We're gonna be looking at the first 15 verses. So as we start tonight, I'm actually gonna read the first eight verses, which is really the opening section here, and then verses nine through 15 is really kind of the follow-up and really some explanation and evaluation and expansion on those first eight verses. So if you follow along with me there, Ecclesiastes chapter three, we're gonna look at the first eight verses. To everything there is a season. A time for every purpose under heaven. A time to be born and a time to die. A time to plant and a time to pluck what is planted. A time to kill and a time to heal. A time to break down and a time to build up. A time to weep and a time to laugh. A time to mourn and a time to dance. A time to cast away stones and a time to gather stones. A time to embrace and a time to refrain from embracing. A time to gain and a time to lose, a time to keep, and a time to throw away, a time to tear, and a time to sew, a time to keep silence, and a time to speak, a time to love, and a time to hate, a time of war, and a time of peace. Let's pray. Lord, thank you very much for your word. Lord, we thank you for the reminders in your word, considering time. And Lord, even as we continue considering what it is that you are doing, Lord, the task that you give to us, and Lord, even the tasks and purposes that you are doing. We thank you for your word. We thank you sometimes, Lord, for even the times that your word can make us think, and Lord, can confuse us even a little bit, Lord. I pray that this would be an opportunity for us to gain and grow in our wisdom. Lord, your word tells us that if we lack wisdom, we can ask of you, and you'll grant that to us, and pray you would do that here tonight. We ask this in Jesus' name, amen. Now, as some of you may have noticed, I do appreciate those of you who are like, hey, Pastor Dave, it seems like you have a cold. We're praying for you. Well, this is a time for a cold for me. Whenever we get to fall and a little bit into winter, I always get usually two and a half, I say a half because it's not a bad one, two and a half rounds of, you know what it is, right? Well, there was a new word for it a number of years that came up. Anyway, let's not talk about that. I definitely get congestion. I kind of get that achy feeling, and then I know it's coming on, and I know by the time I get to the end of it, I will go through multiple boxes of Kleenexes, and inevitably, I will have to try to preach through it at least a couple of times. I don't like it at all. There's a time where I'm like, Lord, my job is to speak and to communicate, and why would you give me these things? I've learned. I bring the water up here. And then I tell myself I'm not going to sing. And then my daughter is helping lead singing, and I like the songs, and I sing out. And as I'm singing out, I'm like, I'm going to run out of voice here tonight. And I know that maybe you in the congregation are like, well, maybe he'll run out of a voice here tonight, and it'll be good. There is a time for these things that are taking place. Time is, for lack of a better term, it is the environment that we live in. And you kind of see this on the sheet here tonight that we'll get to later on in the section. As we have been going through the book of Ecclesiastes, we've actually kind of done a little bit of a turn in terms of sections. After we have gotten through the first couple of chapters here, the verses that we start and arrive at here are actually going to push all the way through into chapter 5. And really, this section will push all the way through into the end of chapter 5, verses 18 to 20. In fact, I would invite you to go to the end of chapter five and look at those verses, because we're really getting into section two. There's really four sections of Ecclesiastes, and this is the beginning of this next section. Solomon has kind of walked us through this process of trying to figure things out and has not been super successful at it, although he's gained information. And now we are going to go into a second round here, and the end of this will actually come really in verses 18, 19, and 20 of chapter five. If you look there, it says, Here's what I have seen. It is good and fitting for one to eat, drink, and enjoy the good of all his labor, in which he toils under the sun all the days of his life, which God gives him, for it is his heritage. As for every man to whom God has given riches and wealth and given him power to eat of, to receive his heritage and rejoice in his labor, this is the gift of God. For he will not dwell unduly on the days of his life, because God keeps him busy with the joy of his heart. I told you there's going to be some times that things are going to get a little bit more optimistic. This section, especially the beginning part of chapter three, has a little bit more of the optimism as there's a little bit of a second round of understanding that seems to be taking place. And so this first section maybe we would say is kind of a bit of a poem about time, for lack of a better term, or a poem about times even. in these different times that are given to us here. And while most of them have some dualism type of aspects, whereas one that is the opposite of the other, they aren't all exactly that way. And Solomon here, as we are following in the process he's going through, is arguing through, maybe we would say a thesis, that every action that an individual has to walk through or be a part of, they can trace what's going on, the actions that are happening around them, and even the actions that are taking place in the world, they can trace it back to an ultimate source. And that ultimate source is that there is a plan, we would say even an all-encompassing plan, that is administered by God, a time, verse 1, for every purpose under the sun. To everything there is a season." This is actually kind of a similar thing that we had already seen in the verses just before, kind of the end of section one in chapter two, verses 24 through 26. In fact, it sounds very similar to what we just heard at the end of chapter five. Nothing is better for a man than he should eat and drink, that his soul should enjoy good in his labor, This also I saw was from the hand of God. For who can eat or who can have enjoyment more than I? For God gives wisdom and knowledge and joy to a man who is good in his sight, but to the sinner he gives the work of gathering and collecting that he may give to him who is good before God. This also is vanity and grasping for the wind. And as we have been noting, We have to keep track of there are times now Solomon is more often talking about God and his overall purpose here, and he's kind of putting these parts in there. But he's also talking about if we're trying to do this and figure this out, try to basically run and rule and act in our lives here on earth without that, it is this word that we've seen over and over and over again. It's vanity. It's chasing the wind, it is an endless process. We're never gonna get to the end of it. So after this conclusion, he is now kind of