.
- Fredrich Buechner
The reason the earth exists, the reason we exist is to sing Hallelujah.