God’s Eternal Plan

Intro

Raise your hand if you need a full itinerary for vacation? Raise your hand if you hate itineraries? Some of us love itineraries because we have a plan, and nothing can surprise us. There’s no moment where we are in the dark about the plan. While we all have vacation quirks, the truth is that we all desire to know God’s plan in real time. As it is happening. We wish we had an itinerary for living life.

This passage shows us we can’t.

Main Idea: God’s plan is eternal, so you can’t understand it.

Ecclesiastes 3:1-15

Qohelet. Big poem in first 8 verses.

Response #1: Be joyful and do good

Exp. Solomon gives his implications from the poem that he just walked through. Verse 9. Same guy who said everything is meaningless. Repeat of Ecclesiastes 1:3, “What does man gain by all the toil at which he toils under the sun?” Look at verse 10. The punishment for man was toil and work. Never finishing. Always more to do. More dishes. More wars to fight. More projects to manage. All ends with death. Super encouraging. He gives a response in verse 11. Beautiful = good and right. Eternity into man’s heart. Hebrew for eternity means “center of existence.” We are tied to creation and long to know it’s meaning. But we cannot know what God has done from beginning to end. We long for the answers because it’s built in us, but we will never know all of it.

Ill. Bethany and I love movies and shows where there are twists and turns because we love to guess the ending. We love the unexpected. It brings joy and satisfaction. We love secrets being revealed. That’s innate within us. We love to learn the ways of creation.

Arg. Eschatology. That’s the big thing now. Everyone wants to guess the end because they long for that end.

Exp. We love the revealing through creation, but we also just desire answers in our lives. The frustration comes when we deal with things with no answers. We await God to give divine answers.

Christ - This is why the gospel is so fulfilling to us. God would send his son to bring about an eternal kingdom. “God has put eternity in our hearts” points to the HS. Why did God wait to send Jesus? Why did he open salvation to everyone? I don’t know, but he did.

App. The application is found directly in this passage. Verses 12-13.

Joy:

Enjoy what’s around you right now.

Enjoy your work. Enjoy your family. Enjoy Ridgecresters.

Do not fret about the timing of things.

Have a heart of gratitude. Panicking is wasting time.

Do good:

Obedience

Pray for discernment for kids.

Serve others

Find people to serve. Ultimate fulfillment when we obey and serve others.

Response #2: Fear the Lord

Exp. Solomon is looking back on his life with all his wisdom and is giving a wise observation. Verses 14-15. Ecclesiastes argues against chasing fame, power, and wealth. Why? These are temporary and vain pursuits. But God’s ways are eternal. Why obedience and serving fulfill us: they are eternal purposes. We can’t add or take away from what he’s done. Shouldn’t lead to dread. Should lead to fear.

The remarkable thing about fearing God is that when you fear God, you fear nothing else, whereas if you do not fear God, you fear everything else.

Oswald Chambers (Scottish Missionary)

Arg. Solomon write extensively about fearing the Lord being the beginning of wisdom. We tend to not fear what we know completely.

Ill. Used to fear driving. Used to fear lighting. I’ll never run at the pool. With God is the opposite. We think that because we know some attributes of God that we shouldn’t fear him. Actually, the more we know and understand, the more we should fear.

App. Fear the Lord. The thought of the expanse of time should bring you to a place of awe.

Stop and ponder the greatness of God.

Sit on porch and think deeply. Jews did this on Sabbath.

Older: Help the younger ones.

Younger: Ask the older ones.

Christ - Jesus is the fulfillment of wisdom literature. He displayed the fear of the Lord. Jesus joyfully obeyed God to the cross that brought us salvation. Jesus sweat drops of blood in the garden. He asked God to take the cup of wrath away if it was his will. God did not take the cup. Jesus obeyed. Fear of the Lord will bring us to Christ. Christ brings joy and goodness. Fruit of the Spirit.