adding this part, this scheme or this plan that life itself is not just this monotonous, dreary thing, mainly because it is in the hands of God. And so this section here, in contrast of kind of bringing to a close with this negative, as we saw at the end of chapter 5, is going to be a little bit more positive. And so this whole section really, I believe, is kind of in light of the goal of the end of chapter 5. And there is going to be really kind of the principle, which is what we're looking at tonight, and that principle is God's plan is really something that embraces all of our reality. That'll really go all the way through verse 15. Then starting in verse 16, really until chapter 4, all the way through chapter 4 is you're going to get some difficult things. These are facts. These are anomalies. So the next section that we work on, and actually the next two sections that we'll work on, is a section on what we call anomalies. They'd be exceptions, things we have to be careful that when these things happen, and when we go through these things, it doesn't take away from or deny God's plan. And then chapter five is really these implications that are gonna be given. There are warnings and cautions that take place. And as Solomon is working us through these things, he is really reminding us overall, and especially in this second section, that we have to be careful not to make hasty miscalculations about all of the things that take place in life. We're quick to just say, well, this is what's happening. This is the way it always goes, which is somewhat correct. We'll kind of see, but we have to be careful when it comes to consistent things and making a really hasty, just a hasty determination and miscalculation. We also have to be careful about making hasty miscalculations on the anomalies, on the things that seem to kind of almost be one-offs, the apparent contradictions to the rules that the Word of God has. As we said way back at the beginning, Ecclesiastes is a very important part of the wisdom literature, because there are parts of the wisdom literature, especially in Proverbs, Psalms kind of has both of them a little bit, and obviously Job gives the one side. This is kind of the balancing act, because you have principles in Proverbs that says, if a wise man or if a person does this, then they are going to have all these blessings. And we would say, well, wait a minute, I know some people that are godly and that would be wise, but their life hasn't gone so well. There are a lot of difficult things that they have walked through, and especially here and throughout Ecclesiastes, we're reminded that we don't get to take contradictions. We don't get to take anomalies to deny that God is in charge, that there is the providence of God, and we don't get to say, well, God must not be in control. God must not have a plan. The reminder that even in the things that don't seem like they should be planned or are planned, It is still a part of what God is doing. And part of the overall reminder here is that life isn't timeless. There are times that we live in. There are seasons that we live in. It's interesting when you get a chance to interact with someone who has decided to move to a part of the world or a part of the nation where the weather's just kind of always good. Or I guess if they move somewhere in the world. You can move places in the world, the weather is always bad. But how much they love seasons until they get four days into the season, right? Oh, I miss the snow. Well, stick around for a little while. You won't miss the snow very much longer. We have seasons in life. There's a book on my shelf, a biblical counseling book, that is called The Seasons of Marriage. and it talks through, we have to recognize that there are different seasons we go through in marriage. Pre-marital counseling is very different than, I can't say post-marital counseling, than crisis, than extended marital counseling. I like to say pre-marital counseling I do for free because everybody's excited. Regular marital counseling, I charge you per year you're married because it gets more difficult the amount of years you've been married. There are different seasons within our marriages. There are different seasons within our relationship. There are different seasons within our life, within church. Every one of you in here has different places you're at in terms of your relationship, even with First Baptist Church of Elyria. Whether if you're a guest with us tonight, or if you have been here longer than the building's been here, there are some of you in here that say, I was here before we were even in this part of town. The seasons are even a little bit different. And so we experience all of these different things. And so again, this section actually gets a little bit easier to figure out, at least in terms of outlining what is going on. And especially the section that we're in today, there's really going to be this poem that we read, and then there's going to be really a discussion on God's purposes for life. So this poem. that we see here. For those of us that have been around for a while, we know this has been done in song form in a number of different ways. There are many people in this world that would say there's a certain song that just sounds like a song I've heard before, and that would be very true. I'm really young enough, I don't barely remember this song, and that's just what I'm gonna say, but it seems to stick around a little bit. It is focusing on one of the most important themes in the book of Ecclesiastes, and that is dealing with this, and it's what we all deal with, the inability to discern or control the times. The inability to discern or control the times. I put a number of things, observations here, and I left some blank. You can kind of fill in some things. There's a number of things I think that we're going to see that are important to understand concerning this poem. And I think one thing that is very important is this poem is descriptive, not prescriptive. Okay, you don't get to say, it's a time for war, I'm gonna go punch somebody. This is not something that you and I get to determine. This is a description of life. There are times that things are taking place. It says there are times you have to do and there are other times you don't have to do. But this is not a, okay, I need to figure out where I'm at and I am going to control the time frame that I'm living in when it comes to my home, when it comes to my health, when it comes to the seasons, when it comes to my relationships and those things. There is a descriptive aspect here, and Solomon's just kind of describing that there are different times that come about all throughout our lives. There are things that are happening in this time of your life that you would not have been able to imagine 12 months ago. There are things that are gonna happen in the next 12 months that you are not even going to be able to imagine what that is going to be like. The times are coming, different times come, in these ways. And the second thing there, as I've already kind of mentioned, life isn't timeless. There are repeated rhythms. There are things that happen and then happen again, and we really kind of need to plan accordingly. We need to recognize that maybe you're in a season of life where everything is great. Everything is going well. It seems like just things are all lining up and things are really just kind of, the Lord seems to be blessing in fill in the blank whatever that is going on. Solomon would say, You need to buckle up, because that time is gonna eventually come to an end. There is going to be a different time that will happen in your life. The times and the seasons will change. Maybe you're going through a very, very difficult time. It just seems like nothing works, nothing is happening, and Solomon would say, that too is a time that will come to the end. Now, we might say in each of those times, how long, oh Lord? How long will the good go, or how long will the bad go? And as we look through the Bible and even think throughout time, we recognize there are times in the Bible where the bad went a long time, and where the good has gone for a long time. And there are times where it could be short in time, but long in impact, in terms of it could be something where life can change like that, either one direction or the other. It is very important, however, in a wisdom book, and as we think about biblical wisdom, to know the right time for the right action or the right word. In other words, I need to know what is the right, to be wise, I need to know what's the right time, the right action, the right word in the right situation. I remember trying to teach my kids that there are times when we're not supposed to be making jokes and goofing around. For example, I remember one time we were at a funeral and my kids were just kinda carrying on and that sort of thing. I was like, this is not the appropriate time to be like this. There are times it is appropriate to be goofy and to be fun and to have an enjoyable time, but settle down. I call it, it was a term that happened a lot in our family when we were younger and it probably drove me a little bit nuts. It was this, it was situational awareness. Do you know people that always tend to say the wrong thing at the wrong time? If you don't know anybody that is like that, you may be the person in somebody else's life that always seems to say the wrong thing at the wrong time. Now, some of you, it's blessed. You don't even know that you've been saying the wrong thing at the wrong time, and your gracious brothers and sisters of Christ and family probably love you very much. Wisdom is always connected with timing. There's always right timing connected to wisdom. And again, these first eight verses are without a doubt the most well-known passage in the book of Ecclesiastes. This is one of the more well-known passages within the Bible. Again, this description that takes place, it is not to be used, maybe to even expand on that, I kind of put this down, you cannot use this poem to justify certain emotions or actions. It is simply making a statement. There are different times and different seasons that take place. So, if those things are true, what are we going to say about the anomalies? And we'll get to those a little bit later, as we said. And so, it is, I like what one commentator said. This is one of the best known portions of the Bible, and possibly also one of the least understood passages of the Bible. Because just saying it, or even singing it, it's time for water. Just to sing about it or say about it, the question is, well, what am I supposed to do with this? Does this mean I'm supposed to be impacting this? Am I supposed to be doing something about this? We want to make sure that we understand that this is, again, maybe we would even say the important part of this declaration poem is to at least step back and say, we recognize that this is even from the perspective of God upon our lives, there are times and certain times that take place. For you, it was determined long before you had any involvement in determination, and you still had no involvement in determination, the time to be born was determined by God. This is not only just, well, it's descriptive, it is descriptive almost from the perspective of God. What we see here is the plan of God, and the plan of God really encompasses the lives of human beings from the day that you are born until the day you die, and we might add to that, and beyond that. We make a rough time of the life that we are living in. Our lives basically are trying to work through each season and each time that seems to be going on. And unfortunately, without the wisdom of the Lord and without biblical wisdom, people handle these seasons and times very differently. If we don't have the proper care, the proper understanding, or maybe we would even say, the proper mentoring from a preacher or teacher, that there's a different season of life and that season had a certain thing that it was designed to do or designed to not do, but it didn't do that, we need to be able to have some of that wisdom. There are times in our lives where there are certain things that aren't going to happen and they aren't designed to work that way. These times limit us. They limit our choices. They limit how we interact and others. And it also can limit and change the things that we are able to do and even what others are doing to us. And so the lot, for lack of a better term, that we have each been given in life, we are not able to flourish really until we understand that there are seasons and times that we're going to walk through. I think sometimes one thing that came to my mind is kind of what investment strategy is like. It kind of reminded me a little bit of that, which is, within an investment strategy, for those that have done investing, you recognize, okay, what am I gonna do, you know, everybody can be a great investor if the market always goes up. And so there are some out there that would say, and I think they rightfully have been able to say it up to this point, that over the long term, the market is generally going up. I was actually thinking back, I can remember I was just barely kind of learning a little bit about market, that, and they were talking about what an amazing thing, the market was gonna get over 10,000. And they're like, they said it was never gonna happen, never gonna get that way. It's well beyond that. So the investment strategy is just, well, it's always gonna keep going up. Life is not like that. While the long-term investment seems to be like that, and we keep telling ourselves, well, it's always gonna keep going up, is it? So what's your investment strategy when the market goes crazy? I'm not gonna, maybe just says, well, put it all in gold. I don't know what your investment strategy is. Different times and different seasons require different type of strategies. It's kind of like that. By using this term that is being used here, this word that is used for everything, there is a season. He is really kind of putting the sands of our times really into the overall view of God's creation. The word of God talks about God made the moon to mark the seasons, the sun to know its setting. While the earth remains, the Bible talks about The seed time and harvest, the cold and the heat, the summer, the winter, the day and the night, they shall not cease. This is, as I put there, there is a rhythm. And there are things that are coming. There is good, there is bad. There are certain things that are coming. In many ways, this kind of gives us a, as we walk through this time, we can almost say, yeah, this is kind of a time that I've walked through where it was there. Now, I don't know when the time to cast stones was. or to gather stones, and there's a lot that people have definitely read into this, but I think this is the right place to kind of have the overall thing. We need to learn to receive the times and the rhythms instead of try to fight against the times and the rhythms. There are rhythms to parenting, and there are seasons to parenting. And one of the problems that can arise, and I've definitely been guilty of this, and it seems to be true throughout different eras and probably has been true of parents throughout history, it's just they do it in different ways, which is acting like your child who is growing up, treating them like a child all the way until the day they walk out the door and even beyond. What is the season and what is the time for raising children? Is there a point in time where you need to stop changing their diaper? Is there a point in time where you need to stop saying, ah, here's the food? There are times and seasons, and we, instead of saying, well, I'm gonna fight against this, and I'm gonna hold on to my baby for as long as I can. And then all of a sudden they're gone. We need to recognize that one of the seasons is the end of the season, which is then saying now it is time to hand them off into independence. I would say hopefully dependent on God. And they have not been so dependent on us, and not so been saying I'll say whatever mom and dad want me to say, and say I believe whatever mom and dad want me to believe, and not having learned how to think for myself, how to have convictions built for myself, all of those things. There's a season aspect, so again, receiving rather than resisting. And the way that we receive these, the one thing that stays consistent all the way through these, I would add, is every single one of these seasons, we should be drawing near to God. We should be drawing near to God. Why? Because God is the one who brings and allows and has put in place the world around us that has each of these times and seasons. We want to draw nearer to the one that he is the one who has said about this life. We enter into a routine that we did not choose, yet that God wants to use to shape our lives. I would say there's a bit of a, and this comes up in other types of scriptures, there's a bit of a recognizing, and when we recognize something, especially when we recognize God is doing something, the second step is always submission. Once we recognize, now we can submit. Once I'm able to recognize this is what's going on here, okay, I recognize what is happening here, now I'm able to submit to the Lord and I can plan accordingly. There are times that the fruit is not going to come. Mark 11, 13 talks about that. We need to learn then as we submit to God to surrender what the time requires when the time requires it. This is what is to take place now. Now some of these things, what makes this hard is some of these things we can kind of see. Even as I talk about them and you think about the seasons and times you have gone through, and even as you try to anticipate some of the seasons and times that are ahead, you can try to plan for those things. You can try to plan for your medical and health future. So for those of you that are Not in here, but for other people that are a little bit older, does your medical health future always follow the exact plan that you intended for it to follow? Not generally, right? It could be true financially. It could be true in terms of everything. I mean, we get to watch on TV people's homes floating away. People's lives being completely devastated and gone in a matter of 24 to 48 hours. So we think we can control these things, and we think we can make these things happen in the way we can, but we can't. We may also handle them wrong, how we think about what is going on, how we feel about what is going on, but we need to learn, okay, this is a, to use some of the terminology, this is a planting season. There is a plowing season. And that's really kind of what happens here. This is a time to do those things. And you're like, what about a time to kill? There are times within the Word of God, by the way, it could be rather just a hunting thing, but also there is how do you deal with murder? How do you deal with those who are wrong? Even if we were to think a little bit about Scripture, it is not because, not necessarily that man or society or government is sovereign, but because man is made in the image of God, there are times that there are those who are supposed to be killed for the actions that they have done. We then are able to understand, and by the way, this helps us in thinking and helping others as well. We can believe that if someone else is experiencing one of these things, that God has maybe singled them out in the same way we can think God has singled us out. And what can also happen here then, and this is really what can generally happen when life becomes about us and life is not about God as in control, what happens when things go wrong? We start to think, well, God must not love me. Part of the wisdom that is going on here is everyone experiences different times. None of us experience anything that is 100% no one has ever experienced this before. Now while there are some unique idiosyncrasies that can happen within the experiences we have, we know it's true. Anytime that you really stop and think about something that's really discouraging you or you have something to complain about, Probably your mom did this to you, but there's this reminder, somebody's got it worse than me. This is something that someone else has dealt with to a greater degree of difficulty or a greater degree of struggle. Now, we don't like that. I don't like that. I have a cold. Oh, boo-hoo. So-and-so just went in the hospital. Quit your crying, Pastor Dave. That's a legitimate response. Still doesn't help me feeling bad about my cold, but you are right. I am not bedridden in a hospital. I am not completely debilitated. But again, we, when we don't think big picture, other people experience difficulties as well. God is a God who is the one who is in control, even on this fallen world. Then it becomes so self-centered. God doesn't love me. God doesn't care about me. God is against me. Same can be true on the opposite. If you are experiencing a delightful time, or you're experiencing a blessing, then apparently you are in the God click, you know, and then God just loves you. God just, like, dumping you with so many blessings, you don't even know what to do with it. It's just too much, you know? You've got to just kind of, I'm so blessed, I don't even know what to do myself. Man, obviously, Lord, you're pleased with what's going on in my life. No, and maybe it's when someone else is struggling, well, they must be doing something wrong. If you remember in the Gospels and throughout biblical times, people just assumed if someone's having something bad happen, then they must be a bad person, i.e., the book of Job. Same with the blessings. Well, if someone's having something going right in their life, God must be blessing them. And I don't know if you follow the lifestyles of the rich and famous, but they don't seem to be super moral people, so that can't be it. So it can mess up our view of ourselves before God. and it could mess up our view of others. And then we start to read into what God is doing. Is God like trying to cast some bait out there? Is he tricking us? Has God been trying to set us up for a downtime? And so what happens is, without God, we are relationally unprepared to deal with and interact with our God within the different times and seasons. So we mishandle it. Have you within family dealings ever been misunderstood by a family member so that they then mishandle you or misspeak to you or mistreat you? I think that's a very, it's not perfect, but it's a very similar thing, I think, to what happens when we try to understand God when we don't understand what God is doing. So if I misunderstand what God is doing, I'm going to then assume things on Him. And where Solomon is working through here is he's saying, no, you need to be reminded that this is part of the human experience. This is part of, not just the human experience, this is part of the plan of God. When we are able to do this, when we experience any circumstance under the sun, that especially, let's say it's an experience that you have tried to avoid your entire life, when you have tried to say, I have tried to do everything I can to protect myself from fill in the blank, and that thing happens, we then find out how close we are to God, and we also find out, does our theology match our relationship with him? How many times Does it happen within the world around us that someone who says, this is what I believe, this is what I believe, this is who I believe, yet when life goes difficult or life throws a tragedy, the answer is, I no longer believe in him or in that. Why? Because they weren't prepared to know that there very well may be a very, very difficult time that does truly come from the hand of God. God. If we can name times like this, as the preacher does here, if we can be prepared ahead of time for what can await us in the world and even beyond the world, we then are better equipped in our relationship with God because our relationship with God stops being, and this word has popped up a lot in my studies and even in my thoughts, our relationship with God stops being transactional. I'll do my devos. I'll pray, I'll do all these things, but I better get something out of this. Many years ago, I had a young lady, a young woman who was going through a very, let's just, I'm just gonna say it. She married a jerk. She married a fool, and she married an abuser, and she was one that very much was suffering the consequences of that, and she was trying to do everything she could to try to win back her husband. And she came to me and I could tell it from the beginning that she was wanting to go to church and get biblical counseling so that God would get back to blessing her. That was why she was there. Multiple times I tried to tell her, what needs to happen in your life is you need to take care of what's going on in your life, and you need to grow strong in your love for and relationship with the Lord for two reasons. One, if God restores your relationship, you need to be the wife that you need to be. And if he doesn't, you're gonna need to be strong for that as well if God does not restore this relationship. She came to church faithfully. She came to counseling faithfully. She was always doing that. She did all those things. And then the moment when the papers were filed, I never saw that woman again. She never came back to church. She never went under biblical counseling. She was done. She was done with all of that. And I know, I could see it. I could sense it. She's like, well, if I do A, B, C, D, E, F, G, then God won't let this happen to me. That is a transactional relationship with God. And when we have a transactional relationship with God, verses one through eight are not going to work. our relationship will be determined on what we think God is doing to us, how he is blessing us, or how he is hurting us. Remember what it said in Job 19, for I know that my Redeemer lives, and at the last he will stand upon the earth, and after my skin has been thus destroyed, yet in my flesh I shall see God. There is an eternal reminder there, even Christ himself is called and claimed to be, in the Old Testament, a man of sorrows. Christ himself was that, and so here, Solomon is taking on a number of roles. He's kind of doing a little pastoring here. He is learning from God how to enter into what are the Delightful and difficult times, no matter what it is. That's kind of the shepherding aspect. Even in terms of what he's kind of preaching and proclaiming, maybe we would say on his declaring preaching side, he is exalting God by not trying to censor everything. that we encounter, but he is trying to encourage, to draw near to God, especially in the whole of scripture. There's also here a little bit of kind of an apologist type of thing, which is he is helping us to recognize and think about life that we are able to deal with and get some answers to questions that while we may not like the answers to questions, they are there. We are able to recognize that there is a God who is in control. He even maybe evangelistically is telling us to look instead of what is going on in the circumstances, to look to God. To look to the one who truly has taken care of the biggest season of our life. What's the biggest time frame that will take place in your life and the biggest season that will take place in your life? It is what will happen after this life. This life is a vapor. The most important time frame of yours and my life is what happens after we are on the earth. And God has taken care of that. And God has provided for that. And God cries out to us and offers up his forgiveness and salvation. So to be able to find what's gonna come next, in verses nine through 15, to find this purpose and even a nearness to God, we need grace. We need grace to relate honestly towards what it means to live under the sun in these times. So one quote, it says, we cannot talk about our lives, ourselves, what we desire or what we fear or what surrounds us without referring to time. Plan accordingly. How do I plan accordingly to uncertainty? And the answer is, to plan accordingly is I need to recognize who God is We need to recognize that these different times are things that happen as a result of him. Which, verse 9 of chapter 3 gets us to the beginning of this discussion then. Because at this point, let's say we just stop there. All right, done. God sets it all up. Everything that happens to you is because of the purpose of God. That's not a good stopping point because you already know what's boiling up and welling up within your conversation. Well, that's not fair. That's not right. I don't like that kind of God. I don't want to be able to deal with that kind of God. And so, verse 9 kind of almost reminds us a little bit of chapter 1, verse 3, way back in the beginning. Chapter 1, verse 3, what profit has a man from all his labor in which he toils under the sun? Verse nine, what profit has the worker from that in which he labors? And while this seems a little bit to go a different direction, we're getting into now, what has God given us to do on this earth? And we might even say here, how do we do the task that is given to us within these times and seasons? So he's asking, what do you get? What do we get in terms of this? In a sense, then we get verses 10 and 11, which really go together as part of the response. I have seen the God-given task with which the sons of men are to be occupied. He has made everything beautiful in his time. Also, he has put eternity in their hearts, except that no one can find out the work that God does from beginning to the end. And so in typical Ecclesiastes fashion, he doesn't give us a really great answer, although it is an answer. What has he given us? This is what we're to be occupied with. There's a beautiful aspect. He's put eternity in our hearts. Now, God putting eternity in our hearts is a very fascinating phrase there. There's a lot of things we can say. Does that mean that God means that all of us have this desire for God? Well, I think that is there and other passages of scripture talk about this. But I also think a little bit of what is going on here is I think Solomon is saying God in some way puts this in all of our hearts that we recognize and are asking the question, there's got to be a bigger reason. There's got to be something bigger and some big thing that is larger and we just can't quite kind of wrap our minds around it. except no one can find out the work that God does from the beginning to end. He says we all know that this is true. We kind of know deep down inside there's a God who's in control, but we can't figure it out. I can't find out the work of God does from the beginning to the end. I can't put all the pieces together. It's really easy for Pastor Dave to stand up there and say, hey, every good, every bad, all these times, that's all according to God. Fine, but could I at least hear that God's going somewhere with this? Do I get to see the results of the good, the bad, the ugly, and the blessed when I get to the end? Or can I at least have a little bit of a view of the end? Now, you know the right answer. Heaven is the end. But we don't want just that. We want to know, is this hard time I'm going through worth it? Is there anything about this or am I just basically a lightning rod that God's just gonna keep zapping for who knows how long? And God's answer is, there's a purpose, zap. There's a purpose, zap. This is now the frustration that Solomon's getting into. Instead of being a good biblical writer who then says, thus prays the Lord, and God shall grant you eternity and mercy, Solomon does what he does knowing about the problem he's had this whole time. This is not satisfactory is what Solomon is saying. I don't like the answer here. He is basically saying, I do not find comfort in the fact that there is a time and season for everything, and I don't get to know why or what's going on in those times and seasons for everything. God has made everything beautiful, God has made everything appropriate for His time, and He will not clue us in to His grand plan. We have this sense that there is something going on, but that expectation and those answers are not given, which is why you get verses 12 and 13. That's why I think he's put eternity on our hearts and he hasn't given us the answers. I know that nothing is better for them than to rejoice and to do good in their lives, and also that every man should eat and drink and enjoy the good of all his labor. It is the gift of God. There is a kind of a resignation there. He's kind of saying that this allows us to focus in on this thing. There is nothing better than this, and this is where you're seeing again the end of chapter two, verses 24 to 26. There is a bit of a disappointment that is coming on here. It's easy then to try to get back to just saying, well, I'm just gonna live in the moment. Nothing is better for them than to rejoice, to do good in their lives. Again, so just keep doing good. Every man should eat, drink, and enjoy the good of all his labor is the gift of God. But then we get to the very end. He says, I know that whatever God does, it shall be forever. Nothing can be added to it and nothing taken from it. God does it that men should fear before him that which has already been and what is to be has already been and God requires an account of what is past. Solomon now is kind of digging into the next layer here. He is digging into this deep-seated desire, maybe we would even say this compulsive drive. Okay, because people are made in the image of God, because we are designed and able to appreciate the beauty of creation, at least on an aesthetic level, to know the character and the composition of this world, at least on a, maybe we would even say an academic and philosophical level. There's also, what is important then is this discernment of the purpose and destiny. And this is kind of the, I like what one guy said, he was writing about this. He said, it's almost like Solomon is running circles around the majesty and the madness of living on this earth with a God who is in control. If time forms this environment which, in which we live, we need to understand and be reminded that God is a God, that there is a purpose, and there are some principles we're allowed to take along the path that help us when it comes to being here on this earth. I would almost say, you're really not able to get to the rejoicing and doing good until you've been able to say, I recognize that it is the hand of God that is involved in all of these things, and I'm going to draw near to him and trust him. I don't think you can get to 12 and 13 as much, or at least long-term realistically, without acknowledging who God is. Time, which is really this purpose of all of these times, time is kind of like a parent and we are the kids. Time and what God is doing is, and I'm sorry, I don't like this, I don't like this either, What God is doing in time is not always our business. As a parent, was there ever a time you pulled the, that's not your business? Not your business. You don't know the big picture. You don't know everything that's going on here. Okay, your job is to do what you're told, enjoy the blessings that we have given you, enjoy the home that we have put over your head, all those things, but you don't always know what's going on. And it seems like, I believe, part of this is, Saul is right, there are things that we do, being blessed by God, but we don't always get to know everything that is going on. It's not always our business. It's like being an employee and a foreman says, this is the way you need to do the work that you're doing. But what about the whole building? You do the work that you have been given So there's a recognition that we have work to do within our life that God has given to us. I think another thing that is important here is we need grace to be able to relate to the Lord in the days that we have been given. God gave us time. Wherever we look, it's there. We have eternity again in our hearts. And so whatever time we are in, whether it is a time of quiet, where we are not at battle with others, and we are not at war, when we are able to have grace within our relationships. There are times when the world is not as forgiving. In the New Testament, it seems that we're over and over reminded, we see these situations, and even when Christ is wanting to do this, there's difficulty that he's having to be dealing with. When he wants to be spending time with the Lord, there are people that need to be cared for, and there's compassion that needs to take place. And so for us, while there are times and seasons we are able to handle, we also recognize there are times and seasons that on our own we are going to need the Lord within those seasons. As I said, this is the part that Job's friends were missing out on and we miss out often as well. We do not adjust to the fact that there are times that people in times in their lives are really suffering and really going through a difficult time and it has nothing to do of any fault of their own. And we need to recognize what do they need right now? And I would even say sometimes I would say they don't even necessarily need a theological lesson and well God works all things together for good for those who love him. It's not always the time for that verse. Sometimes the verse needs to be God loves you, Or it needs to be, I'm here for you and I love you. And that's it. What's the right tool within these times? Maybe we might be able to see it from verse seven. What is the time to keep silent? Silence is an interesting thing, isn't it? What is the time to speak. Job's friends spoke truths out of season. So we need to recognize what is our God-given task and how do we do what God has called us to do in the different times. We need to be able to recognize these. We need to be able to yield to them. We need to be able to handle them properly. We need to be able to adjust to these seasons. So how do we do some of these things? I think in terms of our relationships, we need to think about these things. When we think about our relationships, whether it is with our spouse, whether it is with our kids, whether it is with our church family, or whether it is with our family, we need to consider the fact that God is a God who is at work in me, and God is a God who is at work in someone else. Sometimes we can live our lives, this is very true of me as a pastor, I can unfortunately live my life acting like I am the most important person in someone's life, and I forget God is the one actually, the Holy Spirit works in other people as well. I know you're like, Pastor, you don't think that, right? Obviously I don't think that, but sometimes I kind of act like that. We all do, where we forget that God is the one who is also doing a work in someone else. If someone is going through a really difficult time, and someone is really having a struggle, whether it's with sin, whether it's consequences with sin, or it is a season, something that is out of their control. Do they need you? Possibly, probably. What do they need the most? The Lord. They need the work of the Holy Spirit in their lives. So before you jump in, maybe you should jump onto your knees and to be able to pray and really bring this before the Lord and ask for wisdom in how to navigate these things. I think it's true in terms of the work that God gives us with our own roles. Our lives are a bunch of roles. God has given us specific roles, and within those roles, we have responsibilities. There are times that we are more submission and yielding, and there are times we have leadership and influence. So within those roles, this is something that I've been blessed to be able to work through even a little bit more intently over this last year through a study I've been doing with a number of different men, really working through what's my role in terms of husband, in terms of father, in terms of son. And by the way, I do appreciate the two guys of you that keep asking me every week, did you call your mom? I haven't called my mom in a few weeks. I'm in a little trouble here. I'm not doing a good job as a son. What's my role there? What does it mean as a pastor? What does it mean as a brother in Christ? What does it mean to my neighbors? What is my responsibility to my neighbors as a child of God? All of these things, it allows us to kind of think and even kind of what's the timing or what has God put me in a time and a place specifically for those things. And the ebb and flows of these things, I think, can help us think a little bit about how do I get something started? If nothing's happening in a certain role or relationship that I'm not handling biblically, how do I gear that up? How do I start something like that? Also, I need to know when to stop or pause or wait. One counseling situation I'm in, we've been It's been a long-term one. And the other day I finally said, we've actually gone a little long. We're going to take a couple of months off. And there was a bit of a panic look in their eyes for very good reasons because of some of the things they've been walking through. I said, trust me, this is important. You need to be working on this before God, not before me. And so we're gonna take a break for a little while here. I'm gonna give you some tools for you to be able to use biblically through this process, but this cannot be a thing where it can be and it can happen within biblical counseling. And by the way, it may be happening in a relationship that you're in, you probably should evaluate it, is this codependency type of thing. Where I'm taking on all the burdens and I'm the one that they unload all their burdens on, they never do anything, they just bear it all to me and I try to give them good instruction and We can sometimes try to do too much and do too much. When do I need to stop? When do I need to hand off some responsibility? We fight against Sabbath. Maybe you need to stop working occasionally. Maybe you need to stop doing some things. We ignore our relationship with God. We ignore the fact that in all of these areas we need to grow in terms of those things. We have to think about what we need in certain times. And we also need to think about what do we do when we're in the difficult, I would even say kind of rocky times. How do we deal with all of these times? So what do we learn? I think two things. One, God is the God of time. And that may be a little bit bigger than you think. God is the God of eternity. God is a God that is not limited by time. God is the creator and the initiator of time. Now we only interact with God on a time frame because that's our life. I still, I only can do it so long because my brain starts to blow up a little bit. But I still firmly, I think I rightfully can say that God has all the time in the world to work on you and work on me because he is not limited by time. For a person to say, well, how can God hear all those prayers? God has all the time in the world, every single moment of all of time. God is available to you right now, fully, and completely. The reason we are not available to each other fully and completely is why? Don't have enough time. We really should get together, every single one of us. We would have a great time together. We should go out and grab a lunch. Let's have you over. You have us over. It would be a wonderful time. If I just said that's all I'm going to do, I'm going to stop preaching. I'm going to stop teaching. I'm just going to go and visit all my folks. I know I will probably grow by about 20 pounds, but it would be a biblical endeavor and a godly endeavor. I still wouldn't be able to get to it. One Wednesday night, I told the group in there, I said I had kind of done the math on how many people groups we have in our church. If I visit with, I think it was three people, three either homes, whether it's a couple or a family or a person, if I was able to do that three times a week, all of the time, it would take me four years to get to every home in this church. I don't have enough time for you people. And you don't have enough time for everybody. God does. God does. Those who are like, I need to get there, anytime you think I really need to invest in that person, I would encourage you, take a moment and pray. Say, God, you can always do a better work than I can. Help me in the time you have given me to do what you have called me to do. I'm running out of time. I'm running out of time with my kids. I'm running out of time here on earth. It just, it keeps going. But God can use us little vapor-linked life people walking through these times, but he is the God over all of that. So there's that part, but also God is the God who puts us in and allows and even gives these type of times. And while we want to call into question when they're bad and be really grateful when they're good, the response is, this is the time and season that God puts us into. So the question is, what do we do with that? But also, God's a God of purpose. There is never a time that God is not wanting to do something in our lives. And there's never a time that God is like, is not gonna stop working in and through us in our lives. And you could draw this out as big as you want as well. Man, I, this week, this last week I had a gentleman, godly gentleman, a very fun gentleman. He had a tongue in his cheek the whole way. He was trying to change my vote and who I voted for when it came to the presidential election. And he said, I believe if you vote for this person, the rapture will happen the next day. So I think you should vote for the rapture. To which I said, that may be the best argument I've ever heard for voting for that person. But I don't think you can guarantee that. God is the God of elections. God is the God of what happens in the biggest of pictures, and the smallest of pictures, and in each of those things, he is a God who is always accomplishing his purpose. I am thankful for that, because there are times I know I have not walked in wisdom in the times and seasons that God has given me, and yet God still accomplishes his purpose. Does that mean I'm off the hook? Does that mean I won't be held accountable for doing things wrong? No, I still will be held accountable but God still accomplishes his purpose. I am so thankful that God loves my kids and has greater purposes for my kids than I do because I feel like I've been in the business of messing them up most of my life. This can be true in so many things. So again, there is this great confidence. Can you kind of feel that? There's this confidence that as long as I keep coming back to what is God calling me to do right here instead of trying to figure out Instead of trying to figure out what's he doing in the big picture, to be able to get up tomorrow morning and say, what does God want me to do today? I would encourage you to start in his word. I would encourage you to start on your knees. I would encourage you to think about the task that he has ahead for you throughout the day and think to yourself, what does God want me to do there? How does God want me to interact there? Maybe even to think, where is the place that I've been blowing it every time I interact with that person, or I keep messing things up and not handling it right in terms of that? And I'm gonna deal with tomorrow, and I'm gonna handle the time and season and place and purpose of God on Monday. And then I'm gonna get to the end of my day, I'm gonna say, Lord, please take that, and I know you're gonna do your work, and I'll see you tomorrow morning. That helps us navigate with wisdom the difficulties of life. Lord, I thank you so much for this book, and thank you so much for these reminders, and Lord, I thank you for the wisdom that you offer to us. Lord, help us. We want all the answers. There are times that we want to read into what is going on in our lives, and Lord, we know that there is sin, We know the world that we live in. Lord, there are so many times that we seem surprised when things are difficult. Lord, I pray that you would help us not to take things like that personally. Lord, I pray you would help us not to read into others' lives the things that are happening there. Lord, for myself, I feel like this has revealed for me some of the aspects that I very easily tend to live my walk before you in a transactional nature. Lord, you know there's times I am doing my best in my walk because I want you to bless the church and bless me as a pastor and bless my family. I do want all those things, Lord, but that's not the reason I'm supposed to be walking with you. We are supposed to walk with you because you are our God. You love us. We need to love you, and we need to recognize who you are, and Lord, I thank you that we can draw near to you. So Lord, as we think about these things, Lord, I pray that you would help us to be reminded of the verses that we are about to read as we close, Lord. We would be reminded of the tasks that you have given us, and Lord, you would grant us wisdom in the times and seasons. We ask this in Jesus' name, amen. So I've said I'm gonna do it every time, so I do wanna read these verses in conclusion. I forgot this last time. I had it written down. Don't forget to conclude the way we need to conclude. Ecclesiastes chapter 12, verses 13 and 14. Let us hear the conclusion of the whole matter. Fear God and keep his commandments, for this is man's all. For God will bring every work into judgment, including every secret thing, whether good or evil. Tomorrow is a day to follow Him. I would encourage you to do it.